There is nothing more thrilling than tapping into your creative spirit to make the impossible possible. That is exactly what Kelvin Fomba, Uniting Distant Stars Co-Founder & Country Director, did for our catering course! When we needed an oven for our students to bake, but could not afford one,Kelvin used his available resources and innovation tobuild one! Below is a photo of the finished product: a charcoal-heated oven built from a repurposed upright freezer.
Here is Kelvin showing how this oven works.
Kelvin insulated the inner walls and door before covering it with a metal plate, then welded the bars for the different levels of racks. The bottom is open and a charcoal pot is on the ground underneath, with a water pan placed over the charcoal to regulate the heat. This is located in well-ventilated room so no concerns for carbon monoxide.
OnWednesday, February 8th, this oven was put to work! Our co-teachers, Mrs. Annie Cooper & Mrs. Sandi Akasi, had our students mixing batter for cornbread, shortbread & pancakes. The two breads were baked in the oven, while the pancakes were cooked in a fry pan. The results were delicious! The sweet aroma coming from the oven distracted our students from the other courses, so everyone took a break to sample these tasty treats.
Our catering students adding & mixing the ingredients.
This is young woman is receiving positive feedback.
She is putting the shortbread in the pan for baking.
The cornbread is in the muffin tins on the top shelf & the shortbread underneath.
Looking rather tasty. The shortbread is a nice golden brown.
UDS Catering Instructors (left to right), Annie & Sandi are displaying the sweet success of shortbread.
This young woman is flipping pan cake over.
The results of their work is tasty treats for everyone.
Left to right, Kelvin, Godfrey & Patrick enjoyed every bite of these delicious goodies from our students.
It was an exciting day for everyone because they got to witness how this inventive oven worked. The students were able to see how one of their leaders solved a “need” by working hard and using his creativity; Kelvin is an example and a leader to everyone at UDS, internationally!
Because of Kelvin’s efforts, students will be able to gain the practical experience needed for a catering career. During the next nine months they will be learning how to bake and cook different types of foods for weddings, graduations and other special events.
There is plenty more to come regarding all our courses, and we are extremely grateful for those of you who have donated in the last couple weeks. All of these funds will be used toward providing thepractical tools for our students in our courses-which will include more innovations from our team!
You are stars, and your compassion and generosity empowers Liberian youth to shine brighter.
Thank you wholeheartedly for being a valued member of the Uniting Distant Stars Community!
Your endless kindness and generosity are appreciated, celebrated and rejoiced by children and youth you support in Liberia. You have given Liberian children and youth hope, joy and love. You have overflowed their cups with opportunities to discover and learn new knowledge and skills.
Thank you for supporting scholarship students!
Thank you for providing young students after school study classes!
Thank you for putting books on our library shelves to help young students learn!
Thank you for giving young students the opportunity to achieve their educational goals!
The Uniting Distant Stars Volunteers and Youth in Liberia and Uniting States of America express our wholehearted Gratitude and Thanks for your benevolence!
The end of 2016 is a few weeks away, and your faithful support this year has benefited the lives of hundreds of children and youth participating in Uniting Distant Stars (UDS) programs. Your generosity is so appreciated by these young people. One of our auto mechanic students, George Cooper, recently shared how he considers you a member of the UDS family. (Read more about George in our 2014 Annual Report).
This post is dedicated to identifying the many ways you can Give, Heal, Shop, and Make a Difference for children and youth as part of end-of-year giving plan.
Give to our Tools for Success: Books, Computers & Sewing Machines campaign. There is still an opportunity to double your impact by donating and unlocking our matching gift. Your donation is tax-deductible and provides the resources students need the most to achieve their educational and vocational training goals.
Your fabulous gift will add more books to our library (left), additional computers for our lab (center) & sewing machines for our training program (right).
Heal and reduce holiday stress at True Sanctuary‘s Candlelight Healing Sessions & Sound Bath for Charity on December 3, from 6 to 8PM atHealing Elements (2290 ComoAve, St Paul, MN 55108). All proceeds from this charitable event will be sharedby three youth-focused organizations: YouthLink, Patacala & Uniting Distant Stars. Please visit the Candlelight Healing Sessions & Sound Bath for Charity Event Facebook Page to review the list of healing services and register for your 30-minute session today.
Shop at AmazonSmile for all your Christmas, Chanukah (Hanukkah), and Holiday Celebration necessities. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Uniting Distant Stars Inc.
Shop at our Ten Thousand Villages Eventin St. Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday, December 8, 2016, from 5PM to 8PM. Please visit us at 520 Selby Ave, St. Paul, MN 55102 to shop and enjoy some tasty treats.
Make a Difference in a young person’s life this holiday season; your gift can be an everlasting treasure to them.
Thank you for the generosity of your heart; the children and youth of Uniting Distant Stars appreciate you beyond measure!
As a valued Star Supporter, your continued generosity inspires our team in Liberia to move forward with our vision and fulfill the dreams of Uniting Distant Stars children and youth. You are Uniting with Distant Stars in Denmark, Liberia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. You are part of this growing stellar community that is educating and equipping young Liberians with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed in life. You have united with other stars to form a Constellation of Possibilities for young Liberians.
You probably have not realized this, but you are a Super Star for our children and youth in Liberia. Whether you support our learning center, school supply drive, youth exchanges or sponsor a scholarship student, you are changing the lives of young Liberians for the better. Our youth are extremely grateful for your efforts!
