Author archives: Denis Drescher

Post syndicated from Bronies for Good.

Are you a musician? Then we have one important appeal to make before we jump into the reports: We are already collaborating with a number of the greats of the fandom, but we know that there are more of you out there. If it is within your ability to contribute a track of original music to our upcoming charity album “A Beautiful Heart,” then this is your opportunity to let inspiration meet generosity. Each donation will already have 100% efficiency—thanks to Betterplace and Your Siblings—but your song will move many people to donate in the first place and thus multiply the effect!

More information about how to contribute to the album can be found on our dedicated page. (We extended the submission period until July 7, 2013.)

The following is mostly a summary of Your Siblings’ report as it relates to the projects we all have supported through Seeds of Kindness.

Our first Seeds of Kindness fundraiser launched by funding within just a few days the remaining €7,214 (about $9,370) for the medical clinic of Childneed Africa in Uganda. The construction work had already started at that point, and today ...

In late 2012, the second Seeds of Kindness fundraiser finished what the first had begun: The last of our projects, four at the time, was fully financed. All the while we had been transferring the donations batch by batch to the projects, so that they could already start the construction work.

Once the projects had taken shape, Ben of Your Siblings visited them to survey their progress, inquire about possible problems, and discuss prospective future projects. Our strategy of personally befriending the project organizers to ensure that they are reliable and committed to the cause had proved effective. One of the organizers was not as responsive as we would have hoped (more about that below), but the majority excelled in both counts.

Naturally, the often extensive endeavors faced problems along the way, which we will explain below and soon proceed to solve. Due to the positive experiences with our three main partners, however, we will continue our cooperation with them and are looking forward to supporting their future projects.

The Medical Clinic in Uganda

As we reported earlier, the building is finished and equipped. Unfortunately, government formalities are still retarding the progress, so that Mawanda Johnbosco of Childneed Africa, the ...

Post syndicated from Bronies for Good.

They say that beauty is in the eye of the culturally-conditioned beholder, or that it comes from within as the individual undertakes acts of kindness and reciprocity. Well, abstract definitions aside, having a beautiful heart is certainly something worth sharing with others. And what is one way of sharing said beauty? Of course, through the art of music!

We are therefore pleased to announce the third installment of our Seeds of Kindness charity album campaign: A Beautiful Heart!

If you are a musician and you’d like to find out how to be a part of the album, then please check out the guidelines for submission on our Seeds of Kindness 3 pages. You can also hit up this My Little Remix thread for more discussion on the album guidelines.

In the past, Seeds of Kindness has raised over $90,000 for charity projects in Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania from people like you! Continuing on with this wonderful legacy, we are proud to announce that the proceeds from Seeds of Kindness 3 will go to our wonderful partner in charity, Your Siblings! If you have yet to learn of who this amazingly altruistic group ...

Post syndicated from Bronies for Good.

The event is now over,
but you can still donate to the Kallisti II fundraiser.

Do you want to mingle with the crème de la crème of pony art? Do you want to pose your questions to your favorite voice actor or writer and hang on every word that they speak?

Then imagine a Saturday that starts with Just For Sidekicks and then blossoms again only a few hours later when we launch

Kallisti II: A 24-hour multiartist charity livestream with prominent guests

on January 26, 3 p.m. EST (8 p.m. UTC)

with over a dozen artists, friends, and prominent guests, among them Tara Strong, Andrea Libman, Anneli Heed, and M.A. Larson!

Bookmark the unified viewer page here!

In parallel to the livestream, we’ll launch an eBay auction for a Canni plushie by Siora. Read below for more information.

The Guests

• Andrea Libman (voice of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie) at about 3 p.m. EST on Saturday
• Anneli Heed (voice of the Swedish Spitfire, among others) on Saturday at 5 p.m. EST
• M.A. Larson (writer of Sonic Rainboom, The Cutie Mark Chronicles, The Return of Harmony ...

Post syndicated from Bronies for Good.

If you have ever donated to Seeds of Kindness or Seeds of Kindness 2 or supported the fundraisers in any other way, this press release addresses you personally. (If not, here is your chance to do so now.)

