Drive Supply

As of today, I have sent out a few requests for funding and donations from various groups of people who have been a blessing onto my life. My budget as of today is $1461.00 which includes my plane ticket, lodging for 7 days, a camera for the documentary, and emergency money. As of right now, I've only been promised one donation for sure. Hopefully this week, I will receive some more updates or notifications from donors. In the next few weeks, I will be sharpening an official proposal for Diamonds In The Rough: GEMS for Haiti for any public appeals I must make to gather funding. Also this week, I will be taking two more classes at the Foundation Center downtown on grant writing.


Today, I sat down with my sister and her boyfriend and sorted the jewelry into different piles and counted them. This post will be a majority pictures for those of you who wanted to see what type of jewelry was collected.

Though this count may be a little off, the count that I got as of now is 575 pieces of jewelry, including sets of jewelry. There are 215 bracelets, 7 watches, 138 necklaces, 173 pairs of earrings, 17 jewelry sets, 20 rings, 6 pins and 1 toe ring.
Tomorrow, I will go to the nearest store to find jewelry repairing services and baggies to get a more accurate count. Here are the pictures I've taken.

the single pictures are the ones of some really nice pieces of jewelry, some with pearls, gold chains, and really nice detail. It's never too late to make a donation. Please contact me if need be =)

My Drive For The Drive

The George Washington Carver Scholarship Fund (GWCSF) is a non profit organization where students in need of money learn how to write grants and apply for grant money through various funders. A portion of the grant money received from successful grants will be awarded to the student for tuition money and various other educational expenses. This scholarship fund is reared towards students who attend historically black colleges.

A representative from this fund came to Spelman in February to talk about grant writing. I missed the class but was interested in finding any internship opportunities that were available. I searched through my Spelman email, found the number and called up the foundation. Now, a week and a half later, I am on my way to making Diamonds In The Rough a non profit organization and funding my internship in Haiti.

Part of volunteering with the GWCSF is personal determination and work. I started attending classes on grant writing and non profit organizations at the Foundation Center located in the Hurt building in downtown Atlanta. In these free classes that I've taken so far, I've learned the basics on preparing a proposal and budgeting basics. These classes are preparing me to write for grant money to support my drive.

This week, I've volunteered two days already. I've worked closely with Mr. Marvin Williams to compose letters of request for funding to organizations and companies. So far, I have applied for funding towards my trip from three different places. Tomorrow, I will send out my letter to seven more places, in hopes that some of these places will view my drive and cause worthy enough to aid financially. So far, one donation is in the making through the scholarship fund. I'm really praying that I can find all the funds for this trip by July. Right now, I am making the last few revisions to the budget, which has increased to around $1700.00. This includes the plane ticket, lodging, a good camera for the documentary, and extra emergency money.

Tomorrow, I have an interview for tutoring services. Following that, I will finally sort through my jewelry and get a count of just how many pieces I've collected. Next week, I will be working more with the Haitian American Caucus to plan the event centered on women empowerment in Haiti.