Contact/DONATE

CONTACT INFORMATION:

When I Grow Up I Want To Be Inc   274 Ash Street    Crystal Lake, IL 60014

wiguiwtb@gmail.com

TEL: 925-408-3446

                                                              

10/20/2019

WHAT WE DO:

1)  We collect donated materials from art supply companies and individuals, design art workshops and deliver education to some of the neediest kids in the world living in orphanages and attending very poor schools in Ethiopia.

2)  We hold an online exhibition judged by Ethiopian art professors from the university in Addis Ababa of submitted artworks from our youth workshops.  Depending on funds available, there are an equal number of recipients, female and male who receive up to $500 towards their college educations.  There are 4-6 honorable mentions who also receive a small money prize to help them buy school supplies.  Everyone receives a certificate of appreciation and accomplishment.

3)  We have traveling exhibits of work and photos that educate kids in the United States about the struggles of kids in Ethiopia.

HOW WE RAISE MONEY (currently $5000-6000 per year):

1) Individual contributions.

2) Fundraising through rummage sales, coffee drives (Ethiopian Coffee), T-Shirts, and handmade            Ethiopian scarves.

3) Annual gifts from donors.

WHERE THE MONEY IS CURRENTLY SPENT:

LOGISTICS ($3200)

1) A safe driver in Ethiopia is essential, and we hire one daily for 3 weeks along with a passenger van to get us from place to place in-country.   This costs roughly $45-55 per day.  If we take a long trip on a mini-bus to another city it might cost $150 for all the volunteers in a minibus. Over the course of 3-4 weeks, we spend roughly $1300 each year on van transport.

2) Food for the workshops.  The workshops last all day and volunteers and kids need to eat.  We sometimes like to provide lunch for both.  Although food in Ethiopia is cheap, This can cost between $20-30 at each workshop.  Or around $300-400  each year.  If we do not do this, it places a burden on the orphanage as they always offer lunch from their own budget.

3) A few excursion breaks for volunteers (2-3) to break up the workshops.  We usually take the entire group to a waterfall or to museums, or to an Ethiopian Traditional dance. This builds high morale and is worth every penny for having happy and enthusiastic volunteer teachers. $250 per year.

4) General expenses like tips, mailings, handouts, and copies for students of reference materials can also cost quite a bit.  $350 per year.

5) Guest Houses.  Most of our volunteers are able to pay their way as volunteers. But we feel badly having Ethiopian artists or those who cannot afford it to do so. A shared room in a guest house is about 15-20 dollars per night, and with an average of five volunteers, this can be 50-100 dollars per night when we are actively conducting workshops. $1000 per year.

MATERIALS ($850-1050)

1) We have an abundance of donations from art suppliers, upwards of $2500 worth each year. Never the less, there are some things that we simply cannot carry there and still need to buy within Ethiopia’s capital, such as steel for welding, or large cans of mural paint (hard to transport in an airplane), animal hides from the market, cloth for painting on, and other supplies.  These materials often cost as much as $600-800 each program year.  Additionally, extra bag costs for transporting as many as five duffle bags of essential art supplies to Ethiopia can also add up to an additional $250.

SCHOLARSHIPS ($1900+)

1) We began giving out scholarships in 2018.  We have given out over $1800 worth of prizes. Two were five hundred dollar scholarships.  We would like to expand this aspect of what we do as it was very successful and well-received.

2) It costs money to print nice certificates.  About $1 each. We printed over 100 last year for recognition awards for program participants.

        What we have never raised money for:  

        Airline travel for volunteers (people pay for their own tickets).

Areas of special need for donation:

• Scholarships ($500 easily covers 2 years of tuition for a student at Addis Ababa University) Our goal would be to have 4-5 recipients each year, with 1-2 receiving a full $1500 for four years.

• Stipends for Ethiopian artist-teacher/volunteers ($125 would be an amazing gift for an Ethiopian teacher volunteer for a one week period and we would be able to recruit more and better talent if they were paid even $125.)  It seems that after basic logistics, we never have enough money to do this for our Ethiopian volunteer teachers, and they deserve it.

• In-Country Logistics (see above)  This is our most basic expense and a fixed cost, yet often we struggle to raise enough to cover it.  At our most basic level, the program costs $5000-6000 per year to exist outside of volunteers' own personal contributions of time and travel.