Social Justice Task Force of the month: International Outreach Task Force (IOTF)
By Claire Robertson
For more than 20 years, the International Outreach Task Force has been raising money for international aid projects. We've supported projects in Haiti, Liberia, and Kenya. Jason Blankenship founded IOTF, and made the connection with Liberia because he had spent time there. Direct relationships and hands-on involvement is important in IOTF's history. A former UU member who was a graduate student at IU brought us the project in Haiti. We didn’t organize trips to Haiti or Liberia, but when we decided to focus on Kenya we started making trips every two years to visit projects there. We currently focus on supporting Spurgeon’s Academy in Nairobi.
Our connection to Kenya comes from my time there. I did research in Kenya and I've written two books about market sellers in Nairobi. I met a bunch of women selling at markets through that research, and then met someone heavily involved in Spurgeon’s Academy. Spurgeon’s is a school for orphans and vulnerable children (many whose families have been impacted by AIDS) in Kibera, a large slum in Nairobi. It is a K-9 school, and the number of students varies from 350 - 600. Spurgeon’s is a Kenyan owned and founded project. Their main financial support comes from a British charity called Global Care; we coordinate with Global Care in our support.
We traveled to Kenya in August of this year, for the first time since 2019. We are planning another trip for next year, summer of 2024, which will be a special trip since we were not able to go in 2021 due to the pandemic. Right now we have a group of about 8 people interested in going in 2024. We hope to make contact with Kenyan Unitarians on our next trip. (If you are interested in joining this group or learning more, you can contact Claire at 812-336-3696.)
We were able to give $20,000 to Spurgeon’s Academy this year. I take the money we donate in cash, instead of doing a bank transfer, because the exchange rate is terrible and there are a lot of fees. My purse was a bit heavy because I had 20k in it - but when I changed it to Kenyan shillings, it was 3 million! I used a large ciondo (a market basket), to carry the money to the bank to deposit for Spurgeon’s - it filled the whole basket.
Spurgeon’s uses the money for staff pay, to improve infrastructure, and for books, supplies, and food to feed the kids and staff two meals a day. They began with just one meal at school, then discovered that most kids were only getting that one meal a day, so they added breakfast.
How do we raise money?
- Sales of items from Kenya - When we go to Kenya I tell everybody who goes to bring two suitcases, and to fill their second checked suitcase with clothing to donate to kids at the school. That empty suitcase is then filled with Kenyan crafts to bring back, that we resell for fundraising.
- Saturday, October 28 is our big fall sale fundraiser, in the church library from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. African and African-inspired jewelry, cloth, scarves, puzzles, household goods, clothing, glassware, Kazuri pottery beads, interesting purses of all sizes.
- We also have a table at the UU Holiday Bazaar, Dec 1 and 2
- Bake sales – look for our table in Fellowship Hall every 3rd Sunday of the month
- Football parking - we sell parking in our church parking lot for IU Football games, and our Social Justice Task Forces split the funds from this
- Direct donations - individual, direct donations are welcome, and are tax-deductible through the church. Be sure to put IOTF in the memo line of your check.
Our group motto is "Have fun while doing good." Let's fill that ciondo again!
See Claire’s presentation about IOTF during our Sunday service on October 1, 2023
Claire Robertson taught history, African studies, and women’s studies courses at a number of universities, including Indiana University, Bloomington. She was a professor of history and women’s studies at The Ohio State University for almost 30 years, which included time commuting from Bloomington, and active on numerous committees and projects. She is the author or editor of ten books, has received two book awards for two different books, and published over 70 articles in scholarly journals. In 1987-1988, she held a Fulbright Fellowship to study the development of Kenyan trade and market women in the Nairobi area.