Help with fundraising Ideas

Hello all,

I want to ask you personally for help. Jenifer School is a wonderful project where many people in India are putting a lot of good energy and effort. I have seen it with my eyes and since then my heart has been committed to these wonderful people. I would like to make sure that these children and their families are supported throughout their lives, and hopefully the project helps more and more people in the same social unbalanced situation over time.

I would appreciate if you could share any ideas for fundraising that works globally or if you could help with fundraising in your countries. If you have worked in fundraising before you might have a lot of good ideas. I would like this discussion to be a place to share all ideas and create good brain stroming exercise where everyone can contribute.

Jenifer´s dream is to create a sustainable project and for that unfortunately we can not do without financial support. CommonWeal is a small NGO in Bihar and does not have enough international coverage and resources. I hope you can help!

The ideal situation will be to generate a constant flow of funds into the school. That will guarantee the education, healthcare and food to children and their communities in Shripur and nearby villages.

Thanks in advance! peace, love and happiness to you all....

Raul Franco-Navarro

Do you want to volunteer at Jenifer School in India?

Jenifer School is a project managed by Common Weal (www.commonwealglobal.com), a local NGO with over 10 years experience in diverse projects in the areas of education and healthcare for trodden communities in Bihar.

Jenifer School Education is fun, challenging, and inspirational to our students who are of varying talents, values and abilities while preparing each one with the skills required to adapt and succeed in an ever-changing diverse world. A learning and systems-centered, age appropriate curriculum dedicated to the approach and advocacy of integrated dynamic sustainability.
Jenifer school, Shripur Village, Bihar, is "feeless for all children".
Provides quality education, and preventative healthcare in a ecologically sound environs along with a professionally managed school and staff. Develop school as a model school in the region. Our core area of intervention is to ensure Equal access to education to girls. Our initiatives are to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical skills

WHO DO WE NEED?

We need talented volunteers or couples / family who would like to come spend time with rural,tribal,slum women, teenagers and children. The volunteer should have a love for them and good character through which to act as a role example.

VOLUNTEERS ACTIVITIES

As a volunteer, you will be able to get involved in multiple activities such as:

• teaching multiple subjects, i.e. English, maths, computer science, science, history, geography or any other academic or non-academic skills you may propose.
• training the teachers to plan and teach creative lessons.
• helping with after school homework.
• playing with children during recreation time or in extracurricular activities.
• helping to manage and run the slum clinic.
• participating in literacy programs and other vocational programs for elder women in the village.
• helping to maintain the campus´garden.
• helping in building activities to improve the state of the campus.
• participating in other programs part of Common Weal, i.e. school of communication, school of IT, school of vocational training,....

Voluntarism is one of the most crucial undertakings of Jenifer rural campus to experiment various perspectives. We invite individuals within India and abroad to join interactive sessions, group study, discussion, field demonstration and research.

We provide Hindi communication skills to the foreign volunteers with view to enhancing understanding of local community. They can also learn Vocal Music, Classical Music, Performing Art, Visual Art , Instrumental Music, Embroidery and Tailoring. We aim at getting volunteers integrated into village life, having a greater insight into village life and varied lives, experiencing a joint family, attending village rituals and various other features.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to become National or International Advisor of Jenifer School at the end of the stay. Our aim is to be a global family and thus build long-term relationships to ensure the sustainability of the project and increase the benefits to the communities in need.

ACCOMODATION AND FOOD COSTS

1^st month $350

subsequent months + $200

This price includes food and a room for each volunteer.
Accommodation is available within the school campus with other teachers and staff. Food is traditional Indian vegetarian diet (not spicy).

ENVIRONMENT

The school campus is located 2 kms from Bodhgaya in Shirpur Village, which consists of a socio-economically trodden Mushhar community (population of about 600). Even though its classified as a maha-dalit village it does not have basic infrastructure. Our school ensures education to the children of eight villages in three kms radius of school. These villages are Shripur, Shekhwara, Gora, Babhani, Bholabigha, Ganghar, Katorwa and Mocharim.

Bodhgaya located in the northern state of Bihar India is one of the poorest areas in whole country of India. Bodhgaya is the most important of the main four pilgrimage sites related to the life of Gautama Buddha, In 2002, the MahaBodhi Temple, located in Bodhgaya, became selected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

PROJECT DIRECTOR

Dhirendra Sharma has over 10 years experience in social work since he founded Common Weal to provide medicines and healthcare to trodden communities in the slums of Gaya, Bihar. He has devoted his life to help others through his compassionate and loving character.

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Raul is originally from Spain, but has been living abroad for over 8 years. He has been volunteering with Common Weal since he visited Bihar in June 2010 and was fortunate to meet Dhirendra and the rest of compassionate and loving people involved in Jenifer School. He will answer all your questions and concerns you may have and will organise all aspects of your volunteer placement.Send e-mail to raul.franco@gmail.com

For further Information about Jenifer School please visit the following link...

http://www.commonwealglobal.com/jenifer_jenifer_rural_campus.html

CommonWeal has joined JUMO

Hello all,
We are pleased to announce that now you can follow Commonweal on the new Social Network for non-profit organisations - JUMO

 http://www.jumo.com/org/4cf77ca13d8ef5112f7c23f5

Join us to support our work in educational and health projects in the state of Bihar, India.

