EY Announces Hike for Heaven

EY Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) colleagues to “Hike for Heaven,” scaling Mt. Kilimanjaro to benefit education charity

 

A group of TAS colleagues are taking volunteering to new heights as they undertake a “Hike for Heaven” up Mt. Kilimanjaro to benefit a school for underprivileged children. They are even using their TAS skills to assist in the school’s expansion—all part of their EY-driven mission of building a better working world.

On 15 June, TAS Partners David Wells and Steve Stafford along with Senior Managers Steve Ho and David Doherty will embark on a weeklong climb of Africa's highest peak (19,341 feet). It’s part of Unite the World with Africa Foundation’s campaign to raise $100,000 to expand the Heaven School in rural northern Tanzania.

In Tanzania, the majority of the population earn less than $2 per day. Securing a high-quality, English-speaking education is often unobtainable, but the Heaven School—a private English-medium school that serves students ages 3–14 in 10 classrooms—is dedicated to teaching these children in need. Heaven was recently cited as a model English-medium school in the region.

The funds raised by our TAS colleagues’ climb will help expand the school’s capacity from 270 students to more than 500. This will allow the school to become financially self-sustaining, having a direct and positive impact on the lives of the orphans and children from surrounding rural villages. It will also provide much-needed employment for the community to serve as teachers, administrators and support staff.

Prior to the climb, David, David, Steve and Steve will spend time meeting with administrators at the Heaven School. There, they will help prepare a strategic plan for the expansion, along with budgets and tracking tools for the school's financial performance. Following their climb, the TAS colleagues’ commitment to the school will continue, through ongoing mentoring and checking in on progress and milestones achieved.

David Wells explained his motivation for undertaking this impressive endeavor. “Access to a quality education empowers people in countless ways—lifting economic standards, creating job opportunities, enhancing skills, fostering collaboration, celebrating our differences and, thereby, promoting peace,” he said. “My parents said to me that the best gift we give our children is a great education. With our Hike for Heaven, we give that gift, and all of its benefits and possibilities, to these children of Tanzania—providing all of us with the building blocks to a better working world.”

Steve Stafford further elaborated: “EY’s purpose of building a better working world has four pillars—sustainable growth, developing talent and leadership, collaboration, and trust and confidence. Our Hike for Heaven aligns perfectly with these core values. Unite the World with Africa Foundation’s efforts to provide education, healthcare and opportunities for at-risk women and children in Tanzania develops and inspires young minds, instilling trust and confidence in themselves and the broader world. Each member of our team is honored to assist and collaborate with Unite’s goal, and we are sure the people who benefit from the hike will contribute to a better working world in ways we can’t imagine today.”

If you would like to support our TAS colleagues’ monumental trek and learn more about their experience, please visit the Hike for Heaven homepage.

Unite the World with Africa Foundation is a 501c3 tax-exempt public charity. David Wells is the co-founder and treasurer of Unite, a 100% volunteer organization whose mission is to empower education, health, choice and dignity for impoverished communities across East Africa.

11 May 2017

Hike for Heaven: Why Kilimanjaro

Zillions of people have climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro on their bucket lists.

Not me. 

While I love the great outdoors and daily exercise, my pneumonia-scared lungs crave deep breaths of fresh, clean, oxygen-filled air... which is not in the cards over 19,000 feet. 

So... for this and many other reasons, I am filled with admiration (and a wee bit of worry) for my husband David and his team who will climb Kilimanjaro in less than 6 short weeks to lead Unite's Hike For Heaven. David and his team (Steve Stafford - NYC, Steve Ho - NYC, and David Doughtery - Dublin) all work in Ernst & Young's (EY) transaction advisory services group. As consultants, they are on call for their clients 24-7, 365 days a year. Truly, I couldn't imagine that such a no-boundaries work life could be possible until we moved from St. Louis to Connecticut 10 years ago. 

Next month, these four overworked men (and one beautiful young woman who is an advisor to Unite... I will cover Allie Cunningham in another post shortly) will take nearly two weeks of their extremely precious vacation time to leave their families and embark on the climb of their lives. While I know each has his own personal reasons pushing him towards that summit, none would actually take this time or invest his family's resources in this herculean trek IF it did not somehow serve the greater good. And that it does....

