A Bright Start: Caleb Foundation's Daycare Program

Dear Friends and Family of the Caleb Foundation,

First and foremost, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for each and every donation you have given to us.  Caleb Foundation: Save Life with Pennies has made immeasurable impacts since our last report. Three weeks ago, I, Tena Alemu, the CEO of Caleb Foundation, went to Ethiopia to visit our program in person.  During my visit, I took time to talk to each and every kid individually from our daycare program.  The question I asked was simple.  "Do you like coming to Caleb Foundation daily?  If yes, why".  Surprisingly the answer for all the children is the same.  All of them said, "Yes we are very happy to come to our daycare."  But what shocked me the most is the reason why they like coming to us.  95% of the children are happy to come to us because they get to eat in our daycare.  

In addition to our feeding program in our daycare, we also have a playground, and different fun activities for the kids to play.  But only one or two kids said they like to come so they can play.  So I started to do more research about the kids eating habits by asking their parents when they come to pick them up.  To my surprise, I found out that for most of the children, the food they eat in our daycare is the only food they get throughout the day.  Their parents are not able to provide meals to their kids, so when they drop the kids at our daycare, it is a huge relief so they don't have to suffer looking at their kids starving.  This was a heartbreaking experience for me. However, I realized we are actually saving lives by feeding the children twice a day while they are with us.  And this was not possible without your help.  100% of the money you donated to this campaign was spent to feed hundreds of vulnerable children in need.  Your money is saving the lives of our children.  Therefore, we sincerely want to thank you.  Attached is the video of our interviews with the kids one by one to see why they like coming to the Caleb Foundation.  Thank you so much for your help.  We cannot thank you enough.  

Respectfully Yours,

Links:

• Caleb Foundation feeding kids program

Hello, Caleb Foundation's Family,

We hope all is well with you and your family.  We are writing to you today to let you know about the impact of your donations in the last few months.  Before we jump in, let us take a moment to let you know how thankful we are.  Especially to those who are dedicated to donating monthly, you have no idea how your monthly donation is sustaining our plans to help the many underprivileged families who are waiting. 

There is a saying, "you are not a true success unless you are helping others be successful.”  As you are reading this, please know you are a truly successful person because you give hope to the hopeless and are the reason that many eat, survive, and eventually succeed in life. What a privilege to help those who are forgotten, to be the light in this dark world, and to be the reason for many desperate families to look forward to life.  You are the reason for us to keep doing what we are doing.  We cannot thank you enough for being a part of the Caleb Foundation. 

At Caleb Foundation, we strongly believe in the proverb saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you feed him for his lifetime.”  Although sometimes we must provide food for an immediate need to save lives, our ultimate goal is to bring a permanent solution by teaching and equipping underprivileged families on how to become independent of our help once and for all. To do that, we group the underprivileged family into three categories. 

• Category One:  Mothers who cannot work due to having a newborn.
• Category Two:  Parents who cannot work due to disability or sickness.
• Category Three:  Underprivileged families who can work but do not have any startup money and direction. 

To address Category One, Caleb Foundation has a free daycare solution to enable mothers in poverty to go to work while we watch their babies with care.  Also, our daycare facility provides nutritional foods for the babies while they are staying with us.  For the toddlers, Caleb Foundation provides teaching assistance and a playground. 

For those we classify as Category Two, we must support them with monthly groceries because they are not in any position to help and support themselves.  If we stop helping them, they will starve to death.  Therefore, our support for them is defined as lifesaving, and we are happy to save their lives because they are the most desperate, and in most cases, they have little ones who live with them.  The support we are giving in category two is very significant especially for those with children because although the parents are disabled, they are still the guardians of the little ones who live under them. 

When it comes to Category Three, where the parents are healthy and capable of working; however, they are struggling to feed themselves and their children day-to-day, and do not know how to stabilize their life. We have a program for these parents to enroll in.  The main problem is the number of people in this category is extremely high and hard to manage.  Therefore, we schedule multiple meetings to identify the most desperate families first.  In these meetings, we try to gather information about their condition to identify whose situation has the highest priority.  

Following these meetings, we also go house to house to visit them and confirm their situation.  Based on the severity of their condition, we pick and choose whom to help first.  Then we group them into 10 based on their strength and what they want to do.  Following that, we will work closely within the small group to identify their strength and find their fit as far as what they can do to sustain themselves.  We also have a lot of useful training to educate them on how to run a small business, save money, and so on.  Once they complete their training and identify what they want to do, we will guide them throughout the process of how they can start their own business.  We will also give them one-time startup money of $5,000 Eth birr to start their business.  After this, they will officially graduate from our program.  We will no longer support them, but we will visit them to see their progress. 

In this category, we have more than 700 women waiting, and currently, we are helping only 10 people at a time.  But so far, we have about 70 women who not only graduated from our program but also became successful in their small businesses. These families also return to volunteer in our program and we encourage others to do the same. 

I hope this report helps you understand where your money is going as you donate to the Caleb Foundation.  This is all possible due to your help and support. 

We encourage you to continue being a part of the Caleb Foundation. We believe we are stronger together.  We can save lives, we can help many to succeed in life, and we can make this world a better place.  Together, we can surely make a difference that cannot be erased.  Again, thanks for being a family of the Caleb Foundation.  

Respectfully Yours,

Tena Alemu, CEO of the Caleb Foundation