Hello Meron and SOLID,

Thank you for creating this forum to discuss any possible collaborations between our groups.

We are proceeding with three separate projects which can be reviewed on our website at www.grofoundation.org. We have added a SOLID link to our site as well.

Our first request is that SOLID assist us in any way possible with the 2007 Gifts of Hope campaign which is seeking to have our network buy christmas/holiday gifts that will positively impact the people of Leribe. Meron: if you can forward the catalogue I sent you to your network it would be greatly appreciated.

2nd: We are looking to ship medical supplies to Lesotho (or alternatively have them bought in S.Africa). I know you are just finishing another container shipment but I am wondering if/when you will have another going. Would it be possible to include the supplies in the next shipment?

Thanks again for your support and please let us know if we can assist you in any of your current projects. Jean and I are in South Korea until Nov-08' but we have several volunteers working in Canada and recently hired two partners in Lesotho.

Talk to you soon, Jamie

Hi Jamie!

And a beautiful catalogue it is [click the catalogue link for quick download]. You and Jean did a great job with it. We'll be sure to pass it around to all of our networks.

After this container I'm not sure that I'd be in to doing another one from here. Our community has been wonderful in helping us with donations etc but we've been experiencing transportation difficulties getting this one off the island. However I will continue to work with Ray, our <ned> shipping baron, and his organization Partners for Others. He helped us with the 1st container that we sent in the spring and with this one that will be on it's way later this week!!! He has a number of connections in Lesotho and will continue to send shipments there. What kind of medical supplies are you looking for and where do you want them sent?

If you are on FaceBook please consider voting for the G.R.O. Speed Granting proposal for the month Feed Families for the Holidays and recruit others! Voting closes December 14th.

Hi Meron - done. (Despite or perhaps because of my misgivings about facebook...)

Sounds lieke a very worthwhile project - keep up the good work!

Jon, thanks for your support! I know my friends Jean and Jamie appreciate your effort (I too have some misgivings about FaceBook). It is a very worthwhile project.

Just moved from 4th to 3rd place on the Razoo Speed Granting! Keep those votes coming.

Feed Families for the Holidays

After a bit of jockeying we are now in second place but still have quite a bit to go to catch the leader so if you haven't voted yet please do and recruit your friends!

Feed Families for the Holidays

Hi Meron and Jamie - I just voted for Feed Families for the Holidays and will spread the word among Facebook friends.

Has any one created an act for voting on the Razoo site yet? If not - I'm happy to do so.

Thanks Allison, we really appreciate your support!

That would be wonderful if you could put something together for Razoo. I haven't quite figured out how to do that there yet and am really pressed for time with the run up to December 31 and all the year ends I have to deal with being a bookkeeper and all.

Hi All,

Sorry I've been out of touch, things have been strange and amazing here on our South Korean travels.

I am so pleased to be working with you all from SOLID and other organizations, and even though we are trailing on the Facebook grant it has been great to see how many committed individuals there are.

Allison: Jean Margaritis, my partner and G.R.O.'s Gender and Health Advisor is in charge of running our Razoo profile. Please email her at jean.margaritis@yahoo.com if you need any assistance in setting up the Razoo causes etc.I will tell her to start following this thread as well.

** We are also closing in on two weeks of shopping left for the Holidays. The response to the 2007 Gifts of Hope has been limited but effective. With under 25 orders we have raised nearly $3000. I am hoping that we can make a final push before the end of the shopping season, so any assistance from you all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help Meron!**

Take care, Jamie

Hey SOLID crew,

Question: Is SOLID Lesotho a registered charity in Lesotho with the council of NGO's. G.R.O. is currently pursuing that status but now that Greg has left we are reluctant to advance it until Jean and I are back later this year. Any advice on what you have done legally there would be appreciated.

Jamie

Hello SOLID! Sorry it took me so long to register with Ned. I am overwhelmed with all of the online groups and keeping track of everything!

