WAYS to HELP

Here are several things you can do to help the people of Shanto.  Anything is possible, let's Be the Change!

Sponsor a Child(ren)

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.  

Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime!!"

Too many Ethiopian children do not get to go to school. An education is a luxury that is simply out of reach. A lack of education creates a cycle of poverty that, to us, is not acceptable. Please join us in helping to change the life of a deserving child whose greatest dream is just to go to school.

For just $30 a month, you can provide food, clean clothes, shoes, school uniform, and quality education to change the life of an Ethiopian child. Through this cooperative educational sponsorship program, you can literally change the life of vulnerable Ethiopian child. They need you to help them realize their dream of getting an education.

These wonderful children are in desperate need of sponsors. Please email us today bethechangforever@hotmail.com to begin sponsoring one or more of these kiddos. 

Buy a Strider Bike

YOU BUY-We DONATE-You SAVE

Strider Sports International Inc has given us a huge gift. They donated a bike to our fundraiser and created a coupon code for us here's how it works:

1. Order your Strider at www.StriderSports.com

2. Enter coupon code: STRIDER2BTHECHANGE

3. Strider donates 15% of order to Be the Change

4. You save money with the FREE shipping benefit. (Free shipping applies to US lower 48 states only)

If you have never heard of Strider or seen one in use, check them out at www.StriderSports.com. Kids love them and they are great for their development. Order today and Save!!!!

Sew for Shanto

Sew pillowcase dresses for the little girls!  Even if you are a beginner, sewing these adorable dresses could be a project for you.  We can take hundreds of these dresses to Ethiopia and find girls who will adore them.  Please dust of your sewing machine, pull out your scraps of fabric or old pillowcases and make a dress or two or three or more or more or more.  It may be the only new dress your little girl has ever had and she will love it!  SOUTH DAKOTA DRESS GOAL=100

A google search yielded lots of "recipes" for these dresses. Here are a few sites that look pretty good to me:

• Site #1 (you can click to get a pdf instruction sheet).
• Site #2 (includes lengths for girls up to 8-9 years old)
• Site #3 (includes tips for cute embellishments and etc.)

Most of  these patterns are for girls size 2T to 8-9 years old. "Site #3" includes the following tip: You can adjust a pillowcase dress for older girls as well, by simply cutting a bigger armhole and adding fabric to the hem. The nice thing about sizing a pillowcase dress is that it doesn't have to be precise. So, if you are handy with these things, please consider making some longer dresses for girls who are 10'ish to 13'ish years old!

Here are photos of these darling dresses. They are so cute!

For those of you who are interested in making pillowcase dresses....will you consider picking up a t-shirt to go under the dress? Modesty is highly-valued in Ethiopia, and it could cause offense if we dress the girls in sleeve-less dresses. So, an inexpensive t-shirt--long or short-sleeved--with the dress will truly be a PERFECT gift for these little girls who have probably never owned new clothes, let alone a new dress!