Here, a few reasons why this HIKE FOR HEAVEN matters and why we invite you to SUPPORT these courageous and intrepid souls:

1. The team is climbing to raise money for Unite to complete the build out of the Heaven Pre- and Primary School in Kiserian village south of Arusha in Tanzania. Sponsor them with a tax-deductible donation HERE. 

2. Currently, the Heaven School is providing a top-quality, English-speaking education to nearly 200 orphans and at-risk village children. Less than 2 years old, Heaven is already being cited as a model school by local authorities. 

3. If this campaign is successful, we will build more classrooms, a school kitchen, dining hall, sports court, additional toilets and more in order to enable Heaven to increase its capacity to more than 500 students, which will also create more jobs for teachers and support staff.

Prior to their hike, David and his colleagues will be working with the executive team at Heaven to create a strategic plan in order to build the school into a profitable business that can not only afford to hire and provide ongoing professional development training for the best teachers but also to support its own operations. Additionally, Heaven will be designed to cover much of the operational costs of the St. Joseph's orphanage, on whose campus the school has been built. Heaven school is a vision of Sister Crispina Mnate, its founder and director, to initially to provide the best education to the youngest of her 47 orphans and then to also empower and uplift the children and families in surrounding villages.

4. Not only are we working to build Heaven in excellence, we are also working to create a school in which teachers move beyond the traditional chalk-and-talk teaching style to use more visual aid and participatory teaching styles. We are now working with renowned African education Astridah Katalyeba to help lead this effort and are committed to providing our teachers the best training and materials that they need to empower their students to become creative problem solvers and life-long learners.

Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University in Ghana, says that Africa will only be transformed by enlightened AFRICAN leaders. We believe that, with your help, such leaders will one day emerge from our Heaven School.

Our Spring Report is LIVE!

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL REPORT

Unite's travel team with Sister Crispina Mnate and many of the orphans of St. Joseph's on an educational field trip to Meserani Snake Park outside of Arusha, Tanzania. March 2017

Dear Friends of Unite,                                                              

I hope and pray this finds you happy, healthy and well. I am just now home from another whirlwind tour across Tanzania’s northern circuit with a team of magnificent women (each of whom generously sponsor one or more of our children at the St. Joseph’s Orphanage). I am thankful to report this was another hugely successful mission. We spent time with Sister Crispina Mnate and the orphans of St. Joseph’s as well as the headmaster, staff & students of The Heaven Primary School. We took many of the orphans on two field trips: To the “Guggenheim of Africa,” an art gallery atArusha’s Cultural Heritage center, where they learned about various art forms and watched the movie The Lion King on the big screen; and to the Meserani Snake Park where they learned about all the kinds of snakes (they even had the chance to hold one non-venomous ... of course) and go on camel rides! Lots of “firsts” for these kiddos and tons of fun for us all. Later in the trip, while my friends went on safari in the Ngorongoro Crater and on a day-climb of Mt Kilimanjaro, I took our Tanzanian executive team (below) on a due diligence trip to benchmark our performance against other reputable schools and children’s villages. We found that our students are exceeding norms in behavior and performance, including outcomes on critical national exams. In fact, the Heaven School is already being cited as a model primary school and St. Joseph’s the example of a well-run orphanage by local authorities. Additionally, we are already seeing the positive impact of our newest teammate Astridah Katalyeba who brings to Unite and Heaven more than 30 years of experience as an educator in Africa. Astridah is advocating for our secondary school and university students in ways we were not able to before. Astridah is accelerating and supporting Sister’s commitment to making Heaven best in class by organizing and executing a series of faculty training workshops to make the classrooms more participatory and interactive through the use of techology, visual aids and more. We are thrilled with and energized by all the great progress we are seeing, and we are deeply grateful to each and everyone of you who has helped in any and every way to make this work possible. As always, I welcome your comments, questions, ideas and feedback.

Yours in service, 

Anne Wells

This Valentines Day, let's UNITE with One Billion Rising

February 14th is not only a day to celebrate your one special love, it is a day to UNITE and celebrate your LOVE for all. In fact, today is also the day of One Billion Rising, a movement to end the oppression, subjection and violence against girls and women on Planet Earth. 

