Change for Change 2024
Be the Change – Take the Change Challenge
Join our Collective Collaboration to support our work in Kenya. We are a non-profit Science of Mind Centre that teaches and supports self-sufficiency by Changing Thinking and Changing Lives.
CHANGE FOR
FOOD
CHANGE FOR EDUCATION
CHANGE FOR
THE CENTRE
CHANGE FOR CHILDREN
$35,000
$15,000
$18,000
$30,000
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$30 feeds a child a hot meal of rice, vegetables, and fruit for a month
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$360 feeds one child for a year
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$75 for the year
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$25 for a full uniform
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$1000 for one year of high school
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Class textbooks
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School supplies
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$100 class tuition fee
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$250 Zoom Loan Phone for class
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$70 for printing workbooks for one course
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$200 shipping per 50 lbs. of textbooks
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$400 sponsors a Practitioner in Training
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$3000 sponsors a Minister in Training
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$600 internet
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$6000 facility rent
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Office supplies
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Youth & Family ministry expense
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Minister and staff honorariums
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Travel expenses to Kenya for the ministers
FOOD
CHILDREN
EDUCATION
THE CENTRE
$15,000
PROJECTS
CHANGE FOR
PROJECTS
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SMILE (Seeing My Inner Life Everywhere) Program
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Teen Camp
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Swahili Translation Project
Currently, we feed 40 (out of 200) students and teachers a day at the Mukuru Kwa Njega Slum Briton School. It is one of the first programs we began at the school. Students attend 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. The lunch program is usually the ONLY meal these 40 students receive.
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$30 feeds a child a hot meal of rice, vegetables, and fruit for a month
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$360 feeds one child for a year
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$100 provides groceries for a SOM family of four for a month
The families in the Slum live off of selling peanuts, collecting twigs for kindling, or as day laborers. They live in metal shack houses, no electricity or running water, have a pit toilet for 6 homes, and only one well from which to carry water.
Since Covid, these families, with limited resources, now have almost no resources. One mother we know of died from starvation and many of our adult students have friends who have died from starvation as well.
Change for Children
Goal - $15,000
In the slums of Nairobi, schooling for children is not a top priority. Survival is. In 2014, we began working with the Briton School to support children staying in school. As the school slogan says, “Readers are Leaders.” They show up at age 3 (so parents can look for work) and test out at Grade 8. In 2014, before we started supporting the school, there were 8 children in Grade 8. Today, there are 22 students in both Grades 7 and 8! By providing simple things such as tuition, a school uniform, a soccer uniform, or lunch, we have increased student retention. One of our goals is to help break the cycle of generational poverty.
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$75 for the year
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$25 for a full uniform
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$1000 for one year of high school
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Class textbooks
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School supplies
In Kenya, you must have a uniform to go to school. The cost of a FULL (hand made in the SLUM) uniform is $25. They usually wear it 7 days a week. It is the only new or nice piece of clothing they have and so they often wear it to church. We support them with soccer uniforms and equipment for school pride. We provide textbooks for each grade (currently there’s only 1 in each grade) as well as school supplies. One of our Ministers in Training teaches Science of Mind classes one day a week to the upper grades.
We also sponsor registration fees for all 7th and 8th grade students. It keeps them in school so they can take the National high school entrance exam and provides support for teacher’s salaries. (A teacher usually gets paid $60 a month to teach 6 days!)
Students MUST go away to a boarding school for the 4 years of high school. We know that education is one of the ways to end poverty, so each year, we search for sponsors for the brightest of the bright. We currently have 5 students in various years of high school. Each year is $1000 for one student which covers board, food, uniform, books, and tuition. Students must submit a scholarship request form and their ability to explain Science of Mind principles as well as their grades, attendance, and need are
taken into account.
Change for Education
Goal - $18,000
As with any Center for Spiritual Living we offer a wide variety of licensed and consciousness classes to our community. Rev. Connie began with just 6 students in 2014. In 2020, we offered 18 courses to 122 attendees. Our youngest student is 13! Our community is so hungry for this teaching. They ask that classes flow one right after the other so there isn’t a break between classes.
