WEHAVEWORTH.org

Promo Video for Elias Fund

gregalthoff — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:15:40 +0000

I AM STRONG - IF YOU ARE STRONG from Elias Fund on Vimeo.

Chiredzi, Zimbabwe Production Pics

gregalthoff — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:41:08 +0000

Production pictures from our time in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, spent mostly with the Davy family (Elias Foundation Trust). We visited a blind ministry where partner’s of the Elias Fund give out food for the blind parents. Some time was also spent with Elias and his family, who is the reason the Fund was started. Interviews were taken from the partners talking about their roles and some of the troubles they’ve had being in Zimbabwe. Roll over the pictures to see descriptions.

Harare, Zimbabwe Production Pics

gregalthoff — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:18:15 +0000

Production photos from our time at Farming God’s Way, a micro agriculture organization that targets poor peasant farmers which make up over 85% of the continent. It’s located in Harare, Zimbabwe but their revolutionary techniques of farming are now practiced all over Africa. The Elias Fund hopes to bring this type of farming to many Zimbabwean’s who are jobless and looking not only to make money, but to feed their own families. Rollover the pics to see the descriptions.

Kadoma, Zimbabwe Production Pics

gregalthoff — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:19:07 +0000

Here are some photos from our time with Youth Education Training (YET) in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. The Elias Fund has been partnering and sponsoring them to educate children who usually don’t have much of a chance otherwise. Rollover the pics to see the descriptions.

Johannesburg Production Stills

gregalthoff — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:31:09 +0000

Here are some pictures from our trip to the Albert Street School in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rollover each picture for a detail of what it is. I’ll be posting my thoughts about each part of the trip once I get back into the USA, there are many stories to be told.

Setting Out

gregalthoff — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:12:55 +0000

Tomorrow morning we start our journey to Johannesburg. I can’t wait to see places that I’ve never been and the people that make it so real. My excitement has been rising with every story told by either Scott or Eric, who’ve been to Zimbabwe more than 8 times combined. They are truly passionate for these people in seeing them make a better lives for themselves.

Its a long 2 day trip with stops in Houston and London before we hit the enormous continent of Africa. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts as we journey to a place that is very hard on its people, Zimbabwe. I’ll try to keep everyone informed somehow, but there are no guarantees being in countries like these, but when I get back, I’d love to sit back and share some of the stories. till then.

Video Blog: Intro for Trip with the Elias Fund

gregalthoff — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:09:56 +0000

Introduction video for my trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe with the Elias Fund.

Intro for Trip with the Elias Fund from WeHaveWorth on Vimeo

Zimbabwe Timeline

gregalthoff — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:53:23 +0000

So if you were interested in learning about the recent history of Zimbabwe, I’ve put together a breif timeline that will help you better understand the current situation and what has lead up to it.

1980 - Mugabe is named prime minister and includes Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo in his cabinet. Independence on 18 April is internationally recognized.

1982 - Mugabe sacks Nkomo, accusing him of preparing to overthrow the government. North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade deployed to crush rebellion by pro-Nkomo ex-guerrillas in Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. Government forces are accused of killing thousands of civilians over next few years.

1987 - Mugabe changes constitution, becomes executive president.

1991 - The Commonwealth adopts the Harare Declaration at its summit in Zimbabwe, reaffirming its aims of fostering international peace and security, democracy, freedom of the individual and equal rights for all.

1998 - Economic crisis accompanied by riots and strikes.

2000 - Squatters seize hundreds of white-owned farms in an ongoing and violent campaign to reclaim what they say was stolen by settlers

2001 May - Defence Minister Moven Mahachi killed in a car crash - the second minister to die in that way in a month.

2001 July - Finance Minister Simba Makoni publicly acknowledges economic crisis, saying foreign reserves have run out and warning of serious food shortages. Most western donors, including the World Bank and the IMF, have cut aid because of President Mugabe’s land seizure programme.

2002 April - State of disaster declared as worsening food shortages threaten famine. Government blames drought, the UN’s World Food Programme says disruption to agriculture is a contributing factor.

2002 June - 45-day countdown for some 2,900 white farmers to leave their land begins, under terms of a land-acquisition law passed in May. It is said that the government has seized 35m acres of land from white farmers.

2005 May-July - Tens of thousands of shanty dwellings and illegal street stalls are destroyed as part of a “clean-up” programme. The UN estimates that the drive has left about 700,000 people homeless.

2005 December - After a four-day visit, UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland says Zimbabwe is in “meltdown”.

2006 May - Year-on-year inflation exceeds 1,000%. New banknotes, with three noughts deleted from their values, are introduced in August.

2006 September - Riot police disrupt a planned demonstration against the government’s handling of the economic crisis. Union leaders are taken into custody and later hospitalised, allegedly after being tortured.

2007 May - Warnings of power cuts for up to 20 hours a day while electricity is diverted towards agriculture.

2008 June - Mr Mugabe wins presidential run-off election after Mr Tsvangirai pulls out days before the poll, saying a free and fair election is impossible because of violent intimidation of his supporters. Mr Mugabe is sworn in for sixth term of office.

2008 July - Britain and the United States spearhead international campaign aimed at persuading Mr Mugabe to step down. Their efforts to dislodge him suffer a setback when a proposed UN resolution to impose new sanctions on Zimbabwe’s leaders is vetoed by Russia and China.

100-billion-dollar banknote is introduced in response to official year-on-year inflation rate of 2m per cent.

2008 September - President Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sign power-sharing deal. Mr Mugabe remains as president and Mr Tsvangirai is offered the post of prime minister, but the two men fail to reach agreement on the allocation of other cabinet posts.

