Tomorrow is "Women in Action" Day (And Valentine's Day)

Hey Echoers, 

Tomorrow is Women in Action Day! 

"But isn't it Valentine's Day Tomorrow?" You might ask. And the answer is, yes. You are right. However, the Women in Action Development project shares February 14th as the day of its founding. 

Despite adversities faced by Esther and her team in the middle of a civil conflict, Esther Kanu founded the Women in Action Development Project on February 14th, 1996. Her goal was to create a place that allowed women to complete their education despite the destruction of many of the country's schools and to reintegrate into the community after being affected by war and poverty. Since that day, Women in Action has graduated nearly a thousand students and has begun to expand it's project mandate to include orphans, bursaries for post-secondary education, and a proposed second campus. 

Esther's school tries to survive as a completely self-sustaining project, but often that means sometimes turning students away, not adequately paying staff/teachers, and not being able to grow to the project's fullest potential. So, while you're celebrating that special person in your life tomorrow, consider also making a contribution to Esther and the love and support she has shown to change the world for women in West Africa. 

Click the button below to make a contribution and stay tuned for photos from the anniversary celebration of Women in Action in Sierra Leone 

Donate Today!
From Canon 3_11.jpg
Donate Today!

And...we're live! New site is up!

Welcome to the new Esther's Echo website! We're trying out a new build after a long hiatus. Where did we go? 

Over the last two years, we took a break to reexamine how the organization was structured and was going to work. Esther's Echo first really started way back in 2005 when I first met Esther. Since that time, we have been running informal fundraising efforts for Esther and many donations just out of our own pockets to help her out. In 2009 we really started to think about the possibility of formalizing the project as an actual non-profit organization. 

We headed back to Africa to see Esther again in 2011 and started to collect footage of Esther's project. You can find some of that footage on YouTube. We spent a week in Sierra Leone with Esther and still have a lot more footage we are going to put together on this new site. 

In 2012, we got funding to bring Esther to Canada from Capilano University, She spent two weeks with us in British Columbia thanks to the Global Stewardship program at Cap U and our great friend, Cam Sylvester. She was able to deliver an inspiring presentation about her work before an audience of academics and students at Capilano. 

In 2013, Esther's Echo was finally registered as a Canadian Non-Profit organization. We began to think seriously about how we thought we would market ourselves had become outdated since 2009 when we had started talking about incorporating. So, over the course of 2013, we restructured, thought about rebranding and aimed to launch a brand new website in 2014. And, here we are. 

Now that we are online again, we hope to bring Esther the support that we always wanted to and provide you with a unique opportunity to be part of a very cool and effective project in a region of the world that truly needs it!

-Matthew