We Need Your Help

This isn't my typical blog post, so I hope you don't mind if use this opportunity to do a little marketing for one of my Peace Corps projects. I'm working on something called "Outdoor Ambassadors." Outdoor Ambassadors is a club for Albanian students who get together to learn about the environment and participate in environment-related activities. As a developing country, Albania faces a number environmental challenges, and we're hoping to make young people more aware of them through Outdoor Ambassadors. This volunteer-initiated project has been implemented in ten cities all over Albania. One activity we did in my club in Kavaje was a discussion of the animal species native to Albania. The kids had no idea how many species were uniquely indigenous to their country.

So far, the entire Outdoor Ambassadors project has been funded out of volunteers' pockets and by contributions from Albanians, but it has grown enough that we need to raise a little bit more. The additional money will be used to translate and print the Outdoor Ambassador organizational manual. It will also be used to fund a conference in the southern Albanian city of Erseke for the ten local clubs. This conference is something that I'm particularly excited about because very few of my students have had the opportunity to travel outside of their own region. My kids are really looking forward to this adventure!

If you want to contribute to one of the great Peace Corps projects here in Albania, please think about donating. We don't need much to get this project underway so a contribution of a few dollars will go a long way. The project description and donation options are available online here at the Peace Corps website.

Feel free to email me with any questions. When I get myself organized from my trip to America I will post a few pictures of my group enjoying their time together.