The vast majority of readers here at Bože! hail from the US. Which, when you consider the number of OC/IC folk in the US compared with here in the UK makes sense. Thanks to a recent blurb on Blogger I’ve been put on to a neat grass roots program that funds educational projects in the US. Offering a way our OC/IC community can get invovled, and help others outside the bounds of our immediate local ministries and congregations.

Every year during the great feasts (Pascha, Theophany, Transfiguration) I highlight both here and on my other web pages, one or more charities that help people on the ground with basic needs. In the past I’ve focussed on the developing world, and women affected by war. This time, I’ve turned my attention to the “developed” world – the US where in some areas the functional illiteracy rate is astounding. My mother works in a high school in rural Pennsylvania where many of her students are barely able to write their own name. I lived in DC for nearly 10 years and saw first hand how children there, often already living in deprived conditions, are deprived even more by the system when they go to school.

Through DonorsChoose I’ve set up a “challenge” to fund three projects that focus on literacy projects in schools in highly deprived areas (where 70% or more of the students are considered impoverished). Collectively the projects reach and age range from young children to young adults.

I’m asking readers and visitors alike to contribute to funding these three projects via the challenge. You can see our progress on the thermometer on the side bar. If you click here you can go directly to the challenge page, read more about each project, and choose which one you want to help fund.

This is another way that our OC/IC community can be an engaged part of the wider community, raise our profile, and exemplify the teachings of the Gospel.

Thank you for participating.