Most of our students can’t afford to pay for classes. So we have them apply for scholarships. In return, their contribution is volunteering their time at the office or in the community. However, we have committed to 2021 being the year of prosperity! We are offering prosperity consciousness classes, have a prosperity support group, and have implemented Gratitude (AHA) Jars as part of each class.
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$100 class tuition fee
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$250 Zoom Loan Phone for class
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$70 for printing workbooks for one course
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$200 shipping per 50 lbs. of textbooks
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$400 sponsors a Practitioner in Training for one year
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$3000 sponsors a Minister in Training for one year
Class Support: Students want to take classes but their inexpensive phones aren’t always good enough to Zoom. Students can borrow a Centre phone as long as they are enrolled in classes. (Cost of phone $250). The internet can also be unstable because of borrowed or free internet time. So sometimes a $2 internet packet can make a difference. Our goal as a Centre is access to SOM information and sometimes that requires us to think outside of what we consider the norm. So internet packets it is!
We are an official School of Spiritual Leadership, Kenya Campus for ministerial studies. We currently have 4 future ministers enrolled. It’s a 5 year commitment on the part of our students and ministers. Fees and costs are reduced but there are still expenses which are necessary. Consider supporting our Ministerial School or one of our Practitioners in Training.
We are always open to contributions for the costs of printing workbooks, purchasing Science of Mind textbooks, shipping textbooks to Kenya, registration fees, tuition, and equipment for class access for our students.
Change for The Centre
Goal - $30,000
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$600 internet
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$6000 facility rent
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Office supplies
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Youth & Family ministry expense
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Minister and staff honorariums
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Travel expenses to Kenya for the ministers
Unlike many CSL Centers, our funding model doesn’t include a Sunday collection plate. We rely solely on donations from around the world, from friends of the Centre, grants, and fundraising. Rev. Connie did speaking tours yearly to raise awareness of CSL Kenya as well as funding for all of the programs we offer. With her transition in 2020, and the global pandemic, we are reaching out in a multitude of ways.
Programs we offer other than teaching:
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Youth and Family Ministry – Funday School, Teen Group, Young Adults
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Briton Science of Mind School in the Mukuru Kwa Njega Slum – weekly classes on Science of Mind (led by 2 ministers in training)
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Groups – 40 Day Prosperity Support Group (lead by two practitioners in training)
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Office with open hours, our lending library, in person prayer, and staffed by our Office Assistant, Nancy, a practitioner in training.
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Quarterly Meet Ups (arranged by our Kenyan Board) These will hopefully be able to be rescheduled soon.
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Froggy Friday – Biweekly service by our ministers with a High Watch and Prayer (practitioner or practitioner in training) and 5 minute Science of Mind sharing by one of our community members.
Change for Projects
Goal - $15,000
Swahili is quickly becoming the unifying language in much of Africa. In fact, the United Nations has designated July 7 as Kiswahili Language Day!Swahili is “among the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world, with more than 200 million speakers,” and is spoken in more than 14 countries.
We at Centre for Spiritual Living, Kenya are reaching out to other countries and inviting them in to our classes. We already have a student from Tanzania, Nigeria, and Uganda. Our translation team is translating not only Ernest Holmes books but Student Workbooks for classes as well. They have completed "This Thing Called You" which is currently at Home Office awaiting publication. They just finished "Change Your Thinking Change Your Life" which is currently being proof read. They have completed the student workbooks for each of these classes as well. It is so exciting! Ernest Holmes in Kiswahili.
We were asked to teach SOM Principles to two groups of youth in Kisii, Kenya. James Otumba has begun working with the students using a specially designed curriculum by our Education Team. They are working on Unit 1 - Seed, Soil, Plant. The curriculum consists of 10 units of 5 weeks each.
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Translating Ernest Holmes books into Swahili
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Translating Student Curriculum Workbooks into Swahili
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Publication and distribution of books
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Kisii SMILE Youth Leader twice a month
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Technology for Harambee so teens can participate in Teen Group
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Change Your Thinking weekly podcast