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.

Dear BeeHive Fans,

Please take a few moments and read over Niall's most recent update about the court case, which will determine BeeHive School's and Niall Family's future.

BeeHive is in big trouble and needs help - BeeHive needs new school buildings as soon as possible, but funds are running low and the rains are making construction progress slow.

Plus, the additional court fees are putting a lot of financial pressure on Niall personally, since he is paying for all of them out-of-pocket. Most of his life savings and a heavy loan from his parents have gone towards the new school buildings. Niall needs help to save BeeHive School.

Please consider helping - there are many ways to help:
1) Volunteer
2) Donate
3) Raise awareness by forwarding the website, fan page, newsletters, etc. to friends
4) Send Niall a message of encouragement, so that he can remain thinking positive and has the energy to continue being a great leader. Even leaders need some encouragement now and again.


Had a bad day.

Went to court yesterday and I found no one, so thought we were ok for a bit. Then I went to school today to continue with planning and teacher training (we have three new teachers), and found one teacher had decided not to join us, after being in the training program for two weeks. he was going to be the std 4 teacher (Ali's class), starting on Monday. So that has kind of thrown me.

Then we knocked off from school about 2pm and I went to photocopy and buy some stationery and stuff. Got a call from Constance, saying I had to go back to school as the Judge and all the lawyers were there. Rushed up there, and found loads of important looking bods in suits, the Judge, the lawyers from the Attorney Generals office (them) our lawyer (us) and a load of Ministry of Ed officials, the head of the inspection team who had closed us that time. They had been in court in the morning since 11 am (no one had told us), then wanted to come and see the school. I hastily and not very well showed them round, they had a look in one class, then went back to the court. I got there and found them in conference, and i heard our lawyer put the case and heard their replies. The judge said that he would return to Mzuzu on Thursday 1st April at 10am to decide. I don't know. People keep telling me to think positive, but i just have a bad feeling. The Ministry officials are right, the structures are not good - it doesn't matter that in government schools 150 kids are crammed in a class with no desks, or some classes learn under trees - the Ministry has given us the minimum laws and we have to follow them or be closed. And we will have to pay the costs if we lose, which is a frightening thought, and one which i hadn't really considered how we would do. Maybe I'll end up in prison!

I don't know why I'm feeling like a criminal, when all I want to do is make a good school where my kids and any kids can fulfill their potential.

Don't know what I'll do with Ali and Tiru if they do close it. I CAN'T put them in any other school here in Mzuzu.

Oh well (desperately trying to think positive), at least we can open for the second term on Monday.

Niall

Thank you for taking the time to read this and be a witness to this unfolding story.

Sincerely,
Eva and The BeeHive School Team