Here at Unite, we stand against injustice by fighting FOR the rights of the orphaned, underprivileged, impoverished and marginalized. Currently, our primary mission is to ensure that hundreds of children (girls AND boys) in Tanzania (orphaned and/or at-risk) receive high-quality educations to help ensure their vibrant, successful futures in which they are empowered with CHOICE, DIGNITY & OPPORTUNITY. 

To this end, we address zillions of details and challenges each and every day. Yet through the grace of God; the generous support of you -- our donors, friends, partners and supporters; and the trusted partnerships we are blessed to have with Sister Crispin Mnate, the founder and director of the St. Joseph's Orphanage and the Heaven Pre and Primary School; Deb Marshall, Unite's program manager in Tanzania; and Astridah Katalyeba, an expert education consultant who has joined our team to help build Heaven School into a model academic institution for the country... We are seeing real change happen in extraordinary and miraculous ways.

Here, some recent photos from the field:

Thanks to the hard work of Unite's next travel team (Nicole Gerber, Lisa Lawrence, Kenlynne Mulroy, Tanya Murphy, and Nicole Watson), new books have been purchased for the 180+ students of Heaven as well as for the 49 orphans of St. Joseph's.   

Wiring for POWER has begun! This miracle has been made possible by generous grants from The Greer Foundation and The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation. We are wildly grateful!

We are now working on creating a playing field for the children and installing a basketball/multipurpose court for sports and fitness. We are in conversation with a team of USA coaches who may come over this summer to help us establish a formal program.

We released a grant to purchase teachers' desks, classroom supplies and lock closets (like the one pictured above) for each of the classrooms to protect all materials from theft. 

Both the girls dorm (above) and the boys dorm are in desperate need of new roofs and renovations to stop the leakage and rot. 

The new entrance to St. Joseph's Orphanage with Mt Meru in the distance. 

Education Consultant Astridah Katalyeba and Sister Crispina Mnate, founder & director of St. Joseph's and Heaven -- photographed together in October 2016.

Above is the new toilet block for the boys' dorm (a mirror one is being built for the girls). Construction is almost complete, and we now need to raise funds to install water tanks and washing stations. 

Ceilings were recently installed in the Heaven classrooms to help cut down on sound disruptions. 

We recently purchased and filled a bean silo to provide a regular source of protein for the children.

Laying sand on the new playground, which includes top-quality climbing systems made by IBES in Usa River and donated by the Unite For Africa Student Club in Darien, CT. 

The current "wall" protecting St. Joseph's and Heaven School is this weak wire fence that has recently been breached many times. Mostly just our water has been stolen, but it leaves the children vulnerable in many ways. We must build a proper wall and security system to protect these precious kids -- and we are currently seeking support for this critical project.

Firewood has been purchased and all of the water tanks have been filled, which will get us through the next few months. 

Unite's program manager Deb Marshall and Sister Crispina Mnate, founder & director of St. Joseph's and Heaven stroll in front of the admin block while is was still under construction.

Thanks to a generous grant from The Greer Charities, Yukunda Florence (above center) and four other of the oldest St. Joseph's orphans are now attending university. Yukunda is studying at Mweka College of Africa Wildlife Management in Moshi and she is at the top of her class. 

The administration block is complete. This building will house the staff offices and the school library and computer lab.   

The chicken coop is complete, and we expect to start getting eggs for the children in the next few weeks. This was made possible by Elizabeth Pocsik, her son Will and their family and friends. 

The new school bus is already overflowing.... Thanks to an extraordinary student enrollment, we now need a second bus!

Thanks to Greens Farms Academy and Zeta Interactive, we now have 15 laptops to serve the orphans who are enrolled in university and the SJO/Heaven school staff and computer lab. We are always seeking more laptops. If you have a used one that is still in good working order, please let me know at anne@uniteafricafoundation.org

Godfrey Daniel Saitoti, 25, one of the original boys to come live at St. Joseph's in 2000, is now in his 3rd year of medical school at Kampala International University. This extraordinary accomplishment is being made possible through the sponsorship of the White Family, the Greer Foundation, and The Mitchell D. Phaiah Foundation.

