Tandana Foundation

from updates provided by Emily Della Fera

The participants in the 2021 women's leadership workshops have returned to their villages and created 10 new official women's associations.  Each of these new associations was invited to submit a business plan to a contest sponsored by Tandana to seek startup funding for their business.  The five best proposals were selected and have received their initial funds.  These women's associations will be raising sheep, transforming cotton into cloth, making seasoning balls out of nere seeds, and selling dried fish.  Here are a few photos from the ceremony when they received their startup funds.  We look forward to seeing the success of these new businesses!

   

In addition to the new women's associations, the associations that were created over the last 4 years who have not yet received funding were also invited to submit business plans for a separate contest.  Out of those proposals, another 5 winners were selected.  Those associations will be selling dried fish, transforming cotton into cloth, raising sheep, and doing market gardening.  We are excited to help 10 new businesses get off the ground. 

The women's associations that won the business plan contests are already starting their businesses.  The association from Komberou has found the best market to sell their dried fish, and the association from Andjine has bought their sheep and had them vaccinated.  Check out some photos they shared!

  

 Thank you again, for helping this program be such a success!

 

---

Deep Griha Update

by Kitty Rohrer

The Celebrate Deep Griha Society live virtual event was a great success, with panelists and attendees participating from at least three continents.  The event was recorded and is now available online. Click here to view.

Trading Post and the Great Grandview Garage Sale

by Beth Hanson

As everyone knows, the beloved Mission Council Gigantic Garage Sale wrapped up production due to the pandemic after 24 “glorious” years of hard work and camaraderie.  Although those of us who worked on the sale have mourned its passing and come to accept its demise after a great run, you may be interested to learn that there are still a few Garage Sale embers burning and several dedicated Garage Sale alumni who want to keep blowing on them!  Let me explain.

On May 1, the Trading Post was open on a Saturday for the first time in over a year.  The reason for this unusual weekend opening was that we decided to participate in Grandview’s annual community garage sale.  In order to sell some of the Garage Sale donations that have been languishing in a warehouse since 2019, we decided to set up tables in the South Campus parking lot to try to sell some of the items to get them moving.  Cat and Heather Hiller, long-time Garage Sale volunteers, agreed to organize the event.  They set up tables in the Heart to Heart tent and also spread out into the adjacent parking lot.  For sale was a smattering of Christmas decorations, knick-knacks, toys, chairs, lamps, books, and artwork.  The weather was perfect and the shopper turn-out was more than we expected.  In the end, our mini-Garage Sale raised $921 and we were so relieved to get some of those things sold and back out into the world where they can be of use. 

As shoppers were paying for their treasures, Cat and Heather (also the cashiers) would direct them to the Trading Post for even more bargains. (We served homemade cookies and lemonade to everyone who came down to check us out.)  On just this one day, the Trading Post was able to raise an additional $686 for missions.  Even better, we counted 86 new shoppers who had never been in the store before.  One woman said she lived just around the corner and never even knew we were there!  We have already seen some of these people return to shop with us.  Also participating in the parking lot sale for missions was Prayers and Squares who was selling excess fabric, patterns, and sewing machines.  In this one-day blitz, the three enterprises raised $1,792 for missions. 

Cat and Heather explained to me that they are not quite ready for the Garage Sale to completely die away.  It was too much fun and provided much-needed camaraderie within the church family.  So they would like to resurrect a new, more scaled-down version of the sale and have received Mission Council’s blessing to proceed.  The current idea is to continue to hold a much smaller sale in the parking lot as part of the annual Grandview community sale (the first Saturday in May), and then have another independent sale in September.  The concept is so fresh that the specifics are still being worked out.  Look for details closer to fall.  (Note:  This does not mean that we will resume year-round home pick-ups, nor will we have a year-round drop-off site.  They may decide to accept only very specific types of items the week prior to the sale.)

May 1 through May 30, we were able to raise $8,743 (before deducting taxes and costs).  As a reminder, Trading Post profits began going straight to Mission Council starting in November 2020.  We are also lucky to have two diehard eBay sellers (Jim Waddell and Julie Hanson Reiswig) who together have already raised an additional $4,000 in the first 5 months of 2021.  They sell donations that are too high-end to sell at the Post.  So, raising money for missions continues on in its next evolution. So far so good! 

The Trading Post is open for business (and for donation drop-offs) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 am to 4 pm.  Donations can be left just inside the front door of the Annex Building. 

P.S.  We are currently in need of those clear, zip-up plastic bags that sheets and blankets are usually sold in.  If you have any you don’t need, we would love to have them to package up linens to sell. 

   

---

Upcoming Events