Now that we have the funds, the building, the teachers, all we need are students. Founder Gorethy Nabushosi is interviewing candidates and will choose 30 to be the first class of the Congo Restoration Sewing School Bukavu.
Stay tuned!
Gorethy with perspective students.
Women lined up outside the school to interview.
Our new school!
This was our most successful Climb for Congo yet — raising almost $2,700 for two orphans in the Congo, buy several sewing machines for the Congo Restoration Sewing School, with some left over to help more women in kids in the worst conflict the world has seen since WWII. Thanks to the church groups who came out, to Summit Climbing Gym – Dallas, Team Texas Youth Climbing Team, and everyone else who came out to help on Sunday. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Thanks to all the youth groups who joined us: Northridge Presbyterian, NorthPark Presbyterian, Greenland Hills UMC, Ridgewood Park UMC, and University Park UMC. We had a blast!
“The little grassroots people can change the world.” — Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
You have proved Wangari is right!
In just 43 days, you changed the world by supporting a little sewing school in Eastern Congo that will change the trajectory of the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women. This evening, the Congo Restoration Sewing School in Bukavu took its first step toward reality. We raised $15,310 — enough for us to open our doors this summer. Now it’s time to find a space, hire teachers, buy sewing machines, and sign up new students! The board of directors for Congo Restoration and the women of Eastern Congo can’t thank you enough.
Now, let’s get to opening that school!
We started our first first crowdfunding campaign today — on International Women’s Day. It seems the perfect day to begin a 43-day campaign that will change the trajectory of women in the Congo!
Here’s the scoop on the campaign:
• We have until Easter Sunday to raise $15,100 to start our new sewing school in Bukavu.
• If we don’t raise the entire $15,100, we don’t get to keep any of it. That’s the way it is in the world of crowdfunding campaigns.
• When we do raise the $15,100, we will immediately begin work opening the new school and educating 60 women a year!
Here’s more about our campaign. Please take the time to watch our 3:30-minute video (we 40-somethings had to endure asking help of our eye-rolling teenagers to learn how to do it). If you feel so compelled, please donate and share.
Thank you!
Many thanks to the children of Greenland Hills UMC, who donated supplies and put together school kits for our children. Gorethy, who was visiting in the United States this fall, has taken them back to the kids!
Founder Gorethy Nabushosi visits with the 30 children who are under the care of Congo Restoration. They call her “Mama Gorethy.”
Graduates of the Congo Restoration Sewing School receive donated sewing machines, starting them on the path to success!
The students at the Congo Restoration Sewing School sing and dance with Founder Gorethy Nabushoshi:
There is much to celebrate in the Congo!
Climb for Congo started in 2011 as a way to empower local youth to gather together, have some fun, and learn about — and help — children half a world away who need their help.
Summit Climbing Gym and its amazing Team Texas youth climbing team took on the goal of supporting two orphans in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Each year, they host Climb for Congo, inviting local youth groups to come and climb for an afternoon to raise money Congo Restoration.
What can a bunch of rock climbers and people strapped in harnesses on a tall wall do?
Well, climb, of course. And they do. Every year.
Climb for Congo has raised almost $10,000 for children in the Congo … sometimes having money left over to help support the Congo Restoration Sewing School, too!
Here are the details of this year’s event. Interested in joining us? Email dmcmullan@sbcglobal.net.
What: 6th-Annual Climb for Congo, benefitting Dallas-based Congo Restoration.
Where: Summit Climbing Gym/Dallas, 9201 Forest Lane, Dallas.
When: 5-8 pm, Sunday, April 21, 2013.
Details: Your $20 entry fee (which includes gear, pizza, soda & Climb for Congo T-shirt) will go toward our goal to support two orphans in Congo for one year. Members of Team Texas — the No. 1 youth rock climbing team in the nation — will work the event.
Fine print: If under 18, you must bring a waiver signed by your parents. Please join us for a fun time and provide a hold for these children and women that — without our support — they may not be able to reach.
Congo Restoration 