How to Start Your Own AfricAid Club
AfricAid was started by Ashley Shuyler after realizing how fortunate students are to receive quality educations in the United States. While our primary efforts are focused on providing educational opportunities to young girls in Africa, we believe it is also important for American youth to realize and appreciate the opportunities they have, and to use their knowledge and good fortune to help others. Indeed, we believe that we in the US have a responsibility to help build more of a culture of service learning and service activities among the youth of America. We have learned first hand, through our interactions with the students we help, how enriching it is to learn more about each other, our societies, and our cultures, and what a great sense of satisfaction there is in helping to make a difference in someone else’s life. Therefore, we encourage students in the United States to become involved, whether it’s in the work of AfricAid or in the countless other worthy causes there are throughout the world. Through getting involved and helping to educate our peers and their families, we all end up educating ourselves and helping to create positive change in our world.
But, AfricAid’s teams and clubs are not restricted to youth, and we also strongly encourage adults to form a group with their friends or coworkers to support our cause, as clubs can play an important role in helping us with fundraising and education.
How to Start Your Own Club
Clubs are one of AfricAid’s most effective fundraising partners, and anyone can start their own, either with fellow students, friends, or coworkers.
At School: You will first need to speak to your teachers or administration in order to get approval to start a club. Once you’ve received approval, the next step is to get as many students and teachers involved as you can. There are a lot of ways to do this: by handing out flyers, putting up posters, speaking at an assembly, or asking your teachers to help promote your club.
At a place of worship: Another great way to start a club is through your church or place of worship. Many churches already have outreach programs that work outside the church itself, but if there isn’t one, you could ask to start one. Lots of people may know about the many problems and issues facing Africa, and want to help, but don’t know how. Talk to your pastor, rabbi or any other leader to get started.
At Work: Speak to your coworkers about the work of AfricAid and about forming a group to support our cause. Many companies will even match, or partially match, the money you’re able to raise for AfricAid.
After you have recruited club members, the next step is to meet together and decide how you would like to support AfricAid. Do you want to raise money, collect school supplies or embark on a public awareness campaign? If you choose to raise funds, decide on what kind of fundraisers you’d prefer to do, or what particular skills or contacts the members of your group might have that would facilitate your fundraising efforts. For more information and ideas on fundraising, please read our Fundraising Tips and Ideas.
If you’d like to focus on collecting school supplies, there are lots of ways to do so, including supply drives at your school or setting up collection tables outside local businesses. Since there are a number of items that are generally too heavy or bulky for AfricAid to ship to Africa, like paper and notebooks, or are unusable, such as US textbooks, we ask that you check our Donate School Supplies page for a list of preferred school supply items before beginning your collections.
If you’re interested in making presentations on behalf of AfricAid, in order to raise awareness of the needs in Africa and the work that we do, please contact us, and we can supply you with some of our materials, such as brochures and DVDs.
Finally, get to work! When other people see that you are doing something to help make a difference, and doing it with joy and enthusiasm, they will also want to get involved and join forces with AfricAid!
