Tuesday, August 28, 2007

SPECIAL OLYMPICS FUND RAISING KICK OFF AT ASAP'S ROASTERY


The Fayette County Special Olympics held their fund raising kickoff at The On Safari Coffee Roastery in Peachtree City, Georgia Monday night 27 August. The Sailing Team, The Star Hitters and The All Stars were represented and the excitement grew as everyone realized how easy it is to sell Gourmet Coffee for fund raising.

This venue gave them the opportunity to better understand what they will be selling and you could sense the growing competition building between the three groups. Keep in mind that other groups are welcome to hold their fund raising campaign kick off at The Roastery at no cost as long as the date is open.

On Safari Coffee Initiative is an income generating project of ASAP so Coffee for YOUR Cause is a win-win for everyone. The fund raising group earns $5 on every bag of coffee sold and the best part is that each organization gets its own custom label for the coffee they sell. We look forward to even more groups who want to partner with ASAP to reach their fund raising goals.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Words of Wisdom



A recent email from ASAP’s new Country Director, Regai Tsunga, contained some words of wisdom that are worth passing on. “When looking at a large and complicated task, one should approach it as you would go about eating an elephant – one bite at a time.”

Yes, some good advice for those of us working together towards our goal of 'A World Without Poverty'.




Thursday, August 23, 2007

OPEN HOUSE THIS SATURDAY

HELPING NON-PROFITS – ASAP!

With no up-front costs, organizations can easily raise needed funds to meet their goals. A Self-help Assistance Program (ASAP), now offers church groups, schools and civic organizations an exciting new and valuable fundraising service through coffee.

ASAP President Tom Arsenault, describes the new program - “Coffee as fuel for Development.” On Safari Coffee Initiative, (previously On Safari Trading Co.) is now an income generating project of ASAP. “Our primary focus is helping other non-profits conduct successful fundraising campaigns, as we work to fund our own operating costs.”

There will be a fundraising open house, featuring coffee roasting demonstrations and sample tasting at the On Safari Roastery this Saturday August 25th, from 9:00 until 12:00 noon. Everyone is welcome especially church or school groups interested in easy and profitable fundraising.”


On Safari Fresh roasted coffee is very easy to sell as most people use coffee. The organization selling the coffee earns $5.00 profit on each bag of coffee sold. Once the group sells 200 bags of coffee, their customers can reorder on the On Safari web site and $1 for every bag sold on-line will go to the organization for an entire year. This keeps the funds coming in for your organization for a full year with no extra effort beyond the original campaign. To date, CIVS, Civitan, YMCA Cape Anne, have already reached Hall of Fame status.

The address is 189 Fulton Ct., (off Huddleston Rd. near Best Buy) Peachtree City. For more information contact On Safari at 770-632-7357 or 770-632-7451

Or email: mary@onsafaritrading.com

Monday, August 13, 2007

ASAP WINS AWARD!

ASAP has won the “Best Cooperative Projects Award” from Rotary International in partnership with the Peachtree City Rotary Club for ASAP’s Zimbabwe Book Drive Literacy project. Two containers of books left Georgia in early July and arrived in Durban, South Africa on August 3rd. They had to be reloaded into a rail car for the continuing journey to ASAP’s warehouse in Mutare, Zimbabwe.

The books are mainly mathematics and science books, with about 10% novels and miscellaneous reading books. These will be distributed amongst the 111 schools that ASAP currently works with in the Bridge The Gap Mathematics Project.

Members of the Peachtree City Rotary Club helped to load one container at ASAP’s US office. With their help, the container was loaded and locked in less than 2 hours!

Our BTG field officers are eagerly awaiting these books because they are so badly needed at the schools where ASAP is working. ASAP is proud to work with Rotary in this project. In fact, the Borrowdale Brooke Rotary Club in Harare, Zimbabwe, is helping on the Zimbabwe side of the project.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Detour


I don’t have any deep thoughts today. I just saw this sign as I was driving home and had to laugh. After bumping along over pot-hole-ridden dirt roads for a few hours and seeing another car approximately… never, the concept of a lane, let alone a lane closing, struck me as pretty funny.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Meet ASAP's New Country Director, Regai Tsunga


“The past is our inheritance, the present is our reality, and the future is our challenge.” A sign bearing this quote and the names of several Kufusa Mari Savings Clubs hangs in the corner of Regai Tsunga’s office. He keeps the sign as a reminder of the community’s hopes for positive change in the future. As ASAP’s Country Director, Regai frequently has the opportunity to meet and talk with those who are directly benefiting from ASAP’s projects. He is eager to share stories of the joy and success he has witnessed.

“One woman shared that she had not eaten meat for several years, but once she participated in the KM project she was able to buy beef. Imagine! Everyone in the family celebrated the consumption of beef! Having decent meals should be something so ordinary, but it was something they had only imagined in the past,” Regai relates empathetically. Other women involved in the project used the money to meet basic needs, earning enough to pay for school fees, farming implements, or even shelter. For Regai, these stories are sustaining; “In this organization results matter a lot, so you are really focused in everything that you do. It’s a big inspiration to see the results of your efforts. No wonder we put in so many extra hours!”

Regai is himself a native Zimbabwean and is no stranger to the problems currently facing his country. As both someone working to alleviate suffering and someone who is experiencing the same problems as the rest of his neighbors, Regai has evident motivation to make ASAP’s programs successful. Regai and his wife Jane have three children. Their commitment to their children’s future happiness is clear, “We must ensure that we leave something for our children for which they can thank us. I feel that the children deserve much better. I can’t remember the last time I bought a pair of shoes for my own children. I would love to save for my children’s futures, but I can’t save money because inflation is eroding its value too quickly. I had saved something like 80,000 in the early eighties and used it to buy a house, but if I had continued to save that amount until today, I would be able to buy only a kilogram of beef. In effect, we are working only for today- nothing for our kids, nothing for our future. This is a very great concern.”

In the midst of such difficult issues, Regai celebrates the progress ASAP Africa is making and the sustainability of the projects. Regai explains, “The goal is for the community to perpetuate the project after ASAP’s exit. In the case of Kufusa Mari, we train cluster facilitators who are resident in the community with the internal savings and loan methodology. Long after we leave, the cluster facilitator is there to train her community. Eighty-five percent of the groups formed in 2003 were still functioning in 2005— two years after we had left! In fact, those groups had trained second and even third generation groups. That’s the beauty of our projects; the community is involved through and through and becomes empowered.”

When asked how ordinary Americans could help Zimbabwe, Regai responded, “Ordinary Americans should know that we are also only ordinary Zimbabweans. Here at ASAP, we are trying to alleviate suffering of ordinary people and need any help anyone can provide, whether prayer, words of encouragement, or donations. All our interventions uplift the standard of life for ordinary people. They are already making an effort to help themselves, we just provide the resources they need to do it.”