OneWorld Classrooms -- Make a Difference!

Make a real-world difference at one of our overseas partner schools!

Q: How can an individual, a class or a school on one side of the world make a difference in a school on the other side of the world? A: 1. Interact! - 2. Share!

OneWorld Classrooms involves schools in all different regions of the world. Through our Classroom Connections program, we match schools so they become learning partners. Yet, some of our partner schools have special needs. Some even require a boost to be able to participate in an exchange with an overseas partner. Our Make a Difference! program addresses these needs.

All donations to our Make a Difference! program are used to Namibian Student in Traditional Dance Garb help OneWorld Classrooms:

Reach and involve overseas partner schools in remote world regions.
Purchase art materials and cover mailing costs for needy overseas partner schools.
Purchase books, audiovisual equipment, computer equipment and school supplies for needy overseas partner schools.
Provide scholarships for exceptional but needy students at overseas partner schools.
Fund special educational projects coordinated by OneWorld Classrooms' Project Liaison's working at overseas partner schools.

You may make a contribution NOW or via our REGISTRATION form when signing up to participate -- or you may organize a fundraiser at your school and send your contribution to OneWorld Classrooms or directly to your partner school's Project Liaison (if applicable) upon completion of your fundraiser.

Please see below for more information.

SENDING YOUR CONTRIBUTION

OneWorld Classrooms is a nonprofit project, fiscally sponsored by The New York Foundation for the Arts, a nonprofit organization. Your gift is tax deductible. You may make a contribution in the following ways:

Mail your contribution by check (made out to OneWorld Classrooms) to:

OneWorld Classrooms
PO Box 93
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
USA

Make your tax-deductible contribution online by credit card to our fiscal sponsor, the New York Foundation for the Arts, via NYCharities.org. Your contribution will be used solely by OneWorld Classrooms.

Make a Difference: Donate Now!

Make a real-world difference at one of our neediest partner schools in the Amazon Rain Forest, Latin America, Africa or China. When you click the DONATE NOW button, you will go to a form on NYCharities.org, where you can make a contribution to our fiscal sponsor, The New York Foundation for the Arts on our behalf.

Simply enter an amount in the form to the left and click the DONATE NOW button. When you do, you will go to a form on the NYCharities.org Web site. Complete (check whether you are making a one-time or recurring donation, and check the box that says, Please accept my contribution ...) and submit the form. PLEASE NOTE: OneWorld Classrooms should appear automatically in the Project Title box. (You may leave the other boxes on the first page blank.) Your credit card statement will reflect a charge to NYCharities.org.

If you do a fundraiser for an overseas partner school that we have matched you with, you may send your contribution to OneWorld Classrooms at the address above or directly to our Project Liaison (usually a Peace Corps, WorldTeach or Junior Achievement volunteer) at the partner school. We will send you instructions and contact information via E-mail.

MORE INFORMATION

LENDING A HELPING HAND Students at our partner schools in the Amazon Rain Forest, Africa and China benefit from participating in OneWorld Classrooms because they share their own culture, build self-esteem and learn about children in other world regions. Some of them, however, have limited educational opportunities and some of their schools lack basic educational resources. OneWorld Classrooms addresses these needs through our Make a Difference! program. By joining our Make a Difference! program, you can help us to make the world a little smaller and a little better.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION AT WORK Since 2002, we have used Make a Difference! contributions to purchase art materials, bookmaking equipment, TVs, computers and books for overseas partner schools. Currently, we are also providing a scholarship to a talented student from a remote village we work with in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The scholarship will allow the student to attend a teacher training school so he will be able to return to his village as a teacher. Recently, contributions have been used to purchase art materials so schools can complete art exchanges, purchase a Namibian partner school's first audiovisual equipment and paint the outside of all of the classrooms at an Amazon Rain Forest partner school with educational murals.

SOME OF THE SCHOOLS WE ASSIST Here is a sampling of schools we have helped and will continue to aid through our Make a Difference! program.

Sangke Tibetan Elementary School, Gansu Province, China

Located in a remote region on the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, the Sangke Tibetan Elementary School is a boarding school founded by the local government for children of nomadic Tibetan families. The school has limited resources but eager and talented students. We help them by purchasing art supplies.

Victor Davalos Elementary School, Playas de Cuyabeno, Ecuadorian Amazon

Victor Davalos Elementary is a six-hour motorized canoe ride down the Agua Rico River from the nearest road. The school has nine grades, five teachers, five classrooms and 75 students. We have worked with the school for three years and are very impressed with how serious the community and the teachers are about giving their children a good education. In 2004, Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, PA, donated a computer to the school and we trained the teachers on it for two weeks so they could use it with their students after we left. A second donation from Germantown is sending Guillermo Machoa, the school's brightest ninth grader, to a high school/teacher training college in another rain forest town. (Victor Davolos only goes up to ninth grade and Guillermo would otherwise not be able to continue his education.) In future years, we'd like to help Victor Davalos Elementary with more classroom technology, art supplies, books and more scholarships.

Mokaleng Combined Roman Catholic School, Namibia, Africa

Students Performing Traditional Dance in Namib Desert of Namibia While Mokaleng performs well academically, despite it's remote location in the Kalahari, it makes the desert spring to exuberant life with its exceptional vocal and dance performances. We have helped this school with art materials and computer training in the past; but in the future we would like to shift our focus to meet the needs of their Culture Club, which is in urgent need of new traditional clothes and percussion instruments for their dance performances. We would also like to help the school travel with their performers to other partner schools in the country so they can share their remarkable talent.

Jinha Elementary School, Xishuangbanna, China

Jinha is a small town along the Mekong River in the rain forest of the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, China. This school's students are mainly of the Dai and Hani ethnicities. Lacking art materials, the students only use black pencils for drawing. We would like to help the school by purchasing art materials.

Hanganeni Primary School, Swakopmund, Namibia

Hanganeni is a brand new school in the D.R.C. Location of Swakopmund, a small city on the coast of Namibia, where the Namib Desert and the Pacific Ocean meet. The D.R.C., which consists mainly of pieced-together houses made of tin, wood, bricks and cardboard, sprung up on the outskirts of town as many Namibians moved to Swakopmund in search of work in nearby uranium mines. We found the students very eager to learn, despite their lack of resources. We would like to help the school with art materials and computer equipment.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR OVERSEAS PARTNER SCHOOLS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION For all donations of $100 or more, the donor will receive an official OneWorld Classrooms Make a Difference! Certificate, acknowledging your contribution and listing the name of your partner school and information about how your contribution was used at your partner school.

HOME