Pommern Water Project

As you know, Upendo Mmoja is building a Residential and Vocational Center to care for 18 orphaned children and to provide vocational training for adults and young people as they mature. We helped work on the barn construction in July and by the end of the summer the barn was completed. The next project towards the Vocational Center is to build the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and then the Boys’ Dormitory. The cost of construction for the Carpentry Workshop is $18,000 and the cost of the Boys’ Dormitory is $22,000.

We are announcing our 2018 Matching Gift Campaign for Upendo Mmoja. Because of our strong friendship with the Pommern community and belief in this project, we have committed to donating our own funds and to assist in raising additional funds to be earmarked for the construction of the Carpentry Workshop and then to the Boys’ Dormitory. We have committed to making our own matching donations up to $10,000 this spring to be earmarked to the Carpentry Shop and Boys’ Dormitory. Thus, if you can make a donation to this project, we will match all donations up to $10,000. This means that if supporters like you make donations in the aggregate of $10,000 plus our matching donations of $10,000, we will raise an additional $20,000 for Upendo Mmoja’s Carpentry and Craft Workshop and Boys’ Dormitory. We are running this Matching Gift Campaign from February to the end of April 2018 in order that the funds are raised and the construction of the Carpentry and Craft Workshop can be completed in the summer of 2018 and then the Boys’ dormitory construction can begin.  See the page, Friends of Upendo Mmoja to track our fundraising progress!

It is critically important that both the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and the Boys’ Dormitory are built soon. The Carpentry and Craft Workshop are one of three revenue-generating buildings that will allow for both vocational training and for income opportunities. The men’s carpentry work will be stay in the community through contracts with local schools and churches. The women’s craft products will target the international market. This income not only serves the workers but is a step towards Upendo Mmoja’s becoming self-sufficient. The Boys’ Dormitory is required so that the girls and boys have separate buildings to live in. The local government will not allow the children to move in permanently without the Boys’ Dormitory. This puts a real strain on the families that are currently housing the children temporarily. The children are a family together and they desperately want a home to call their own!

If you wish to support this project, you may make donations either by check or on-line. You can make a check out to Global Community Initiatives (GCI) and put in the note “Upendo Mmoja-Carpentry and Craft Workshop”. Global Community Initiatives is the 501(c)(3) organization sponsoring Upendo Mmoja and donations to GCI are tax deductible. Please do not make the check out to “Upendo Mmoja” because it cannot be cashed and we will have to return it to you.

You can mail your check to us at:

Mimi M. Gendreau

Eric R. Noyes

61933 Spring Circle Trail

Washington MI  48094-1149

Once we receive your check, we will bundle all donation checks weekly, together with our matching donation and send them on to the USA Board Chair, Nicole DiDomenico, to process. Nicole ensures accounting for all money donated and transferred to Upendo Mmoja via Maria Mgova, Co-Founder and local Director/Operations Manager. All donated money expended on the project must be receipted and reports produced from Maria to Nicole. This ensures all money is properly expended for construction.  Nicole will send out letters acknowledging your tax-deductible donation to GCI earmarked for the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and Boys' Dormitory as part of Upendo Mmoja's Residential and Vocational Training Campus

You may also make an on-line donation by going to the Upendo Mmoja website at www.upendommoja.org and click on the Donate page. There you will find the Donate button which will take you to the on-line donation site for GCI-Upendo Mmoja page. Click on the “Make a Donation” button. Follow the instructions by inserting the amount of your donation and select donate with PayPal or with a debit/credit card. The next page will allow you to put in your information. This page also gives you an option to “Write a note (optional)”. Please select this and in your note indicate that this donation is earmarked to Upendo Mmoja-Carpentry and Craft Workshop. You will receive an automatic confirmation of your on-line donation via email. After your donation, please let us know via my email at mgendreau@comcast.net the amount of your donation so we can then match it immediately.

All donation amounts are appreciated and will help in the aggregate to build the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and Boys’ Dormitory. This is how the Pommern Water Project was built. Many donations of various amounts, $25, $50, $100, $1000, $2000, made it possible to build the water project. We can do the same to build the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and Boys’ Dormitory in partnership with the Upendo Mmoja staff and members!!!

If you want to learn more about Global Community Initiative (GCI) see www.global-community.org.

Please consider making a donation as part of our 2018 Matching Gift Campaign so that the Carpentry and Craft Workshop and Boys’ Dormitory can be built as part of the Upendo Mmoja Vocational Center.

If you have any questions, please contact Mimi at mgendreau@comcast.net or (810) 423-2417.