Special Needs, Special Opportunity

Special Needs, Special Opportunity

We have some students whose stories Muday could not overlook when they approached the school. Muday created Fresh and Green Academy to help children who need it the most, and that is why these kids were taken into the school, even though they need more resources than normal to succeed. While many of our children suffered in their early years from malnutrition, and the debilities that come with that, several of them faced even more frightening challenges: hydrocephalus, blindness, paraplegia and emotional scars.

A boy named Yesuna was brought to the school because his mother wanted to abandon him. He had been neglected since birth after his mother could not afford to feed him. He was left in their hovel while his mother waited for him to die, and malnutrition made him blind, deaf and unresponsive. He has a severe mental disability. He is too weak to walk or even sit up. But Muday would not abandon him.

Through daily care for over 2 years, Yesuna is coming back. Turns out he is not deaf after all, and responds to music and clapping. His caregivers have applied physiotherapy methods and he now has the strength to sit up on his own. He can now communicate his most basic needs, but cannot speak.

Yesuna has almost constant attention, from his caregivers to be sure, but from his schoolmates as well! A television is kept in his room and his friends come to be with him and watch TV. And this is one of the real benefits of having these students in the community: these kids learn to build people with special needs into their own lives! Everybody lends a hand when needed.

We need your help! Can you help sponsor one of our special needs kids through the Friendship Club program? We have created a special category for this initiative and you will be sure to get progress reports from your Friend along the way.

Become a Friendship Club member!

Return to #StillWithThem #GivingTuesday

Fresh and Green Goes to High School

Fresh and Green Goes to High School

We are so proud of our nine Grade 8 graduates for passing their high school entrance exams! Most were in kindergarten when Friends of Fresh and Green got involved with the school 8 years ago, and we began to grow the school by a grade each year.

Running a high school curriculum is not on the books for Fresh and Green Academy right now as we try to secure the rights to the land that the school is on. But we will continue to support our graduates as they start up a new path on their journey to higher education and eventually a profession. They are such important members of our community and set a great example for the younger kids!

Our graduates will still start and end their day at the Academy with a meal, with high school classes down the road in between. But we have to pay for their uniforms and books as well as providing medical care if needed. We estimate that it will cost $500 up front for supplies and then $75 a month for each student over the course of the year.

We need your help! Can you help sponsor one of our high school kids through the Friendship Club program? We have created a special category for this initiative and you will be sure to get progress reports from your Friend along the way. If you can help us with the upfront costs as well, then great! Please make a separate donation and you’ll get a tax receipt for that as well.

Become a Friendship Club member!

Make a Difference by Shopping with your Friends

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You can help the children Fresh and Green Academy when you shop!

There are 3 ways that benefit the Academy directly, including for the first time, the opportunity to buy crafts from the Mothers’ Cooperative!

Fresh & Green is on Etsy!

Store MontageYou can now buy some of the beautiful all-cotton scarves that are hand-woven by the mothers of some of the students at the Mothers’ Coetsyoperative.  We have a small selection of stylish and traditional dresses as well, and hope soon to bring you some of the beautiful pottery, baskets, sandals and wickerwork that these ladies produce as part of their initiative to retrain and work to feed their families.

100% of the net proceeds go straight back to Fresh and Green Academy. Click below.

 

Goodshop is a great way to help the children of Fresh and Green while you shop at some of the most popular stores in North America!

Through the generosity of brands like American Eagle Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, Forever 21 and MANY others, simply buying what you normally shop for will send a percentage of the sale to the school! If a new customer, you can join here, and when you specify a cause, pick Friends of Fresh and Green Academy (NY). If you’ve already shopped through Goodshop, Follow the How it Works link at the top of the page and pick “Support a Cause.”

Goodshop will send 2%, 3%, even 5% of the purchase to Friends of Fresh goodshoplogoxparentand Green and 100% of that goes to the school.

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Amazon Smile helps you, help us, make a difference in a child’s life!

Did you know you can find just about anything on Amazon.com? Did you also know that they are generous in supporting charities throughout the country by donating a portion of the sale to a charity of the customer’s choice?

The program is called Amazon Smile and if you specify Friends of Fresh and Green Academy as
your camazonsmilewhiteharity of choice, we automatically receive a percentage of the sale.

Use our special Amazon Smile link and Amazon.com will make a donation on every purchase you make. You can even use your Prime account!

