ODFL October 2019 Newsletter
Tragedy in Kenya: ODFL's Response
Last month, a 14-year old school girl in Kenya committed suicide.  She had been “period shamed,” mocked for having menstrual blood on her school uniform. She went home and hung herself. 
Nobody, anywhere, ever, should be shamed for what is one of the most elemental processes in human biology. But, as many as 50,000,000 girls a year miss school because they have no way to deal with their period. This does not have to be. 

In response to the this tragedy, ODFL committed to distribute an extra 1,000 of its   Girls’ Equality Project (GEP) kits to girls in Kenya. Production has already begun at our Sewing Center in Nyeri, Kenya. Distribution will be completed by the end of the year.  
ODFL distributes GEP kits, in Kenya, Zambia, Ivory Coast, South Africa, and Nepal. We will soon expand to Tanzania, Morocco, and other countries. 

A kit only costs $5, and we provide it free of charge to the girls. It lasts three years, often long enough for the girls to be able to finish school.  

If you would like to help with even one kit, you can change a girl’s life. Maybe even save it.   Go here to donate . Thank you. 
Chunadevi Assembly and Play Area
Chunadevi school in Nagarkot, Nepal has 800 students, from grades 1 to 10. The area immediately behind the school was dirt when dry, and a muddy morass when wet. 

This past summer, 13 student travelers helped install a 1,850 square foot paved area to create an assembly and play area. ODFL paid for the pavers. The students and locals did the work. It makes all the difference in the world!
The school is now using the area for assemblies, sports, hanging out, and other activities. It has totally changed the atmosphere of the school, making it more relaxed and friendly. Thank you students volunteers! 
Ngungu Water
The Ngungu school in Kenya had no running water. The students spent hours every day carrying water from a nearby creek.  

With the help of student travelers from  Los Altos High School , in Los Altos,  Del Norte High School in San Diego, Aragon High School in San Mateo, and  Burlingame High School in Burlingame, CA, ODFL built a water catchment system at the school to capture rain water from the roof of a newly-built classroom.


The entire system, including gutters, tank, pipes, and more cost just over $1,000. It will save  more than 20,000 hours per year for the students. Thank you CA high school students for making this possible!
Latrines in Indonesia
The tiny hamlet of Ban, high in the mountains of East Bali, Indonesia, had E.coli in the water supply. With our Indonesian partner, East Bali Poverty Project, ODFL has now completed the final phase of a four-phase project to provide latrines to the residents, to get the E.coli out. A total of 92 latrines have been built.  
ODFL funded the materials, EBPP provided supervision, but the local residents did all of the work themselves. This helped keep the costs extraordinarily low.  

ODFL is building latrines in Zambia, Indonesia, Kenya, and other countries. They are one of the most essential infrastructure elements needed to promote local community health and economic vitality. Without them, people live in continuous disease.  
Upcoming Project
The Olmoti school in Tanzania has 402 students. But they have no place to play, except a dirt field.  

Together with our Tanzanian partner, Our One Community (OOC), ODFL has committed to building a playground for the students. It will include a graded soccer field, two sets of swings, monkey bars, and teeter-totters. We’ve already collected uniforms for the soccer players!
 
The project will cost $12,500 but OOC is paying for half. If your school or organization would like to help, contact Robert Freeman at robertf@odfl.org . Thank you!
Miscellaneous
  • Last year at this time, ODFL’s Facebook page had 874 Likes. Today, it has 144,000. Clearly, something is resonating with people.  

  • We brought up a new website in August. You can see it here. We will add a Blog to the site in November to discuss projects, economic development, fundraising successes and more. Please visit us!

  • ODFL just published a new piece documenting our work in Nicaragua, where we’ve built 14 classrooms. To see a copy, click here. 

  • To see a PDF of all of the projects ODFL has completed so far in 2019, click here. It is so inspiring, and beautiful!  
Final Word
 
There are two ideas behind ODFL. The first is that we are bigger when we help others. Anyone who has ever stooped to help a child knows this. We don’t do it for gain, but we feel better for  having done it, don’t we? Helping others makes us feel better about ourselves.  

The second idea is simply arithmetic: that small numbers add up to big numbers. That’s the implicit meaning in our motto: “Even the greatest waterfall starts with a single drop of water.” If we will all do the smallest bit—but all do it—the effect is enormous.  

From these two simple ideas we have built 124 small-scale infrastructure projects in the developing world. Classrooms. Medical clinics. Libraries. Water projects. Science labs, and more. Over their lives, these projects will help more than 300,000 of the poorest people in the world. And that’s the point. ODFL is a “change the world” idea,  that’s working .  

What’s the possibility? There are 150,000,000 workers in the U.S. What if just 2% of them gave one dollar? That’s 3,000,000 people. With that, we could build 400 projects a year. That’s more than 1 project every day of the year. 

Would the world be a better place if we were building a new classroom, or a new medical clinic, or a new library, or a new science lab,  every day , somewhere in the world?  To join us, visit odfl.org .

Yours in a Better World,

ODFL
One Dollar For Life