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2010 Patchy Claus Charity

December 16, 2010 / Posted by in News

Our Patchy Claus charity this year for  Mary Beth and Stephen will be to Mary Beth’s daughter Katie’s endeavors to help the “Girl Child Network.”  Those of you who read Mary Beth’s blogs on Hybrid Mom are aware of Katie’s charity efforts.  Here is the link to the  blog Mary Beth and Katie did on Hybrid Mom about the “Girl Child Network.”    http://www.hybridmom.com/blog/?p=4200This is the information Katie sent us when we asked for information about what they were doing.

The group at my school is called The Women’s Solidarity Movement at UC Berkeley. The goal of our group is to raise awareness about sexual abuse and to promote the importance of healthy, empowered women in the US and abroad. We donate all the money we raise to the Girl Child Network and would greatly appreciate any donations from all of you! The Girl Child Network has “empowerment villages” set up in Zimbabwe that help girls who have been sexually abused. The girls stay there anywhere from one night to many years in order for them to attend school and receive the supplies necessary to get back on their feet. I am attaching the education costs to this email so that people can get an idea of how far a donation will go. My club on campus has a bank account with the school but we are looking into the logistics today as far as if we can make checks out to The Women’s Solidarity Movement, our new group. All money we receive we will directly pass on to Betty Makoni, the director of the Girl Child Network at the end of the year. We can use all the help we can get so thank you so much for your help! I will get back to you ASAP with the details for checks, etc.

 We were fortunate to be able to go see the documentary film Katie talked about in the blog called Tapestries of Hope.  This was an amazing film and very heartbreaking.  Girls as young as 6 months old are being raped because it is thought that virgin blood can cure AIDs.  In many cases after this happens the girls are the ones punished and are disowned by their families.  They have nowhere to go and the “Girl Child Network” tries to help them.  What was so uplifting was the hope that so many of these girls had that they could better their lives and help others after they had stayed with Betty’s group.

Until we know what to do about checks and MO’s please send Paypal contributions to fanclub@stephennichols.net  and in the message box you can add that this is for the charity, “Girl Child Network.”  Please mark it as a gift so the Paypal fee won’t be taken out. You can print this out as a receipt for your taxes.  Since we aren’t sure Katie’s group will have a checking account by the end of the year if you wish to write a check or MO make it out to Stephen Nichols Fanclub, PO Box 82231, Athens, GA 30608-2231.  In the left hand corner where it says MEMO please write, “Charity Contribution for Girl Child Network.”  This should be sufficient for your taxes.  You should be able to do the same with a Money Order.  As soon as we find out you can write out a check directly to, “The Women’s Solidarity Moment at UC Berkeley” we will let you know.  As always, we will send a card to Stephen and Mary Beth with the names of everyone who gave and the total amount given in their names to the charity.  The total amount raised will also be posted here.

 The link to MediaFire at the bottom of the page is the download of the information Katie sent us about the costs to educate the girls.  If you can make a donation this year that is great but we do realize that so many are struggling this year so we do understand if you can’t contribute, or if you don’t want to contribute to this.  We’re sure we will have something in the future you can contribute to down the road.  Please try to have your donations to us by December 26th.  That should give us a week to send the money to Katie so they can mail it to the “Girl Child Network” at the end of the year.

 Thank you so much in advance.  We really think this is a great charity.  After seeing Betty’s work in the film we believe we can change the lives of some of these girls with our efforts! Peace, Love and Joy to everyone this holiday season!

 http://www.mediafire.com/file/9lytjg1smddn3xi/GCN_GIRLS%27_EDUCATION_KIT_COSTS%2C_DEC_2008.doc

3 Comments

  1. Sherry says:

    Final total was $1735!! Thanks to everyone who gave.

  2. Sherry says:

    Total is now $1625.00. We can take donations through Sunday, December 27th. We will be sending in the money on Monday, December 28th.

  3. Sherry says:

    So far we’ve raised $1300.00.

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