By Melanie Popowich

Global Mamas recently embarked on the daunting task of developing a public fundraising campaign to help expand our seventh location in Prampram. We started out by recruiting team USA that included former volunteers Brittany Campanelli & Kiley O’Brien Ruggiero, former intern Aileen Ottenweller and staff members Alice Grau and Kristin Johnson. Renae Adam and Melanie Popowich represented Team Ghana. Brainstorming sessions took place over Skype and vigorous e-mails were sent through cyber space for a few months before the official launch of two online fundraisers on Razoo and Global Giving. On December 1st our fundraisers made their début and by the end of the month, 128 superstars donated $12,223.50! I can vividly remember when the very first donation came through and how excited we all were to be at 1% of our goal. Now, four months later, our fundraiser is just short of $19,000 with 154 donors. As proud as we are at those numbers, the wonderful reality is that we’ve been able to hire 10 new women and provide them with fair and sustainable employment. The Fair Trade Textiles Workshop radiates a whole new energy now as the team works closely filling orders and troubleshooting everyday challenges.

We’re not stopping here! We’re still busy applying for grants and planning our ten-year anniversary fundraiser for 2013. A very special thank you to all of the volunteers who’ve assisted us with research for our fundraiser and to the kind and generous donors for joining the movement and sparking a new ambition for greatness in us all!

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