But before we jump in, are you following @BroniesForGood and @YourSiblings on Twitter yet? If not, please kindly fix that—and then there are also those ShortyAwards going on…

Engineers Without Borders: Water and Sanitation Project Funded

We have reached another milestone! The Engineers Without Borders project that seeks to establish proper fresh water supply for an orphanage and school in Manya, Uganda, and also to improve their sanitary situation has been fully financed thanks to your donations.

As announced previously, the next project aims to raise money for a large number of rainwater harvesting tanks in the Karagwe District in Tanzania.

So please continue your support!

Safe Project: Thank You from the Children in Uganda

So what is that awesome header picture up there? It’s a thank-you gift from the children who will soon be able to move into their new orphanage building, the building you funded! As our donors and supporters of the ...

The NGO Another Hope, who we have been fundraising for especially through the Seeds of Kindness fundraisers by Bronies for Good, is building a children’s home—the Safe Project—to provide more than fifty orphans with education, food, and the safety of a new family. They have had long experience in this sector, after having run an orphanage for more than half a decade. This building of a new home marks not the launch but an expansion of the project, an expansion that will also make them independent of the rent they currently pay for the orphanage.

To further support their endeavor, Another Hope was planning to run a chicken farm to sell eggs, and use the returns to balance the running expenses of their humanitarian work. There has been miscommunication about this, so let us clarify: The project we are currently fundraising for and that you have almost completely funded is the building of the children’s home, the new and larger building that will serve as a new home for the orphans. Funding the chicken farm would have been the next step, but so far all donations go towards the orphanage building.

The economic situation in Uganda ...

On December 9, the members of the Your Siblings e. V. had again the chance to convene for this year’s general meeting.

The minutes (unfortunately German only) can be found here.

The Seeds of Kindness fundraiser has reached two major milestones almost at once: The Green Village in Burundi, and the orphanage in Tanzania are now fully funded!

Not only can Mawanda Johnbosco and his team realize their dream of a medical facility in Katerera, Western Uganda, but thanks to everyone’s generous donations, the Green Life association and the Human Revelation Organization can also realize their projects in Burundi and Tanzania. Thus giving many orphans and street children an opportunity to a future without hunger and crime, an opportunity to a proper education, and a new family. Thank you!

Like all Your Siblings projects, these too are completely self-sustainable after this initial impetus and independent of outside help.

Lisa Wiese has put her gratitude in words. The video is her thank you letter to bronies, pony fans, and all who have helped make this become a reality. Spread it around, so every last one of us can hear it.

All further donations will benefit an orphanage in Uganda, which also cares for children of the so-called lost generation, whose parents have died of AIDS, and who would otherwise be left without money for food, school, medical care, and without anyone ...

The Seeds of Kindness fundraiser has hit its first major milestone: The clinic in Uganda is fully funded! Now the Green Village in Burundi needs your help!

Thanks to more than 800 generous donors—among them some who gave several hundred euro, and thus have a chance to one of many valuable prizes—the fundraiser has now reached a total of over $19,000! Every bit counts, hence every donor, no matter the donation, receives an exclusive 2.5-hours-long music album as thank you! See the Bronies for Good album page for the track listing and previews.

Now that the clinic has been funded, we will transfer 100% of the donated funds to the project, and soon Mawanda Johnbosco and his team will be able to attend to patients who would otherwise not have had any access to medical treatment for mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The clinic will also be able to serve an ever more critical educational mission in a region where the vast majority of the population has not even attained an elementary school education.

Thank you to everyone who has donated! You are saving lives!

Here a message from Mawanda Johnbosco, the head of the clinic:

Hi ...

Bronies for Good, My Little Remix, countless musicians, and many others have worked relentlessly for months to bring you Seeds of Kindness, a fundraiser and an eponymous music album.

Everyone who donates to the fundraiser can download the album as a thank you. (There’s also a preview.) Moreover, artists of all trades have contributed prizes for those who donate the most. More detailed instructions on what you need to consider especially when making bigger donations can be found on the instructions page. There is also the track listing of the Seeds of Kindness album and the list of prizes.

All donations benefit two of our projects, the clinic in Uganda and the Green Village in Burundi. We forward the donations in full, and after this initial financial impetus, the projects will be completely self-sustainable and independent of outside aid.

Now go and give us your moneys; every bit counts!