The Robin Hood Film is having a friendly competition to encourage philanthropy and put the spotlight on people doing good around the world.  Our very own Katy Harrison has entered the competition to become a Robin Hood Lionheart!

Check out Katy's Entry on the Robin Hood Lionheart website.  If she wins, she'll receive $10,000 for BeeHive School!  Copied below is the text from Katy's application:

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world and its schools are suffering. This elementary school in agricultural Mzuzu is a model school with a strong academic core. Through education, BeeHive Elementary School is nurturing future Malawian leaders and innovators.




HOW KATY HARRISON PARTICIPATES


After graduating college in 2006, I visited Malawi to teach science to children. One school - BeeHive School -stood out as a ?diamond in the rough?. I observed children reading library books, creating art, playing sports, and doing "show-and-tell." These seemingly commonplace activities are unique in Malawi. I was humbled and awed by how the passion and ingenuity of the teachers created such a positive and high-quality educational experience, despite a lack of material resources.Unfortunately, BeeHive's plywood classrooms are unsafe and do not meet basic building codes. Construction of permanent brick buildings is underway, but more funding is needed.


Despite a demanding career, I have determinedly used my free time to raise awareness, fundraise, build a community of volunteers, and create original content, including a website, video and newsletters for the school. I have created partnerships with ASAP Africa, GlobalGiving and National Geographic and leveraged social networking tools to bring BeeHive to life. Through the generosity of family, friends, and strangers, I have raised over $5000 in small donations. I continue to be impressed by everyone who has supported BeeHive, including my local rotary club, Facebook Fans, a special-ed class, and MIT students built a computer lab.


Building one little school might seem like a small thing, but it is amazing to think how many students it will touch and how many memories and friendships are being created along the way.

Many thanks to Wendy Harrison and her class at Brook Knoll Elementary in Scotts Valley, CA. BeeHive finally received books sent in December. The school LOVES getting them, it's so nice to have new and different books to keep the library fresh.

Sgoil a’ Bhac has had a connection with the Beehive School in Malawi for a few years. 

The Beehive School provides good Primary education for almost 200 pupils in the town of Mzuzu. It was established by Niall Dorey, a Scottish teacher, who now heads a team of mainly African staff. The school has been operating in temporary accommodation until the present time but now needs to build permanent classrooms in order to remain open.

Sgoil a’ Bhac had a fundraising day in order to make a contribution to building work. Friday 19th March was a ‘Back to the Beehive’ day, when pupils and staff came to school dressed as bees or in black and yellow/orange clothes. There was also an evening social for pupils from P6 – S2.

Back Primary School, a very small village school on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides recently raised £500 for BeeHive School. It just goes to show how many small hands working together can accomplish something amazing. Hats off to the incredible efforts of these generous students with such big hearts!  And a special thanks to the driver behind this effort Peigi Mairi Nicholson, a family friend of the Dorey family, who has taken a great interest in BeeHive School and is applying her fundraising expertise to help out. Thank you Peigi and the community of Back Primary School! You are our heroes!

We also want to give a very special "Thank You" to the Rotary Club is Bothwell and the Uddingston Rotary Club (South Lanarkshire, Scotland) and the current president Ian McKellar, as well as the event's organizer Alan Adams, for raising £1000, which is an incredible amount for which BeeHive is very, very fortunate and grateful to receive. 

How you can help BeeHive:
*Note* We will be updating this page regularly, so check back for new ideas!


Any way you can help out big or small makes a difference.

Easy Ways to Help - spend a few minutes helping BeeHive School

- Donate Today!

- Ask your friends to donate today - even $5 or $10 goes a very long way in Malawi. In Malawi where 140 Kwacha = $1 USD, a brick costs 2-4 Kwacha. So for a couple of pennies, you can help buy a brick for BeeHive School. So just $5 buys 350 bricks! (5*140/2) See - that really makes a big difference!

- Forward the BeeHive Video to a friend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY4ilS1Gx1c

- Become a Fan on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/BeeHiveSchool

- Ask your friends to become BeeHive's fan on Facebook by posting to your profile or forwarding this link
http://www.facebook.com/BeeHiveSchool

- Forward the newsletters and BeeHive School website to a friend:
http://www.beehiveschool.com/news/archivednewsletters/newsletter2.php
www.beehiveschool.com

- Send Niall Dorey, the founder/director of BeeHive School some encouraging words - the recent crises at the school has him very disheartened:
"Niall Dorey"

Spend a couple of hours helping BeeHive School

- Present the BeeHive School story at your local rotary club, church, school, sports team, etc. You can use the BeeHive video and e-mail us at info@beehiveschool.com for a powerpoint presentation.

- Become more informed. Spend some time reading through the website, newsletters, blog, facebook page, etc, to become more informed about the BeeHive School.

