The Egypt Project

Hello readers! Friends, family, and others in this community.  Yes this was me kissing the Sphinx, now it's a beautiful painting of an Egyptian theme on handmade papyri.  My amazing tour guide (and good friend) took us to this art gallery near the pyramids.  This is in Egypt, the home of my heart and the purpose of this fundraiser.  Not only is Egypt home to the treasured history of a great ancient world, it is also home to over 10,000 refugees from Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and more.  I had the privilage to go to some of these communities in 2016 on a sponsored trip, to teach, encourage, and learn, and now we are raising money to go back as a family.  Our Story: I am a mother of two, wife, artist, teacher, entrepreneur and student (Almost done with the MA!).  I met my husband while doing undergraduate work in Elementary Education and One-Room Schools.  We both love teaching and giving, so it was a hit.  In 2011 we learned that I was less than one injury away from rupturing at least one disc in my lower back.  I had an infant son, a dance studio, and a business to plan.   Hardship rarely comes planned, however.  Our son was struggling with health issues due to a birth defect and I could barely dress myself.  We closed things down, and my husband picked up whatever work he could fit around helping me with therapy 3x a day.  We lost two children in miscarriage a few months later.  I needed something to do, so I volunteered to manage fundraising and administration for a small local college in Idaho.  They are dedicated to training teachers, and helping refugee children succeed in school.  It wasn't a professional dance career, but I could let my body heal and raise my children.  Within two years we were hosting summer camps with over six nationalities represented from a small, rural city.  Our daughter was born in 2013, and I finally began to heal.  My husband and I also met some amazing educators who happened to be working in...Cairo, Egypt.  Collaborating with them was a joy!  Today we have two healthy children, a solid business heading into its fourth year, an arts non-profit that creates and preserves diverse cultures through the arts, and I am completing a Masters Degree that will allow me to do this work for the rest of my life.   We collaborate directly with two incredible education organizations in Egypt who serve teachers and administrators from all over North Africa.  

This Trip:  I will spend four months teaching in private schools throughout Cairo, listening and encouraging the men and women who do this work every day with incredible stress, and researching primary and ethnographic sources for my Master's Thesis (fancy lingo for talking to people in person and looking at very old artifacts!). 

 I will be:  1) Training seminars to the teachers and community leaders on movement and arts education for children, teaching reading and writing early, and one-room school methods that suit their unique situations.  2) Modeling creative and sustainable teaching methods, making our own tools for learning, and encouraging mothers and children in their efforts to preserve their unique culture and languages.  3) Researching the existing systems of education in the refugee communities and local Egyptian schools in order to understand their present needs, relate education to social and economic issues, and record the ideas and dreams of the community for helping their children preserve their heritage while moving forward through education.  I can't wait to bring my husband and children to this beautiful country with me this trip!  The kiddos will be helping me model in the classroom an making friends, and my husband will be mentoring young businessmen and women while maintaining our family writing and marketing business.    Let's get together! Partner with Us! Fundraising Costs: $5500 for round trip travel expenses $1000 for investing in local shops and vendors for books, creative materials, and hand made classroom tools.  We need these funds by May of 2018 to purchase the best airfares and notify the schools in Cairo that we are COMING.