Fundraiser for young students in São Tomé
Donation protected
Hey all! I’m sending this to close friends and family in an attempt to raise some money for a strategy-based teaching volunteer program in São Tomé and Principe, a small Portuguese-speaking archipelago in the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa.
São Tomé is a unique place, with a deep-rooted history in Portuguese colonization, the West African slave trade, and lusotropicalism; these are all topics that I have been studying during my study abroad program in Lisbon. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to study abroad, and the time I’ve spent so far in Europe has driven me to transform this gratitude into action, even on a small scale.
São Tomé has a population of just over 220,000 people and the country has roughly the same land area as Bergen County, NJ. The island country is one of the poorest in the world, with the average citizen living on less than $3,000 a year. School is usually expensive for young children, with uniform, textbook, transportation, and other costs making life harder for many families.
São Tomé has a small economy, with a lot of the population relying on sustenance farming (growing food for themselves). The country is known for its agricultural exports of vanilla, pepper, and most importantly, cacao (maybe there’s even some remnants of São Toméan cacao in those Valentine’s Day chocolates you just bought from ShopRite!)
Moving on from cacao, CACAE is a volunteer program that stands for Centro do Apoio Cultural e Ajuda Escolar (Center for Cultural Support and Scholastic Support). It was started by a French entrepreneur by accident when he was living in São Tomé and offered to give a shelter to street kids selling coconuts who had gotten caught in a heavy rain. As he was already teaching classes at his home, he started giving pencils and piece of papers so they could keep busy while waiting. This eventually grew into a larger charity activity when volunteers started teaching mathematics and other classes on a daily basis. Now CACAE has around 60 children who go to regular classes and enjoy doing strategic activities like playing chess, board games, soccer, tennis, and capoeira. More activities are in the works such as female soccer, rowing, and the ultimate objective of support for scholarship programs abroad.
Anyways, long story short, this money would go right into buying more school materials, books, board games, athletic equipment, snacks like cookies and juices, and other things. This is material that we might take for granted in the U.S., but in São Tomé, possessing these objects could boost young students to excel in a particular subject or skill and potentially lead to university or opportunities abroad.
I will be going to São Tomé in May 2023 and will be giving whatever amount of money we raise to the school. I will also be living at the school for 20 days and assisting in activities like soccer, English/Portuguese teaching, chess, tennis, and social media/promotion for the organization. For now it’s a small-scale operation, but any amount would greatly help and could truly change a young São Toméan student’s life! Thanks so much!
For more information check out the CACAE website: https://saotome-cacae.org
São Tomé is a unique place, with a deep-rooted history in Portuguese colonization, the West African slave trade, and lusotropicalism; these are all topics that I have been studying during my study abroad program in Lisbon. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to study abroad, and the time I’ve spent so far in Europe has driven me to transform this gratitude into action, even on a small scale.
São Tomé has a population of just over 220,000 people and the country has roughly the same land area as Bergen County, NJ. The island country is one of the poorest in the world, with the average citizen living on less than $3,000 a year. School is usually expensive for young children, with uniform, textbook, transportation, and other costs making life harder for many families.
São Tomé has a small economy, with a lot of the population relying on sustenance farming (growing food for themselves). The country is known for its agricultural exports of vanilla, pepper, and most importantly, cacao (maybe there’s even some remnants of São Toméan cacao in those Valentine’s Day chocolates you just bought from ShopRite!)
Moving on from cacao, CACAE is a volunteer program that stands for Centro do Apoio Cultural e Ajuda Escolar (Center for Cultural Support and Scholastic Support). It was started by a French entrepreneur by accident when he was living in São Tomé and offered to give a shelter to street kids selling coconuts who had gotten caught in a heavy rain. As he was already teaching classes at his home, he started giving pencils and piece of papers so they could keep busy while waiting. This eventually grew into a larger charity activity when volunteers started teaching mathematics and other classes on a daily basis. Now CACAE has around 60 children who go to regular classes and enjoy doing strategic activities like playing chess, board games, soccer, tennis, and capoeira. More activities are in the works such as female soccer, rowing, and the ultimate objective of support for scholarship programs abroad.
Anyways, long story short, this money would go right into buying more school materials, books, board games, athletic equipment, snacks like cookies and juices, and other things. This is material that we might take for granted in the U.S., but in São Tomé, possessing these objects could boost young students to excel in a particular subject or skill and potentially lead to university or opportunities abroad.
I will be going to São Tomé in May 2023 and will be giving whatever amount of money we raise to the school. I will also be living at the school for 20 days and assisting in activities like soccer, English/Portuguese teaching, chess, tennis, and social media/promotion for the organization. For now it’s a small-scale operation, but any amount would greatly help and could truly change a young São Toméan student’s life! Thanks so much!
For more information check out the CACAE website: https://saotome-cacae.org
Organizer
Lucas Souza
Organizer
Ramsey, NJ