While our focus for the last few months was on school supplies, our team in Liberia have been busy with renovations of the new learning center. As mentioned earlier, your efforts inspires our all-volunteer team in Liberia. They wrote letters to individuals and organizations in Liberia to raise funds. They received $600 that helped complete replacing the roof. UDS co-founder and country director Kelvin Fomba has been making contributions to finish the ceiling repairs, start painting in the interior, and making furniture for students. Our volunteers have helped with the cleaning and carpentry work. The following photos show the progress from the last month:
You give UDS strength! Our volunteer completing final touches of the roof.
You give UDS resourcefulness! Kelvin (at left) resting after making tables for young children attending our study classes.
You give UDS dedication! This room is being prepared for the library.
You give UDS focus! Young volunteers replacing the ceiling tile in the main area of the learning center.
You give UDS motivation! Kelvin is white washing the ceiling of the main area for the study & computer classes.
You give UDS determination! Kelvin in the back white washing the ceiling while another volunteer rests.
You give UDS hope! Young volunteers fixing the doors.
You give UDS encouragement! Kelvin painting the walls of the main area gold.
You give children & youth in Liberia a brighter future!
You have helped build our community one star at a time. As you will see in the coming weeks, the UDS new learning center will open on October 29th. We will start with our computer & study classes, and library as we continue to complete the rest of the renovations, purchase needed equipment and supplies, and seek funders to employ Liberians as teachers, trainers and support staff for this center.
Thank you for your compassionate service to children and youth in Liberia!
Read additional posts on how we acquired this new center and how invested our youth are in this venture of learning.
5 days and counting until our stellar students leap into a new school year! And it is purely because of your generosity that 233 children and youth will start this year off with the materials they need.
At this point, you have raised $2,325 for our youth, putting us at 33% of our $7,000 goal! But with 5 days to go, we’re still hoping to reach that final $4670!
Here’s a video recap of this campaign thus far; see where your generosity has been directed and what you’ve made possible for our youth this year:
✩ Dimes for Dreams Cans: If you aren’t already, please keep filling up those cans! We will be collecting the cans closer to the end of this campaign. (Don’t know what “Dimes for Dreams” is? See the bottom of this email!)
✩ Facebook, Email, Text, Sing it from the Mountain-tops!: Please “share” about this campaign on your social media (here’s our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/unitingdistantstars), post our flyers (attached below) wherever you have access to, and use the gift of word of mouth!
✩ Make a Donation!: All donations are 100% tax-deductible! Please donate via PayPal (go to our website and click “donate” button) or send a Check payable to “Uniting Distant Stars” at:
2016 has been a phenomenal year for Uniting Distant Stars. Our learning center has become the “hub” for children and youth seeking educational assistance and vocational training. Since introducing the computer lab in March, word got out, and youth are coming to our site from several different areas throughout Monrovia to receive this training. Without a doubt, we have outgrown our current site with serving over 100 students.
Youth attending introduction computer class in UDS Library.
A few months ago, our co-founder and country director, Kelvin Fomba, found a building less than a five-minute walk from our current location. The property had not been occupied for two years, the building was deteriorating, and its grounds had become the community trash dump. After several weeks of negotiations, the landlord agreed to a 5-year lease for $7,500 and required half down to secure it. After sharing this opportunity with one of our long-time donors in Minnesota, they generously donated $3,750 on May 22. Two weeks later we received the lease agreement and keys to the building. The remaining half of the lease must be paid after the renovations are complete.
This is our next challenge.
The building had stood empty for two years. Along with a leaking roof, parts of the interior were heavily damaged by water. The rainy season started about April/May and the roof became the number one priority. The question was how?
However, we have been blessed to receive a $1,000 donation from a sustaining supporter in Liberia. This generous gift covered the cost to replace half the roof. Our team worked overtime on Friday, July 8, and Saturday, July 9, installing new sheets of zinc metal on half the roof. Another $1,000 will complete this job to prevent any further damage from the heavy rains, and we are hoping to reach this fundraising goal soon.
Roof before the replacement.
Kelvin Fomba on the roof during its replacement.
The brand new, shiny roof.
Our youth played another important role in the development of our new site. About 50 kids came out on Saturday, July 9 and worked 8 hours removing the trash from all sides of the building. These boys and girls completed 75% of the trash removal during this one day. Our youth want this center to open as soon as possible that they pray each day for this to happen. They wanted to show you, as our supporter, what this means to them by investing some sweat equity with cleaning the place.
Our youth outside the fence cleaning up the garbage.
Our girls worked just as hard as the boys shoveling up trash.
Youth cleaning trash between the fence and building.
Empty rice bags were used to place the garbage as it was scoped up by shovel.
Girls and boy working together to clean their future learning center.
Two young ladies hauling a bag of garbage.
As you can see from this last photo, this building was a school and perfect place for our new learning center. Our goal is open this year and we need $25,000 to cover the remaining costs as follows:
Complete all renovations for the roof, three bathrooms, ceiling tile and doors, and painting the interior and exterior that includes materials and labor.
Buy equipment such as desks, chairs, benches, storage cabinet, and additional computers, sewing machines and library books. Also basic office supplies.
Install the electricity and interest, and pay for the first-year of service.
Pay stipends for computer and sewing trainers, study class teachers, security guards, receptionist/secretary, and janitor. These stipends for 11 people are below market value, but a starting point to employ Liberians.
We are reaching out to individuals and organizations interested in partnering or sponsoring this initiative. If you know anyone that could help, please send an email to [email protected]. We are available to meet in person, or through Skype or Google Hangout.
Your generous support allowed Uniting Distant Stars to reach new heights in providing educational resources and vocational training to Liberia’s children and youth. Thank you for being our Rock Star!!!
