Donate to the Lightning Project! (Link to Paypal Here)
10 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
Dearest Friends and Family,
I would like to introduce to you The Lightning Project!! I have been working with my Aunt Sharon and her class and a nearby primary (elementary) school in Kananage village for the past year with the WorldWise School Correspondence program within the Peace Corps. This program allows the Ugandan schoolchildren to learn about the United States and what American kids are like and vice versa. I have been working with one class specifically, a primary 3 class (equivalent of 3rd grade). There have been many recent incidents of lightning strikes killing people in Uganda (see previous blog) and I would like to help attend to that problem (wearing rubber soles protects you from lightning, but you already know that 
), while providing the children of Starlight Primary School with shoes.
So, I’m seeking donations, to help me provide shoes for the children of this school. There are about 250 students and when we finish with this school we will move with others. Your money will go to buying shoes for the kids, building a lightning rod for the school, and teaching the kids and the teachers about the dangers of lightning and the ways to prevent it. Before distributing shoes to the children, they will be educated about wearing the shoes during storms and other ways such as not standing under a tree. Also, many of the children’s families are not able to afford shoes and come to school without shoes daily, even though it’s part of their school uniform (walking far to school on littered dirt roads filled with rocks cannot be comfortable). We’ve already spoken with the headmaster and measured the first class’ students feet. We will be getting them shoes within the next week or so. This will continue class by class until all the students have shoes and are taught about lightning prevention. I will be taking pictures to document the whole process and donations will go through Paypal for security purposes and transferred into my bank account. We’re trying to buy the shoes in bulk to minimize the cost and I’ll be working with my Ugandan counterparts to complete this task. Hopefully, by the end of this year, with your help, the whole school will have shoes to wear to school. Please help us! These kids will be very grateful and all clapped and smiled when I told them they would be getting shoes.
And for cuteness purposes, one of the girls asked: “When will our American class come to visit us?” thinking that my Aunt Sharon’s whole third grade class would be coming to Uganda to visit their classroom. 
Thank you! Paypal is here and I think the minimum is a dollar – so even if you have some quarters lying around that can buy one child a pair of shoes! Just click the donate button below and follow the instructions. My email is danrennt98@yahoo.com and dan.popielarski@gmail.com – so you will see those on the page to know it’s me – or if you have questions.
Thank you Thank you Thank you! And the kids thank you too! Updates will come!
Love,
Dan