Unite recently purchased and installed proper beds (with mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets) and mosquito nets for all the 49 orphans of St. Joseph's. 

Thanks to our Student Sponsorship program, Unite is able to send nearly all of the older orphans to private secondary schools and our dream is that we will be able to support them all through University when their times come.

Division #1 results for the children of St. Joseph's!!!!

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This week there was much celebration at St. Joseph's Orphanage after receiving the results of the National Exam for our Form 2 students! We are thrilled to report that Esther, Maria, Fidesta, Rose and Theresia (all of whom study at Kilasara Secondary School), as well as Denis and Karoli (all of who study at Adili Secondary School) earned Division 1 placements at the end of 2016! Kelvin received Division II, also very exciting and honorable results. 

We are all so very proud these students who work so hard to reach their educational goals. 

To better understand what the results mean:

Division I is awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject in civics, Kiswahili, foreign languages, social sciences or technology, mathematics, natural sciences, commercial studies or home economics. (2) pass with grades of A- C in at least four subjects; and (3) reach an aggregate of not more than 17 points in the candidate's seven best subjects.

Division II is awarded to candidates who (1) pass in at least seven subjects, which must include at least one subject as listed above; (2) pass with grades of A-C in at least four subjects; and (3) reach an aggregate of not more than 21 points in the best seven subjects.

Division III and Division IV descend from the above standards.

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Unite's 2016 Holiday Newsletter

Dear friends,

Here, a story about one of the 48 orphans of St. Joseph’s in Tanzania to whom we have committed our time, talent, treasure, love and support:

On October 15, 2008, a 24-year-old single woman gave birth to her fth child. Like most women living in the rural villages of Tanzania, she had never seen a doctor and delivered at home with only the help of a traditional midwife. However, there were complications, and due to a lack of knowledge and an inability to get to a proper health facility, she bled to death. Her baby girl was born tiny, frail and barely breathing. Friends rushed the child hours away to Sister Crispina Mnate, a Catholic nun and trained nurse who had founded the St. Joseph’s Orphanage (SJO) a few years earlier. Sister received the child, cleared

her lungs and placed her in a room with “Mamee,” Sister’s head matron. In accordance with Tanzanian custom, Mamee—now the “mother”—and the child, now called Irene, stayed in that room for the next three months during which time Sister ministered to them daily. Once it became clear that Irene would survive, Sister went to the village to see Irene’s grandmother. The grandmother refused to take the child, saying she was too old and too poor to raise any more children. That day Sister made a decision that she never had before and never has since: She agreed to take Irene, but only if she could also take Irene’s 2-year-old brother Isaak. Why? She didn’t want Irene to grow up without any “real” family of her own.

Today, Irene and Isaak are thriving at SJO. Irene is a leader amongst her peers and adores playing “mommy” to all the babies. She excels in her studies and is a dynamic and charismatic little girl. Isaak is clever and funny, loves sports and music and is always running around laughing with his siblings at SJO.

Last month, Unite’s Board Members Debbie Wiley and Kim Merriman and I arrived at SJO in time to celebrate Irene’s 8th birthday. We sang, tried unsuccessfully to light an old candle and handed out lollipops. We wanted to do so much more... to run to the local store and buy a cake, a doll, new shoes, etc., but Sister reminded us that indulging in
such luxuries for one would be unfair to the rest. Instead, the best way that we, Unite,
can honor and celebrate Irene, and all the orphans of St. Joseph’s, is to keep working...
to replace and repair the roofs so they don’t have to sleep with buckets by their beds; to install proper toilets, water systems and showers so they can avoid the many illnesses that come from poor hygeine and sanitation; to complete the Heaven School to provide the best education possible for the youngest orphans and surrounding village children; to nd sponsors to cover school fees through university; and to stick with them... to keep coming back, so that these precious children—all of whom are as loveable, talented and worthy as our own—know that they are loved and cherished by a growing family around the world. And so that is what we are doing, with your help.... one step at a time.

Wishing you and yours a blessed holiday season. With love & gratitude,

Anne

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