The Fourth Annual Poker/Casino Night Fundraiser

The Fourth Annual Poker/Casino Night Fundraiser

Friends of Fresh and Green Academy hosted its fourth annual Casino Night on September 10, 2012, at Connolly’s in Midtown Manhattan. Over $10,000 was raised which will pay for the new addition of classrooms to enable us to add fifth grade. Many guests exclaimed that they had a great time and will be back next year!

Fresh and Green Academy, in Addis Ababa, has eight students entering fifth grade for which three additional classrooms are needed. These classrooms include a science lab, library, and general classroom. In Ethiopia, fifth through eighth grade is considered middle school. These newly constructed classrooms will be able to accommodate students for the next four years.

Thanks to money raised at this event and continued donor support, Fresh and Green Academy will also be able to admit ten new preschool children. These children now have hope for a future, which includes a well-rounded education and three nutritious meals daily.

The evening’s highlights included a poker & blackjack tournament, and new to this year, roulette tournament. Guests played for prizes while enjoying a full open bar and appetizers. Tickets to see Madonna in concert were among prizes in the roulette tournament. Along with the tournament, a raffle enticed guests to donate more money to the school with a chance to win prizes such as a Proenza-Schouler handbag, Stella & Dot jewelry and more.

Every guest who attended received a goodie bag that was filled with samples, including Scentsy and Lancome products, air plants from Lulindi, promotional coupons, and Friends of Fresh and Green playing cards.

Robert Essel from Robert Essel Photography was taking photos all night, which can be seen here.

Friends of Fresh and Green Academy would like to thank all attendees, volunteers, donors, and businesses that donated goods and services to make this year’s Casino Night a huge success for such a crucial cause.

Please watch for information on holiday fairs and other fundraising campaigns to ensure that Fresh and Green Academy and its 125 brilliant children continue to thrive!

Chiropractor Helps Fresh and Green Academy Students

Dr. Christie MacDonaldI would like to thank Fresh and Green Academy for an amazing life experience in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My husband, a school teacher and myself a Chiropractor, set out the summer of 2011 to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. While in Africa, I wanted to utilize my skills and passion for chiropractic and volunteer for those who do not have the luxury choosing chiropractic. After meeting Dr Salem Aklilu, the first chiropractor in Ethiopia, at a Parker seminar we were put in contact with Dr Greg Rubinstein of New York who has brought chiropractic to a primary school in Addis Ababa.

Our experience there was terrific. Muday, a wonderful Ethiopian woman who started Fresh and Green, came and picked us up at the airport and treated us like royalty. We stayed at a hotel and were picked up daily to head to the school to adjust the children. My first day at the school, I adjusted the kids and some of the moms. Spencer, my husband, spent some time in the classrooms teaching the kids the basic principles of chiropractic and health.

I was amazed by what Muday has done. She has 111 children at the school all of which come from families that can not afford for them to go to school. They are fed a healthy well balanced diet of 3 meals a day, they

get clothes, showers, teeth brushed and naps for the young ones. They learn English and all the core subjects, they even get music and art. All of this is done through donations, she unfortunately has to turn families away daily as she can not help anymore at this time. Muday’s vision is big, she has many plans for fresh and green and the children in that community.

A lot of the moms are involved with the school as well. Many coming from the streets were they have had to beg or prostitute themselves in order to feed their children. Muday has the moms cook the meals, do laundry, make crafts and learn how to support their families.

The children were so excited for their adjustments, lining up and looking through the window with anticipation. I loved that Dr Gregg had been at the school 3 times in the past few years and I was continuing on his work. The more the people in the community see the Chiropractor as someone that can help their body heal themselves, the healthier they will become. The children are so fortunate to be receiving

great nutrition, clothing, chiropractic and education. These children could be the ones who help Ethiopia become a better country to live in. As BJ Palmer once said, “You never know how something you may say think or do may affect the lives of millions tomorrow”.

My experience at Fresh and Green Academy will always be remembered. Many of my patients donated spare change in their pockets before I left and we ended up collecting enough to help Muday buy uniforms for the children in September. We are also sponsoring a child to continue her schooling. I would recommend for anyone to volunteer at Fresh and Green Academy, you won’t regret it.

Dr. Christie MacDonald
www.whitemudchiro.com

Dr. Christie adjusts the children
Adjusting the children helps their bodies better fight disease.