2023 Fundraising Campaign

Hello Echoers! We need your help!

We're launching our 2023 Fundraising Campaign for Esther's Echo and the Women in Action Development Program in Sierra Leone! Last year's campaign raised 10k dollars for the school - founded by our partner, Esther Kanu - and helped another 60 women graduate from school in one of the most difficult places in the world to live. Donation link is below! And be sure to check out the campaign because it has footage from this year's graduation ceremony made possible because of YOU!

EVERY dollar goes to the school. We keep nothing for overhead costs and any expenses that come as a result of the operation I cover personally.

Thank you so much to those who donated last year! Again, be sure to check out the campaign page which features videos of this year's graduation ceremony! You helped make that possible!

2023 GoFundMe Campaign for Esther's Echo

You can also donate, as always, through our website using the button below

Support the Women in Action!

Graduation 2023 Footage and Thanks!

Hey Echoers!

Another year and another group of graduates from the Women in Action Development Project in Sierra Leone! 60 more women have an opportunity for better lives because of your help and support. I couldn’t be more proud. Especially this year!

2023 Graduating Class from the Women in Action Development Program

We had a super charged fundraising year this year thanks to the support of the Star Trek Community fundraiser for Esther’s Echo. As some of you know, one of my other hats is in space science communication. My day job is working at a Planetarium in Vancouver, Canada. I also grew up as a Star Trek fan. Star Trek, is a television show that depicts a future Earth where war, poverty, and hunger have been abolished and humans explore the stars. I think of that future often when reflecting on my experiences in Sierra Leone which, when I first arrived, was designated a post conflict warzone. What would it take to get from this world to that one?

Many fans of the show went on to become engineers, or go into the film industry. My path was different. I wanted to see how I could take that inspiration from the future and apply it in the real-world present. So I studied International Development which is how I came to meet Esther Kanu way back in 2004 now.

This past June, the 2023 graduation ceremony was held. This marks over 600 students who have graduated from Women in Action since Esther’s Echo was founded in 2012. Linked below is a video I sent to the Star Trek donor community for their support which includes footage from this year’s graduation as well as special thanks from the students and Esther herself!

Thank you all very much!

Also! Today (Aug 6th) I’ll be co-hosting another TREKtivism (Star Trek Activism) panel at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention. I’m on stage in just a few hours! We’ll be talking about the success of the fundraiser and generating momentum for a new fundraising push.

Panel at Star Trek: Las Vegas

And here it is! The video with footage from the graduation!

We always are in need of more donations to keep the school’s doors open. So if you can pitch in now for the 2024 year of students, please do so below!

Donate Today!

I'm Speaking at TREKtalks2!

Hello Echoers!

Exciting happenings to share! First of all, our Star Trek community fundraiser for Esther's Echo was a huge success! In total, between online donations on GoFundMe, cheques I received, and donations through the Esther's Echo website we raised nearly $12,000CDN. Remarkable! This blows our previous fundraising years away. Not only did Star Trek fans come through for the fundraiser, but also cast and crew members of Star Trek who donated and showed public support on their social media channels! Look at all these posts!!

Screen caps of Star Trek cast/crew supporting the Esther’s Echo Star Trek community fundraiser

​With this funding, we've secured both Women in Action Development Project locations through until 2024. We will likely begin a new fundraising campaign this Summer and hopefully we can engage this community of donors again. Speaking of which! This Saturday January the 14th, I'm joining another “TREKtivism” (Star Trek Activism) panel as part of a day-long streaming telethon called TREKtalks2 hosted by the Trek Geeks podcast Network. The stream starts at 9:45am PT / 12:45pm ET! If you can't make it in person, the stream will be recorded and posted on YouTube. I'll be talking about how fandom can help catalyze social change including our very own Star Trek fundraiser for Esther's Echo. Look! I'm next to Commander Riker!

TREKtivism panel guests for TREKtalks2

You may recall TREKtalks1 from last year where I was also on a TREKtivism panel. This is the 4th TREKtivism panel I've been involved with – two online and two in person at the Chicago Star Trek Convention and then Vegas this past August. I'll be joined by Jonathan Frakes (Commander/Captain Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation), John Billingsley (Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise), Armin Shimerman (Quark from Deep Space Nine), Kitty Swink who also starred on DS9 and is raising support for Pancreatic Cancer Research, and Heidi Roddenberry President of the Roddenberry foundation. The stream will feature many more Star Trek cast and crew all day so if you're a fan you definitely don't want to miss out. My panel is later toward the afternoon.

Star Trek helped raise me. Star Trek depicts a future where humanity has overcome poverty, war, injustice. Esther and her team are the ones really turning the gears on the ground for Esther's Echo. I've always recognized this. Where I saw I could be of support is in connecting her to a wider donor base – essentially “echoing” her work to other audiences. Star Trek is an audience I can connect to and so this pairing is something I've always really wanted to do. Space geeks for social change. And yes, while Star Trek takes place in space, it's really about empowering people and societies wherever we have the opportunity to - whether here on our planet or beyond.

Thank you all so much again! You're literally making dreams come to life for myself, Esther, and dozens of young women and girls overseas. See you on Saturday! 