18th Anniversary Jenifer School Campus

It gives us immense pleasure to let you all know that Jenifer campus is going to celebrate its 18th Foundation Anniversary.We are going to observe the month of Jan,2011 as happening month.Today the staff members of the Bodhi Tree school and jenifer campus discussed to organize various functions.The Members expressed their pleasure to welcome Mr Brett Rosen ,Hon'ble executive Director of The Bodhi Tree Educational Foundation along with his family .Annual Day of the school will be celebrated in the first week of Jan and we are expecting the members of the foundation to actively participate in it.We are truly glad to extend the invitation to everyone associated with the school.The students of school participated in various events as prepatory measure .The parents from five villages along their wards,administrative officials,community workers and volunteers will participate in the function.sports day will also be organized in the first week of Jan,2011.Neo literate women of shripur village,Women of Tailoring centre,Members of Shripur village development commitee and school management commitee will organize a small event at shripur village.Hon'ble executive Director Brett Rosen will be guest of honour.Hon'ble secretary of Bodhi Tree Foundation,sri Dwariko Sundrani will be Patron guest on various occasions.The members of the foundation will be distinguished guests on the occasion.We are also inviting the Member of parliament and assembly to mark the occasion.
Volunteers' conclave will also be organized in the campus and it would be addressed by the representatives of various organizations.The young adults of various academics would be participants in the series of functions to be organized.Students of school will perform Classical Dance,folk dances and other cultural activities.Some other activities include painting events by the kids,various events by the kids of play school,Procession to promote girl child education and exhibition of tailoring centre at the campus.

n.b :The campus might change the date and some events of programmes if it is felt necessary.The final date would be communicated in the first week of Dec.

A SPIRITUAL CONSPIRACY

This text came to me today from an anonymous author. I found paramount to share it with everyone in our community and hope that many people read it and get inspired. I was impressed with the meaning of the words. I hope you like it and share my emotion! Thanks for reading....

On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly, at the same time,
something else is happening underground
An inner revolution is taking place
and certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution.
From the inside out. From the ground up.
This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual Conspiracy.
There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet.
You won't see us on the T.V.
You won't read about us in the newspaper
You won't hear about us on the radio
We don't seek any glory
We don't wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles
Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes
in every country and culture of the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys,
in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands
You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done
Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night
is where the real work takes a place
Some call us the Conscious Army
We are slowly creating a new world
with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders come from the Central Spiritual Intelligence
We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking
Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~
Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites
Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents
Be the change you want to see in the world
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined
Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved in the centuries to come
Love is the new religion of the 21st century
You don't have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it
It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings
Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you
We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have.
All are welcome
The door is open
~ author unknown

A Global Community?

I have a dream.....

I have been thinking today what is really needed in today´s world to create a global community based on basic human values such as mutual respect, cooperation, spirituality and peace. A community that goes beyond any religion, political views, age, nationality or skin colour. A community that values the natural skills of each person, with equal opportunities for education and labour.

I see myself surrounded by individuality and lack of respect in society. I see a society poisoned by money and politics. I tell to myself that I do not want to belong to this global system, and that we can create a better system through dialogue and common understanding based only on positivism. A system to create and conservate, not to destroy. I talk to my family and old friends about this things, but none seems to understand and all look at me as if I was talking in a different language. Sometimes I say to myself, am I wrong to think this way? I get discouraged because of all the forces around me contradicting my inner voice. But it is all getting clearer everyday for me. We need a big change in the world to adjust the imbalance in our global system. We are all like small systems in conflict with each other, and very sensitive to every small change. The negativity is the king of forces in the world. Each person, each family, each society, each organisation, each estate, each country, each group of countries, each continent seems to function as a separate system independent from the rest at each level, however, in reality we are all an amalgam of interconnections and we all depend on each other. If we interlink everything and tie the individual systems with positive values we might be able to make a positive change and look at the future with different eyes. We might achieve the community I am dreaming about.

I think that a radical change is needed at the individual level first in order to achieve a global influence. We need to awake from our dream. We have lost the connection with nature, the universe and ultimately with our inner-self. We need to look inside and realise why we are in this planet in the form of human beings. We have a perfect opportunity to awake and live a fulfilled life based on positive values. We could all join hands and go together into a better present, however, the world seems to go into destruction without any realisation. I think that we need to take our individual responsibility and start changing if we want the big global change to happen. Maybe then we can achieve a global community with a good change of sustainability.

We need to create connections between people worldwide who share a hope for global change starting at the individual level and moving global. CommonWeal Global Community is a good initiative to achieve this dream. You can visit the website www.commonwealglobal.com, share your thoughts in this blog or in the facebook page “Common WEAL”. I have a great believe in initiatives like this, so I want to continue fighting till the end.

Do you want to dream with me?

Do you believe in a global community based on positivism?

Do you want to join hands with me?

..... I want to continue dreaming. What about you?

Raul Franco-Navarro

Peace, love and happiness to you all!

This is our Blog....

....to share all our news, ideas, etc....

Welcome to Common Weal Global Community, and innovative concept to connect people around the world with deprived communities in India. We believe in a global community regardless of religion, political views, colour, sex, cast, money. This is the first step towards a global community.

Peace, love, light and hapiness to all of you....

Thanks following us and being part of our extended family!