Alpha Teens Drop In Center (2024-2025)
This non-profit organization provides critical services to infected and affected HIV+ children and their caregivers. Since 2005 this non-profit has has helped tens of thousands of families in some of the most underserved and marginalized communities in Africa. Currently they are building an orphanage for forty-two children in Zimbabwe. With the money raised the Alpha Teens Drop In Center they will be able to grow and raise food that will be beneficial for the children. They will be able to create and build a good area for the children to do homework, and they will be able to gain a water source to feed the garden, animals, and trees. Finally they will be able to have latrines, water filters, and hand washing stations.
The Forty-Two (2023-2024)
The Forty-Two is an organization spearheaded by an amazing woman named Gertrude who has taken in forty-two orphaned children in Zimbabwe. Her goal was to create a self-sustaining homestead for the children. Thanks to all the help we received from students and employers that organization has had success. They were able to build two hen houses, where the eggs are being used as food for the children as well as selling them to pay for school fees. A goat pen has also been successfully built and houses ten goats. Their kitchen has been upgraded, once being sticks and tin on a dirt floor to now a new kitchen and storeroom. After the drought they are currently facing passes they plan to plant moringa and fruit trees, beehives, a community garden, and dormitories for the children.
Cluck, Clucking to a Better Education (2022-2023)
Cluck, Clucking to a Better Education is a project based in Miwani, Kenya. Its goal is to provide education opportunities for impoverished and orphaned Miwani children, some of whom are HIV positive, and provide them with at least one nutritious meal per day.
The money raised by Thetford Academy ODW and other high schools around the Northeast has gone towards building a chicken coop and dining area for the Miwani school. Funds have also gone to purchasing chickens, fertilizer, seeds, and moringa trees. This will establish agricultural infrastructure to provide 50 vulnerable children with nutritious food. Collecting eggs and harvesting beans and moringa pods will not only feed the kids, but also employ widowed mothers in the community who are HIV positive. Excess produce will be sold to the larger community, generating income to support teachers and school upkeep in Miwani. This project works to combat the severe malnutrition, poverty, and education barriers affecting many families in Miwani, challenges that are compounded for families affected by HIV.