I am so excited about #givingtuesday2022! For those of you who do not know what it is. It is a day that people give! It is a social movement all about generosity. If you had not heard about it, do not worry. I hadn't heard about it until recently, after I applied for the cohort, when did an English lesson on linguahouse.com for one of my teen students about volunteering and it was mentioned. And then I was accepted, as director and founder of Teachers for Peace, to join the Starling Collective Cohort.
What is the starling Cohort, well it is like a scholarship that teachers me / us to become a self sufficient, official - NGO. his is huge for Teachers for Peace. Bigger than anything I have ever imagined.
Giving Tuesday is an opportunity for people around the world to use their individual power of generosity to remain connected and support their communities.
The annual day of celebration is happening on November 29th, 2022 this year.
This is a day that the whole world comes together to give back in many different ways - through kindness, gifts of voice, time, talent or treasure. Teachers for Peace can leverage the energy of GivingTuesday to tell our story and that of our students and community. Reach more students and encourage more teachers to participate. We also aim to find the funding to become self-sufficient and able to help provide the technology needed to the areas that do not have them so that students can join our classes.
After all, teachers for peace is about kindness, love, standing together and supporting women in the worst situation imaginable. The ravages of war.
On average there are about 10 teachers working each and every week all over the world, and we are giving an average of 14 classes a week. We have students from all over - from Kherson to kiev to france to germany.
With the recent and ruthless attacks on Ukraine, I am pushed to see this project through. And now having been accepted into the starling collective cohort I feel that this is going to grow exponentially and we are really going to make an impact.
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Teachers for Peace started on March 1st, 2022. One week after the war started. It has been a real whirlwind since then. Teachers for peace seems to have simply taken on a life of its own. So many amazing women have entered our group. Been touched by our mission and volunteered hours of their time. With one mission at heart. That to bring a smile to those suffering from the atrocities of war.
When we started, It was just an idea, none of us knew how big and how fast it would grow. We have had our ups and downs. And it hasn't been easy to grow. We have done everything completely voluntarily. All out of the goodness of our hearts.
Thank you to the founders - the Genki Group. We all came together at this time of urgency with the same mindset, that of being Genki.
Olga - was in Ukraine, she spread the word, translated, wrote everrything in Ukrainian
Jennifer - organized everything on this side.
Gaynor - New teachers
Adriane - was incharge of resources - twinkle
Nami - was in charge of all the japanese teachers - lots of japanese teachers wanted to help.
Dacha - was in charge of moral and getting people involved, new teachers
Virginie - was a teacher.
Lina - held the first PIZZA night and brought the group together - getting the ambience going
Soon Valerie and Aimee joined and soon afte that Jill joined.
For the first few months, this team of incredible women kept this initiative going and it seemed to almost run by it self.
My family and I had the pleasure of hosting 5 ukrainian women and four children in my home, along with 2 cousins who came to visit during the summer.
Virginie also took in a family of refugees in France, Suddenly, this war became an inticritate part of our lives. Finding sisters we never knew we had and making this awful truth even more real to us who only watched from the sidelines thus far.
Now it has been almost 9 months, The war has not ended, the uncertainty, the dispair and the need for support and education is there.
Since then we have had an array of teachers from Japan to Brazil, Spain, USA, Mexico. Poland, lituania, uk We have helped thousands of children.
Now, hopefully with the help of Giving Tuesday we will learn how to organize oursaelves in a way that we can reach more teachers and help more students!
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