ODFL February 2020 CADA Newsletter
2019 Was Even Better Than We Thought 

Our November newsletter said that with 19 projects completed, 2019 was our best year ever.  But, we ended up completing 23 projects making it our best year ever, ever! We've completed 129 projects since our founding, most of them funded by $1 donations from American high school students.
Classrooms, medical clinics, water projects, electrification, Girls Equality Project kits, a science lab, sewing center, library, and more. Thank you to all who helped! Every project improves life chances for the recipients. To see a PDF of all the projects, click here .  
Olmoti Playground in Tanzania
Children need to play. Is there any more obvious rule in child development? At the Olmoti school in Tanzania, ODFL has just completed installing a playground for 400 children. It includes swings, slides, teeter-totters, climbing structures and a regulation-sized soccer field.  

The children, and all of the village’s 4,000 residents, are from the Maasai tribe of migratory herders indigenous to East Africa. This is the first time any of them had settled in one place.
Holiday Beehives a HUGE Success
For the holiday season, ODFL offered supporters the opportunity to give a beehive in someone’s name. We installed 53 hives! They are installed at multiple farms and schools throughout Kenya. One farm includes a co-op where people who don't have land of their own can grow crops, so the bees will help to pollinate the crops for thousands of people! 

Local farmers are getting as much as 500% increase in crop yields when the bees are in place. And though the hives are primarily installed to increase crop pollination, each hive will also produce more than 25 lbs of harvestable honey each year. Thank you to those who bought hives! 
Starting the La Pitilla Classroom in Nicaragua  
In February, we will break ground on a new classroom at La Pitilla in Nicaragua. The village has more than 30 students, but only a lean-to shed for a classroom. It has a dirt floor and is open to the elements. That's it, there at the right.

In its place we will build a brick and mortar classroom which will meet all of the Nicaragua Ministry of Education's standards. The project is being funded by students at three high schools in Santa Cruz, CA, and three schools from southern California. Thank you students!   
Can One Person Make a Difference? 
The Case of Soccer Uniforms

Can one person make a difference in the world? They can! A high school student from Aragon High School in San Mateo, CA recently collected 500 used AYSO uniforms and supplies. They included shorts, jerseys, shin guards, cleats, balls, and referee uniforms.
We sent them to a soccer league in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa, with more than 1,000,000 residents. The league has many teams, most of which did not have uniforms or supplies. Now they do!
Summer Service Trip to Zambia
This summer, ODFL will conduct its 24 th summer service trip, to Zambia. High school students from the U.S. will help construct a new classroom at the Uyoba school near Mfuwe. The school has 1,086 students, but only six classrooms. That is one of them, to the left. It will be replaced with a brick and mortar classroom.  

Students pay their own way. On past summer trips, ODFL has completed projects in Kenya, South Africa, Nicaragua, and Nepal. The trip will be chaperoned by three credentialed teachers. To download a flyer about the trip, click here To find out more, write to cathyd@odfl.org, or go to the Trips tab on the ODFL website.
Final Word
 
It’s dawning on us: it is within our ability to materially improve the human condition. That is not hyperbole. The projects we are installing dramatically improve the capacity of a developing world village for self-development. That is the key. 

Imagine what it is like when your village gets its first classroom, or first medical clinic, or latrine, or vaccination, or water well, or… it sets off a cascading round of energies that echo to all other areas of village life. The effect is substantial, and enduring. 

The best part is that these projects are simple and inexpensive. They utilize local-level technologies, for example in the construction of classrooms or medical clinics or playgrounds. They are always built by local residents, who have a direct stake in their success. 

With millions of people here making small donations - whatever is comfortable for them - we can see the path to building thousands of these projects in the poorest countries of the world. That’s where we get this idea of “materially improving the human condition.” It is not fanciful. It’s working. Now, it’s just a matter of courage, and will to scale it up.

Please join us. Even the greatest waterfall starts with a single drop of water. YOU are one of those drops.    

ODFL 
One Dollar For Life