FIND THE TREKtalks 2 stream at: TREKtalks – Trek Geeks Podcast Network

-In Wonder

-Matthew

Esther's Echo at the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention

Hello Echoers!

The time has come! I’m currently at the Las Vegas Star Trek convention called the “56 Year Mission” celebrating the 56th anniversary of Trek.

Star Trek inspired me with its depiction of a bright future for our planet. In Star Trek we learned to live in harmony with the planet’s biosphere. We eliminated war, poverty, and hunger.

Esther’s Echo is a natural evolution of that inspiration. I wanted to help make the world a better place. I wasn’t sure how until I met Esther when I was working for another organization. Esther is a community leader who understands the struggles of Sierra Leone and its people so clearly. I thought about how much funding had been spent to put me, one foreign aid worker, in the field for a year and what that funding could have accomplished if given directly to Esther’s school - The Women in Action Development Project. The resources spent to put me in the field could have graduated 50 young women.

Esther has the expertise, but I thought perhaps I could help echo her work to new audiences. And one audience I know very well is Trekkies. There is huge social capital in the science-fiction / Star Trek fandom. What if we could engage that community to effect real-world social change? This meeting of worlds has always been a dream of mine. Star Trek helped inspire Esther’s Echo and now I get to introduce Esther’s Echo to Star Trek.

Today at 2pm PST - I’ll be on the “Roddenberry Stage” at the Star Trek convention to talk about “Trektivism” - fandom for social change. I’ll be joined by Star Trek actor Chase Masterson who founded an organization called the Pop Culture Hero Coalition as well as Star Trek actor John Billingsley who is on the board of the Hollywood Food Coalition. Each of us will be sharing how the fandom can help support our causes.

We’ve also launched a Star Trek community fundraiser that, even if you’re not a Star Trek fan, you can contribute to! Like all our fundraisers, 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Women in Action Development Project. We just hit the $4000 dollar mark! We need 10k in total.

You can find the link to the fundraiser here

Send good vibes my way at 2pm, everybody! And if you’re here at the convention, be sure to come to the talk! Look at this beautiful stage!

Roddenberry Interactive Stage

2022 Graduation and More "Trektivism"

Hello Echoers!

We've had a busy Spring and I have some exciting news for the Summer as well.

Spring first:

Because of all of your support, another class of students graduated from the Women in Action Development Project. I love seeing graduation videos and knowing that we all helped to make this happen. Esther sent me videos of this year's graduation ceremony. I have included some below with an additional video from Esther that we used at a special awareness raising event in Chicago this past April. More on Chicago in a moment, but first I really just wanted to say thank you all so much again for another successful year which included the "4000 for 40" fundraiser for my 40th birthday in August 2021. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of your donations. I often feel I cannot thank you all enough.

What was going on in Chicago? Mission Chicago is a Star Trek convention I attended to host a panel discussion called "Trektivism”an in-person version of the virtual panel I hosted last January mentioned in a previous blog update. As some of you likely already know, my other life is in science education where I work at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Planetarium and the Trottier Observatory here in Vancouver. Science Fiction has been a huge inspiration in my life. Shows like Star Trek depicted a brighter future of equity, justice, and where humanity's needs were met allowing us to thrive.

​The Mission Chicago Trektivism Panel Poster

Many fans of Star Trek attribute the show as to why they pursued sciences/engineering and indeed the show inspired my love of science and science education – but I also felt inspired to make this world seem more like that bright future. Esther's Echo is my way of contributing. While Esther's Echo itself has no direct connection to science fiction, I believe I can engage the science fiction community in supporting social causes such as ours. The "Trektivism" panel is a way to engage that community. The term “Trektivism” itself was coined by the TrekGeeks podcast network where I host a podcast and have been able to help champion the “Trektivism” cause, encouraging sci-fi fans to focus their fandom toward real-world social change.

At the panel in Chicago, I was joined by several Star Trek actors and fans on stage who have all championed various social causes. I showcased Esther's Women in Action school with a video of her explaining the program and the most recent graduation ceremony (note that graduating classes are named after their start year rather than their graduating year in Sierra Leone).

Trektivism Panel Selfie! L to R Noah Averbach-Katz, Chase Masterson, Randy Frank, Me (Matthew Cimone), Heather Rae, Jen Usellis, 

​I'll be speaking about Esther's Echo again in Las Vegas this month at another Star Trek convention. This time we'll also be running an online fundraiser to coincide with the talk beginning this week and culminating at the convention itself. We will keep you all posted on fundraiser and of course would be sincerely grateful for any donations.

Thank you all so much again for your support of Esther's vision and for helping people thrive in one of the most difficult places in the world to live. Here is that graduation video!

And here is the original virtual Trektivism Panel I hosted if you want to check it out!

And check out my friend’s organizations/projects featured at the “Trektivism” panel as well!

Noah Averback-Katz and T1 International supporting Insulin Access

Chase Masterson’s Pop Culture Hero Coalition an anti-bullying organization

Randy Frank with Lambda Quadrant promoting Queer representation in the Geek Space

Jen Usellis the Klingon Pop Warrior

Heather Rae’s project “Fans Give Back”