Thank you for all of your help with our Razoo Speed Grant and though Facebook isn't our preferred medium, it seems to be working well enough for now.

Looking forward to further discussions and I am glad there is another platform for us to bounce off ideas.

Cheers, Jean

As promised, I've posted the ACT on Razoo and linked it to the G.R.O. cause, and posted it to the O.net alums group.

You can view it here: http://beta.razoo.com/acts/vote_ for_gro_on_facebook

However, in doing a tag search, I realized that Christina Jordan has already posted this act and recruited some folks ( http://beta.razoo.com/acts/faceb ook_gro_lesotho ) so you now have double the exposure!

I also learned a Facebook trick today. On a Causes or Razoo speed granting page - there is a red button to "Recruit" - however, this only lets you recruit 20 people per DAY.

However, if you click the little "Share+" button on the upper right of the cause/grant page, you can message as many people as you like in 20 person batches. So I was able to contact every one of my 140+ friends today to vote!

Thanks for the tip-off to the Razoo Act, Allison - and the neat little fb trick, too!

~James said: Question: Is SOLID Lesotho a registered charity in Lesotho with the council of NGO's. G.R.O. is currently pursuing that status but now that Greg has left we are reluctant to advance it until Jean and I are back later this year. Any advice on what you have done legally there would be appreciated.~

Hi Jamie! To the best of my knowledge that hasn't been pursued. Gary and Andrea are there right now, you might consider emailing them and asking where that is at.

Allison and Christina, thanks for setting up the acts on Razoo. The double exposure should help I hope! And thanks for the tip on the share button. I'll send it out again to my friends that didn't respond to my recruit request. Maybe if I'm annoying enough they will vote just to shut me up! and then send me to my corner :D

The G.R.O. Foundation makes Beth's Blog and BlogHer for the Holiday Guide. Congratulations to LiA and Ten as well. Hope this helps to raise the profile of all these worthy organizations.

On the Razoo Speed Granting we've dropped to third place so if you haven't voted and recruited your friends yet now would be the time to do it.

Cheers!

Thanks for all your hard work recruiting and supporting us! You rock!

You're welcome! Happy to help such a worthy cause in any way I can. XoX to you both.

Hello All!

Thank you to all that voted for our last grant, 'Feed Families for the Holidays'. Thanks to YOU we managed 2nd place!

We have a new grant going on Facebook titled "A New Year for African Students" We would love your support: you can place a free vote by following this link:

http://apps.facebook.com/speedgr anting/proposal.php?pid=553& ref=NTUzfDUzNzY0Mjg1Mg%3D%3D

We will be working with S.O.L.I.D. to find out how we can best use the $1,000.00 as SOLID has many amazing projects as well in Lesotho. I say $1,000.00 because I think that if we tap all of our networks, we can win it! Imagine how far $1000.00 will go in Lesotho.

Let's start the big push! Thanks so much

Jean

Hi Jean - congratulations! I've sent out word to my network on Facebook, and posted the proposal to my profile.

Let's see if we can't make #1 this time!

Thanks to my good friend Carlos we were able to pull out of 3rd place and in to 2nd in the final couple of hours of voting on the last proposal. For some reason we were automatically entered in to this next one. Working with Jean and Jamie we changed the proposal to support students in Lesotho. This one is a G.R.O./SOLID collaboration: "In addition, for this grant we are collaborating with S.O.L.I.D. in support of their projects with disabled youth in Lesotho. A portion of this grant will support their projects."

So please get out and vote and recruit your friends!

Thanks for your continued support.

We've creeped our way up to 6th place. With $1,000.00 at stake it's going to be touGH competition so would appreciate your support! VOTE!!! :D

Congrats Meron and G.R.O.!

My fb "network" is growing slowly as I learn more and gain confidence in it as a platform; all the same, I'm using it to encourage as many people as I can to vote for you!

Thanks for the support Jon. I think it would be pretty amazing if a small grassroots organization could win this thing!