Sharing our Success with Others
While we are dedicated to providing exceptional service and quality products, we realize that there is more to life than Telecom. That’s why Sity Communications donates a portion of our profits to programs both at home and abroad that assist those in need. Some of the projects we have supported are highlighted below. When applicable, we’ve included links with information and details for how to donate, in case any of these stories inspire you to give.
Cary Sink with one of the young children that benefit from the ACT program. Sity has dontated funds making it possible for Ms. Sink to continue this work.
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| Supporting Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia
In partnering with a ministry called ACT (AIDS Care and Treatment), American educator Cary Sink is working to address the social, emotional, educational and spiritual needs families are affected by HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. The families that are served in the project are the most desperate of the poor, spread throughout five specific neighborhoods in the city. Most of the 740 children involved in the project are in single parent homes and all live either at-risk for abuse, homelessness, and disease or are currently in crisis.
Sity Communications has been able to partner with Cary in providing for her work with these children. Her role involves a range of ministry facets, including coordinating orphan care, overseeing tutoring programs, trauma and crisis management, and facilitating support groups. Working within her context requires frequent adaptations and flexibility to meet the changing needs of the children, so the programs that are implemented vary as the situational needs are adjusted. Some of the children served have exaggerated circumstances as a result of health complications, family issues or individual abuse situations so Cary works alongside community health workers and the other staff of ACT to care and monitor individual cases.
Due to the Non-profit nature of ACT, all funding that is raised goes directly into the care of its beneficiaries so expatriate staff all work in unpaid positions. Sity Communications has been instrumental in enabling Cary to fulfill her role in addressing the needs of these children.
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Each stove saves a family about $40 in wood costs per year.
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(type ProWorld in the Keyword area to donate to ProPeru Fund) |
| Saving Lives and Forests in Rural Peru
Millions of people around the world suffer health conditions as a result of indoor air pollution from the stoves they use to cook their food. Respiratory disease caused by indoor air pollution is said to kill as many people as malaria each year. The ProPeru Service Corps is a non-profit organization that has developed a low cost, sustainable, and safe stove design that targets this serious problem affecting Peru's rural population.
To date approximately 3,500 ProPeru stoves have been installed with great success and immediate benefits. Testing has shown a 12% increase in lung capacity only three months after installation. In fact, the ProPeru stove has been identified, tested and approved by the Pan American Organization for Health for its effectiveness in removing the danger from smoke inhalation in homes.
In addition to its health benefits, the stove saves each family an estimated $40 USD in reduced wood costs per year (a fortune to families living in extreme poverty). These stoves have a significant environmental impact as well. As a result of the stoves' efficiency, wood burning is cut by an average of 50% and CO2 emissions are reduced an estimated one ton per year, per stove.
Two Sity employees recently traveled to Peru to observe firsthand the incredible impact of this program in poor communities, and we have made an ongoing financial pledge to support the efforts of this amazing organization.
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A National Board Certified Teacher, Betsy Foreman was also Wal-Mart's New Hanover County Teacher of the Year from 2004-2005 and received a $10,000 grant for her school. |
| Giving Special Children Tools to Excel in North Carolina
Most of the children in Betsy Foreman's 5th grade class are generally considered "average" kids. But this year, Ms. Foreman is guiding 2 new students that face unique obstacles, and Sity is helping her and other teachers meet the challenge. The county where Betsy teaches has integrated several Autistic children into mainstreamed classrooms, and Betsy and her colleagues have learned new skills to ensure their special students achieve success and growth in the classroom.
Never one to shrink from a challenge, this award-winning teacher spearheaded a drive to obtain specialized supplies to help these children excel in the classroom. After working with administrators, occupational therapists and Autism experts, Betsy and her colleagues identified a list of materials that would greatly benefit these kids. Knowing that the school would not be able to afford these crucial supplies, she approached Sity Communications, where she works during her Summer breaks.
We were happy to donate the necessary materials and this year, the kids and teachers at Betsy's school will have access to therapeutic tools that aid these students with their unique needs, including equipment to help them work through increased stress and anxiety, and tools that deal with their heightened sensitivity to sensory stimulation. We applaud the noble and challenging work that Betsy Foreman and her fellow teachers are doing, and we are proud to support their efforts.
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The beautiful smile of a young student at the Bingham Academy. The children outside the Academy's gate are not as fortunate, but Ms. Sink's after-school program affords them a unique opportunity to learn. |
| Providing School Supplies to Children in Ethiopia
When Sity employee Miriam Surafel learned that Cary Sink, an educator from North Carolina, was moving to Ethiopia to teach, she asked Ms. Sink if there was anything her students needed. A native of Ethiopia herself, Surafel knew the desperate poverty some children faced in her home country, and wanted to help.
Ms. Sink, who teaches at Bingham Academy in the capital city of Addis, graciously accepted the offer, but felt the donation would be most needed by the street children who participate in an after-school club with her. Many of these children work in the market outside the sheltered Academy, and cannot afford simple items like pens and pencils. "There is one little boy" she wrote, "that shines shoes outside our gate to make enough money to provide for his brothers and sisters because his parents are both deceased." In response to her request, Sity donated over 100 sets of school supplies to the children in Ms. Sink's after-school program.
Getting the supplies to the children of Addis in a timely manner was another challenge. Surafel solicited the help of her brother-in-law, Captain Minlik Tadesse Abebe, a veteran pilot for Ethiopian Airlines. Sity over-nighted a package to Captain Minlik so that it would arrive during his brief stop-over in Washington, DC. He carried the package on his return flight to Addis, then delivered it to Miriam's sister, who finally gave the parcel to Ms. Sink. Now the much needed writing supplies are being distributed to some of Addis' most needy students. |
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