An Ohio State group has partnered with rural Ugandan villages to help raise money to fight the growth of the orphan population.
Empower, a nonprofit group that supports education for orphans in Uganda, was started after founder Andria Sherrow met an orphaned boy, Muhebwa Richard, in the streets of a Ugandan village while doing work for her Ohio University master’s degree. He told Sherrow he had no parents and asked her for help.
After talking with caregivers and single mothers in the village, Sherrow learned that many of the local children were in the same situation as Richard, with no means to attend school.
The women of the village asked Sherrow to help them come up with a plan to educate the children and help develop the local economy.
From there, Empower was born. The women and Sherrow decided that Empower would buy jewelry made by the village women, giving them a source of income and helping to stabilize their economy. Sherrow would then bring the goods back to the U.S. to sell, and send the money from the jewelry sales back to Uganda to help children attend school.
The jewelry pieces sold are all one-of-a-kind, handcrafted and made from recycled paper and other local materials. The women make bracelets, necklaces, rings, purses, headbands and baskets. The prices of the goods range from $5 to $45 and are sold during Empower fundraisers and on their Web site.
Empower originally worked with Ugandan villages surrounding the Kibale National Park, Kabarole District, but has recently expanded to help villages in the Kamwenge and Kampala districts.
According to the Empower Web site, the group focuses on education because schools provide a safe and structured learning environment for children. They also educate the students about AIDS, which is responsible for many of their parents’ deaths.
Sherrow started the Empower Campaign at Ohio University in 2004 after she returned from Uganda. From there, other chapters formed at the University of Dayton, Miami University and OSU. They are currently campaigning to get other schools to join the movement and start their own chapters.
Kristen Ryan, OSU’s Empower president, started OSU’s campus chapter. As a student at OU, she took a course taught by Sherrow’s husband, Hogan, for biological anthropology. He shared what Sherrow had done in Uganda, and Ryan, who liked the general idea of Empower, wanted to get involved.
Empower “helps in the long term,” Ryan said. “Short term, you could just give them a lot of money, but that doesn’t help in the long run. [Empower] helps them help themselves.”
However, Ryan was planning to transfer to OSU and knew she would not be able to become involved in OU’s chapter. She asked if there was anything else she could do to help, and the Sherrows encouraged her to start a chapter at OSU. When Ryan transferred Autumn Quarter of 2008, she started a chapter at OSU.
At the beginning, the OSU chapter only had about 15 students, but the group still managed to get a lot accomplished. In addition to holding weekly jewelry sales at the RPAC, they had three benefit concerts (one each quarter) and collaborated with other groups and organizations for fundraising events, such as selling jewelry at last year’s ComFest.
The OSU chapter plans to hold a benefit concert later this quarter, and would like to hold a 5K run this spring and model it after the Run to Empower 5K held at OU last weekend. The local chapter is working with Family Weekend to sell jewelry in a Parents Day sale from 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on The Oval.
The group holds jewelry sales from noon to 4 p.m. every Tuesday in the window next to the Welcome Center at the RPAC.
“You’re actually making a difference in people’s lives halfway around the world,” Ryan said. “It’s $50 to send a kid to school and you can make $50 by selling two necklaces.”
The group meets at 7:30 p.m. every other Monday in Scott Lab, Room N0050. Their next meeting is Oct. 26.
For more information on Empower and the OSU chapter, visit empowercampaign.org.
