OTHER PROJECTS
Over the years we have supported other organizations dedicated to helping children and families including
CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA.
Jenna spent a semester in Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch South Africa. Part of that program included working two days in the community. For Jenna it provided her with the opportunity to work with a community service organization (CSO) working with mothers of babies and children with AIDS in Cape Town SA. We were able to provide sufficient funding to the CSO to help build a working toy room to show parents how to safely play with their children who are affected by HIV/AIDS. We continue to support the Cotlands mobile toy rooms which provides a high impact cost effective program that gives families, their children, and early learning facilitators access to carefully selected educational play materials and training that sets the foundation for education and to encourage development
BLACKEFFET INDIAN RESERVATION BROWNING MONTANA
This year we were part of a mission trip to Blackfeet Reservation in Browning Montana. We assisted in several projects in and around the De La Salle School which provides education to children of families that are some of the poorest in the nation (both Blackfeet Nation but also the USA). The school provides education through the 8th grade at which time they would move to the regional high school.
The Students at De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning, MT are from the poorest families. The estimated un-employment, underemployment and seasonal employment on the Blackfeet reservation is 70%. All of the school’s students are Native American and all have some Blackfeet blood, but most are mixtures of virtually all the races.
The school now has 126 graduates from De La Salle Blackfeet School. Of those who graduated from here and should have graduated from high school, all but three have done so. Only one has truly dropped out of school. The drop rate for the public system ranges between 40 and 45%.
Total cost for a student attending De La Salle is over $8,000.00, but the student’s parent or guardian is asked to pay $450.00 yearly and provide twenty hours of volunteer service.
The school has depended on the volunteer services of young men and women to serve as full-time teachers. Even those who are not volunteers work for a very reduced salary. Most of the school’s students are two years below grade level on standardized reading and math testing scores.
Five of the last seven high school valedictorians for the graduating classes were De La Salle Graduates. Six alumni from the three potential graduating classes out of a four-year degree institution have earned their degree.
The One Angel Foundation was pleased to offer to three students scholarships to cover the parental cost of the education at De La Salle School. The school provides educational opportunities to children of families who otherwise would not be able to attend school and or drop out early from school. One of One Angel’s core mission is to help children through organizations such as the De La Salle School have access to educational opportunities that will help them break their family’s cycle of poverty.