2009 January - A week after a further round of initially inconclusive talks in Pretoria, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai announces his party’s readiness to join the power-sharing government.

2009 February - Morgan Tsvangirai is sworn in as prime minister.

Elias Fund: Trip to Africa

admin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:00:37 +0000

On April 14th I’ll be traveling with Scott Byington of the Elias Fund and Adam Delp of the 1010 Project, to Zimbabwe and South Africa for two weeks. We’re taking this trip to bring back stories of hope from the families and lives of Zimbabwean’s through the empowerment of the Elias Fund.

Trip Details

Fly from Denver on April 14th, 2009 and arrive in Johannesburgh South Africa by April 16th.
Visit Albert Street School for two days. Record the story of the school’s director will be priority, but we also try and capture several student profiles out of the 400 that are attending currently.
Leave S.A. and fly to Harare, Zimbabwe and drive to Kadoma on April 19 to visit the Youth Education Training (YET).
In Kadoma, stay with YET directors and document their stories and progress over the last couple years. Try to capture the lives of some of the students.
Drive to Chiredzi on April 22nd to visit the Elias Foundation Trust.
Stay with EFT directors Richard and Mo Davy April 23-26. We will be visiting Elias Sithole (the man behind the Fund’s inspiration), the blind community food outreach, and documenting the stories of several EFT scholarship recipients and the directors.
Leave for Harare on April 27 and Fly back to Johannesburg on the 28th.
Fly out of Africa back home with a load of stories and media for future awareness.

My Role and Some Recent History

Over the last 6 months I’ve been sharing office space with the Elias Fund and the 1010 Project, both helping to empower people throughout Africa mostly with education. We work closely with one another, sit in on each others meetings, and have started to pursue partnerships working together with common goals and interests. I’ve been able to help formulate ideas with media and marketing strategies for them and have offered my services to help their organizations grow.

It’s amazing to see how humble they are the amount of dedication and passion for the helpless they have in their own hearts. Its truly been a blessing to work side by side with these gentlemen and dream out ideas and watch them start to come alive. We all hope to empower the people we come into contact with while raising money and awareness for the needs throughout Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa.

The Story Behind the Elias Fund

While the story of how the Elias Fund began is long and full of random meetings and occurrences, the inspiration behind our organization is simple. Elias Sithole is a gardener in Zimbabwe who had a dream to see his children gain a higher education than he had received.

In the summer of 2005, a small team of people in Boston, MA held a fundraiser to raise money for scholarships for Elias’ two eldest sons. Late that year, six of us traveled to Zimbabwe to meet Elias, his family and the people of his community. What we discovered in Zimbabwe was a country in the midst of economic and social turmoil and a group of people who wanted to bring change to their country but needed help. The directors of our first partner organization, The Elias Foundation Trust, had a vision for community development, creating sustainable social projects emphasizing education as the cornerstone of every program. This partnership has served as our working model as we have developed further partnerships and programs.

Free the Slaves and Polaris

gregalthoff — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:05:46 +0000

Anthony Lee, Phil Gazely and I were all stuffed into a small hotel near the French embassy in Washington DC. We had a short night of sleep and woke up to a busy city on a warm late summer morning. Free the Slaves’ office was half way across town on the subway and a few blocks walk, all our camera gear was strapped to our backs and hands.

Free the Slaves

The first thought when walking into the office to meet with Kevin Bales was “Wow, this is it?” The office was a little bigger than my current apartment, with under 10 full time employee’s all quiet and working in their separate offices, most of them young graduates and girls. “Where are all the men”, I wondered off again. Phil disappeared talking with someone he knew there, while Anthony and I setup the equipment in their conference room.

Soon Kevin arrived in very bright eyed, polite, humble, and the most important characteristic … gentle. You could feel it in his hand shake and in the tone of his voice. This guy really cares.

We proceeded. I was carefully holding the boom mic while Anthony started asking some questions from the side of the camera. My amazement started with Kevin, not just on how much he knew regarding slavery, but the way he see’s it all. There is no one else as educated as him on what’s going on today with human slavery, none. I was already plotting my way into working with him, but it was just a quick thought. It was a quick interview overall due to some time constrictions, but Kevin wanted us to meet one his staff who just got from Africa discovering a new type of slavery, fishing.

She was a recent graduate who had discovered human trafficking due to her time living in an apartment building in DC, while in school. She had investigated the owner and found out how he had been previously arrested for housing woman who had been trafficked from another country. Even though she was only in her young twenties, she could have spoken for the president. The way she articulated every sentence and the amount of clarity she has on slavery was astounding. Again I was in awe.

During her interview I almost started to cry because I was so shocked at the amount of knowledge this little tiny office contained. I knew then we were in good hands, our best are being used.

Polaris Project

That same afternoon we shuffled over to meet up with Bradley Myles, the deputy director for the Polaris Project. His office looked like it was an old Phrat House turned into their growing organization. But like Kevin’s staff, 90% were female.

Bradley seemed quite busy and his interview was a lot shorter than Kevin’s, but he said something I’ll never forget. After he had graduated from college, he knew he wanted to work within the social justice scene, but couldn’t figure out where. One of his advisors had told him about the resurfacing of human slavery. He, like most people, said “What?! Slavery still exists?” He started pursuing after this topic and dove heavily into modern day slavery and human trafficking. After six months discovered that every type of social issue was actually intertwined within the slavery of human beings.

This opened my eyes to the amount of work needed to end slavery, forever.

Overall this trip was amazing. I got to meet the men and women at the forefront of modern day slavery and know that their hearts and minds are in a great place, and they are doing everything they can, even if they don’t get paid. My heart became fueled again, which I know will last for a lifetime.