COMMUNITY HOPE PROJECT
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Mission Statement
We work collaboratively with communities, both locally and internationally, to create conditions that foster peace, justice, health, hope, connection and human flourishing, in balance with the ecological and climate systems of which we are a part.
About This Cause
Established in 2010 and formally gaining 501c3 status in 2012, the Community Hope Project evolved out of a pen pal relationship between two 8 year old girls, one in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and the other in San Diego, CA, USA. Human connection, curiosity, compassion, and a thirst for restorative justice were (and still are) at its core. We live in a lopsided, inequitable world where many, MANY people do not have the basic things they need to live and flourish, through no fault of their own. Our global and local inequities have historical and structural roots, and we have the power to remedy their lingering harmful impacts, together. We need to build awareness, ignite empathetic connections across the typical social, national, regional, religious, class, and racial/ethnic boundaries that divide us, and find ways to collectively catalyze positive change. CHP is an all-volunteer, completely not-for-profit, bootstrap organization that relies on the hearts, humility, humor, hard work, curiosity, and passion of people in different parts of the world. It is rooted not so much in a "charity" as a "justice" model. We believe that all people deserve sustenance, safety, housing, education, access to healthcare, and to the building blocks of a life of meaning. We also firmly believe that each of us, every human being, has the capacity to both teach and learn, contribute and receive, fall down and get up, as well as to grow and gain perspective through it all. Our first initiative (which arose out of the tendrils of relationships growing from that first pen pal connection) was to build a community center (with solar panels) in the Hill Cut community of Freetown that would serve as both a needed primary school, and a space where adult literacy classes could be held. Our director, Dr. Leslie Lewis, along with a core group of committed students (and buttressed by the financial, practical and emotional support of countless friends, family members, colleagues, and other supporters) raised money, wrote grants, and managed to visit the Hill Cut community in 2012 and 2013 to meet and work with locals. Together, we established a community garden, permanent school, adult literacy classes, small computer center, tiny first aid nook, solar-powered lamp loaning & local women's microloan program (both managed by the newly-formed women's organization), and educational scholarship program. The second year we returned, we brought biofilters to help facilitate locals' access to clean water, established a hand-washing station at the school, expanded the educational scholarship program, supported the women's organization and adult literacy group that had formed the previous year, and purchased musical equipment for the community center, so that it could be rented out for events to help support the school. We made mistakes and learned lessons along the way, but we have all been enriched and transformed by our time and experiences together. Since that time, and through the Ebola outbreak (2015) and intense flooding (2016), we have maintained our connections and supported financially the hard work of locals (led by the tireless local Project Coordinator, Robert Kamara) as they added two more buildings to the local school, which now accommodates over 200 primary school students. Hope Preparatory School, as it is now called, has a "sister school" relationship with the Village Gate Children's Academy in Encinitas, CA, a connection made possible by the indefatigable efforts of Dr. Jericho Burg. Our efforts to support the school continue, as the economic situation remains difficult for most of the families of the children at the school. We are raising money to help pay for the final construction (the roof of the third and final building), as well as to augment the already very low salaries of the ten wonderful teachers and staff at the school, and help cover scholarships for the families that are utterly without the ability to cover the small fees required to keep the school afloat. Locally, the CHP’s second initiative has been the Youth Scholar Activist Program, begun in 2015 - first in partnership with Reality Changers in City Heights, and since 2017, with Preuss School (with the support of should-be-caped Superhera Teacher, Shaoni Bandyopadhyay). The YSA Program brings local high school students together with volunteer College Mentors and Alumni from UCSD to collectively interrogate and address significant social, ecological and climate challenges and injustices we face in society. We meet weekly, engage in critical conversations, watch and discuss films and articles, brainstorm ideas for projects and research, and go on occasional field trips to local nature escapes (Scripps Natural Reserve, Roger’s Garden at UCSD, Torrey Pines State Park) to get a little biophilic infusion. We run on steam and love, and appreciate any support for our initiatives. One hundred percent (100%) of all donations go directly to the program (or combination of programs) designated by the contributor. CHP has no paid staff or administrative overhead. Like I said, it runs on steam and love.