“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King. In simple terms, a community is a place where individuals come together to benefit their environment and surroundings. An example of a community would be the little town we consider home, Pelham. A community doesn’t have to be a town or city, per se. A community could be a group of people or a specific environment with its own culture. All of these examples, though they differ in commonality, share one thing. They each have motivated individuals who try to maintain and build a respectful community for each other. In Pelham, each 8th grade student has a project where they come up with an idea to better their community. Every year students come up with brilliant plans such as; fundraising for cancer research, preparing elementary students for middle school, or educating classes on the importance behind physical education. However, a significant group worth mentioning is the Ikirwa School Project. Students working on this project, one being myself, are aiming to benefit the education for children in Tanzania via the Ikirwa school.
This project group is completing their goal by teaming up with the Ikirwa School, a private school In Tanzania that supports students and their journey throughout the education system. Ikirwa aims to give students healthy meals every day, classes that motivate them to do their best and a community that offers children a chance at breaking the cycle of poverty. With the extreme poverty conditions of families in Tanzania, many children, both boys and girls, don’t attend school because their families simply cannot meet the financial needs required for school tuition.
This is where the Ikirwa school project comes in hand. Our group’s mission is to fundraise enough money to support their journey of boosting learning opportunities for children. We decided that we wanted to team up with Ikirwa and fundraise for a specific need, a cafeteria. A main goal of the school is to provide students with healthy and nourishing meals all throughout the day. With a cafeteria, they can accomplish this. So far the school has raised over $89,750, just a couple hundred dollars under their goal. With the help of the Pelham community, we can raise enough funds to guide the building of their cafeteria, making their goal into a reality.
The action plan for our project consists of fundraising, research, and getting the word out. To let others know about our impact, our group has made an instagram page for the project. We have a post that guides people to the QR code of the website and a link in the accounts bio that redirects users to their webpage. So far, pelham families have raised over a hundred dollars towards the fund. While this amount is only the beginning of our goal, it will significantly impact the drive of the fund. The group also plans to host event stands on specific dates. This refers to handing out flyers to pelham residents, or setting up a table at a town event to fundraise. As of now, no date has been set for said events; but keep an eye out for information in the future. With our instagram page and tons of research put into this project, our group is hoping to accomplish the goal we set out to reach; to benefit our community. Though a community is often referred to a limited number of people with a common interest, it can also be a term used to describe a vast majority of people. The children in Tanzania are a part of our community, as we share a common place known as Earth.
Just like Coretta Scott King said, the value of a community is made possible by its members. Relating to her inspiring words, the accomplishment of our goal will only be successful if members of the Pelham community supports us. Whether it’s spreading the word or donating $5, every action will help promote our community project. If a single person can help, so can the community of Pelham.
