Women and Gender Studies Earth Day Celebration
April 27, 2010, 8:00 PM to April 28, 2010, 1:00 PM EDT
North Plaza
Why are there goats at Mason on Earth Day?
HISTORY OF THE PROJECT:
Beginning in October 2008, the Women & Gender Studies Program partnered with the Women’s Center for Job Creation (WCFJC), an NGO based in Minnesota and Uganda, to empower low-income Women in Uganda. We started collecting donations for the Bulondo Goat Project, a project that provides goats for individual women in Uganda so that they can have sustenance for their families as well as develop small businesses. Women participants in the project are purchasing houses and sending their children to school with the revenue from their goats. While the women utilize the goat milk for themselves, their families, and their businesses, they must give a baby goat back to the organization within eighteen months as a way to keep the project vital and expanding. Women and Gender Studies has purchased 48 goats thus far.
WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY?
The goats at Mason’s Earth Day Celebration are a vehicle to make the global local. The David Keller and Melanie Thatcher family from Nokesville are here to present their goats as a way to raise awareness about goats and sustainable income for families here in Virginia. Having the goats also provides an opportunity to educate Mason faculty, staff and students and the Fairfax community about violence and its’ aftermath in Uganda and other African countries, and our fundraising project.
HERE ARE THREE WAYS THAT YOU CAN PARTICIPATE:
•Contribute whatever you can to the Goat Project by putting cash or a check into the collection jar – please make your check out to WCFJC. Sponsor a goat for $50 and you can name the goat if you want!
•Send a check or cash to George Mason, Women & Gender Studies, 4400 University Drive, MS 5B6, Fairfax, VA 22030 - please make your check out to WCFJC
•Give a goat sponsorship as a gift – Sponsor a goat for $50 and we will send a personalized goat gift certificate to the honored recipient.