- Spend a little time spreading the BeeHive School story through word of mouth. Next time you meet someone interested in helping schools in Africa - let them know about this exciting opportunity

- Find ways to publicize BeeHive School's story. If you have a blog - write an article, ask your friends with blogs to do a post, etc.

- Hunt for good/applicable grants for BeeHive School to apply to.

- Ask your student paper, the local paper, or other media outlet to do a story on BeeHive School to raise awareness.

- Help recruit more volunteers to help out.

Spend a couple of days helping BeeHive School

- Host your own Fundraiser at your home, school, church, club, or community center. See the detailed list below for fundraising ideas. And, of course, feel free to brainstorm your own!

- Get a major news outlet to run a story about BeeHive School.

Visit Africa - Spend Several Weeks or months Helping BeeHive School

- BeeHive School does not have the funds to send volunteers, but if you are very enthusiastic about visiting and have the funds available to you to fly over then we can help you find a meaningful way to contribute to BeeHive School. Please e-mail us at info@beehiveschool.com for more information.

Ideas for Fundraisers

- Collection Boxes Around Your Office: Set up a couple of shoe boxes or receptacles around your office and send out an e-mail through your work's social mailing list with a link to the BeeHive website, the BeeHive School Video, and the BeeHive newsletter, and ask each person to just donate $5. You might even think of going a little further and seeing if your CEO or company will match each dollar raised.

- Have a bake sale. Include coffee and hot cocoa if you are hosting one on a chilly morning.

- Have a "Make your own Pizza" party fundraiser. This one is a really great one - get some pre-made pizza dough from Trader Joe's and buy a wide variety of toppings. Then invite all your friends and you'll set them up for a great mixing experience. We noticed that people had a lot of fun creating pizzas together and sharing their creations. It was a great way to encourage people to interact and everyone had a great time. Then to raise funds, ask everyone to bring a donation - you can recommend, for example that each person donate $10 if they are a student and $25 if they are employed. If you're over 21 then make sure to pick up some beer or wine. It's best to have access to a somewhat bigger kitchen and preferably a gas stove for this one. This is a great way to have a killer party and do something good while you're at it. When we did this, we placed the donation box in the bedroom, so that people didn't feel scrutinized while they were donating. We also set up a computer playing the BeeHive School Video and had the website open on another computer for people to learn more. There was also a printed newsletter to look through.

- Host a Dance Party fundraiser at your school, church, house, etc. Have a $10-20 cover to go towards covering the expenses and raising funds for BeeHive. Show the movie at some point during the dance on a digital projector.

- Collect items for a Raffle and then have an auction for BeeHive School. Crazy wacky stuff works great!

- Host an auction at your school, church, community center, club, etc. Ask local organizations to donate items for the auction.

- At a block party or other public venue, get a hold of a digital projector and play the BeeHive School video continuously on the side of a wall. Be prepared to talk about BeeHive School and ask people to support the cause.

- Partner up with a student group (maybe an african group on campus?) or sorority or fraternity that would like to do some charity work. Sororities and fraternities have very good charity drives and since sororities especially are required to do a certain number of community service hours every year they are always looking for good causes to support.

- A Spring cleaning garage sale/yard sale. Ask your friends to do their spring cleaning and bring you anything that they don't need/use anymore. Then have a yard sale and have all the profits go to BeeHive School.

- If you have an artistic group of friends, print out a poster of BeeHive and some fliers and "sing on a street corner for charity" or do something fun and quirky.

- Put collection boxes around the school for people to put loose change in "Spare Change for BeeHive" Put them out for at least a month. Spare change can add up really quick and makes a big difference!

- Have a car wash fundraiser.

- Ask a restaurant or bar to help you host a fundraiser. If you have a group or club willing to flier and hand out information about the restaurant, then often times a restaurant or bar will co-host a fundraiser for a day, week, or month during which time all profits or some percentage of profits go to your cause.

- "A's for Africa" ask parents to sign up for a program where for each "A" that their child gets the parent will pledge to donate $X to BeeHive School and for every "B" $Y for BeeHive School. This can be a strong motivator for children to pursue academic excellence and schools that have implemented these programs have found that children have a surprisingly acute sense of fairness and empathy for their fellow students in other countries.

- Host a fashion show or talent show and charge a cover to raise funds for BeeHive School. You can also ask local companies to donate items to go to the winners of the talent show or to be raffled off during the fashion show.


Thank you!  And don't forget to check out the BeeHive School website for more information and updates!

BeeHive School has just produced its first video.  A big thank you to legendary musical artists Oliver Mtukudzi and the Concord Music Group for providing us with the song "Pindurai Mambo" gratis.  This video would not have been possible without their generosity.  You can read more about Oliver Mtukudzi in our earlier blog post.