15 Things…. #1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Guess what… it’s our birthday month! This is a BIG birthday – because The Sound of Hope is turning 15! WOW! As we count down to the day and look back on 15 YEARS of giving HOPE, we want to share 15 things we’re proud of and thankful for – starting with…
#1 – EDUCATION
School fees have been our biggest ongoing investment – year after year. Public schools don’t exist in the countries where we work, and children in poverty rarely have access to an education. But thanks to our incredible donors, we’ve been able to pay thousands of dollars of school fees for kids from kindergarten – all the way through college!
Education is HOPE for these children. Thank you for helping us make education accessible and empowering our kids to achieve their dreams!
#2 – GRADUATIONS
For 15 years now we’ve invested in the education of our kids around the world – from kindergarten age and up. And what a JOY it is to see our students, who have worked so hard, GRADUATE! From high school graduations, and on to colleges, trade programs, and nursing schools – we are SO PROUD of our kids when we see them achieve their dreams!
#3 – COLLEGE STUDENTS
It’s the most incredible thing to see our children graduate and pursue degrees that will help them secure wonderful jobs for their future. We want to give them their best chance as they enter into adulthood.We have 3 girls currently in college in India. Esther is studying GNM Nursing, Malati is studying BSc Nursing to become an RN, and Jyoti is studying to become a Chemistry Professor!
We also have 2 girls in Thailand who just graduated high school and have been accepted to Lampang University. Nipha and Panidah are pursuing their degrees with the hope of becoming teachers, and will begin their studies this summer!
We’re so proud of these young women – and the others before them who have graduated in years past!
#4 MEDICAL CARE
Jyoti is one of our kids who is now in college… but when we first met Jyoti in India she was just a toddler. Due to some traumatic life experiences, she was exposed to parasites that infected her brain. At just 3 years old, she began to have terrible seizures. We were told that she might never speak or go to school, and that she’d require years of specialized medical care for any hope of healing.
Thanks to our incredible donors, we were able to provide that specialized care! Jyoti has been seizure free for more than 10 years, speaks 3 languages, and is now in college pursuing her dream of becoming a Chemistry Professor!
Jyoti is just one incredible example of how important medical care is for vulnerable children. Just a few thousand dollars (for several years of care) completely changed her life! We’re so proud of all the medical funding we’ve been able to provide for Jyoti, and many other kids in our homes, over the last 15 years!
#5 – PROJECT FOR AWESOME!
Once upon a time, one of our awesome board members (Heather Knowles) told us about an awesome author (John Green) and his brother Hank who created an awesome competition called (you guessed it) PROJECT FOR AWESOME!
Project for Awesome s this cool online YouTube competition where non-profits share videos, people vote, and major money is up for grabs. We knew it was a long shot – since we are a small non-profit with no youtube following. But we threw our hat… er… video in the ring – and hoped for the best!
Our friends, donors, and followers showed up in the BIGGEST way, and despite the fact that there were almost 1,000 non-profits competing that year, we somehow got enough votes to make it into the TOP 20! As one of their winners, Project for Awesome and the Foundation to Decrease World Suck (yes, that’s their real name) awarded us more than $15,000 for school fees for our kids! WOW!
We love looking back on our entry video (watch it here: https://youtu.be/j-8loVaAnng ), and the video we shared the next year (in 2015) showing that money at work! (Watch that one here: https://youtu.be/q4Az8sZ2GNE ) Looking back we still can’t believe we won, but we’re so proud and thankful we did! We were able to put 97 kids in school that year with the funding we received! How AWESOME!
We are so thankful for all of these accomplishments – none of which would be possible without our incredibly generous donors, faithful board members, and wonderful international partners. And these are just the first 5 things on our list! We have so much more to share! Stay tuned for 6-15 and find out how you can be a part of celebrating our birthday with us soon!