Rukundo International Launches Their 9th Annual Gala and Shoe Drive

Rukundo International (RI) is a non-profit organization founded by Andrea Sedlock, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a Montgomery Village resident. She founded RI to educate and empower vulnerable children and women in rural Uganda, Africa. Rukundo, which operates out of Montgomery Village, MD, will host two fall events during October, and they need help from our community. The organization is collecting shoes for its annual “Shoe Drive” and hosting a fun Gala and Silent Auction event.

"The reason I started Rukundo is because I'm a mom. On my first trip to Uganda in 2009, I visited the home of a single mom, Emily. The home had no electricity or running water, and the five children were lucky to get one meal daily. I knew then that I had to do something to support these children and their moms to access the necessities that I could offer my child: clean water, enough food, and quality education, that they didn't have simply because of their place of birth. Though I was a single mom myself, in 2014, I founded Rukundo to help provide families with the tools to meet these needs." Poverty and the lack of educational resources impact children and families significantly. Rural Uganda is one of the poorest regions in the world. According to the World Bank:

• 47% of the population under 14 lives below the poverty line (less than $1.90 per day)
• 24% has limited or no access to standard drinking water
• 71% has limited or no access to standard sanitation.

About Rukundo

Rukundo Preparatory School is RI’s flagship program. The school provides primary education for 182 children from nursery school up to 3rd grade. The school also works as a home base for a community center and other programs. RI helps orphans, financially distressed families, and at-risk youth. Their projects focus on primary education, hygiene training, nutrition, clean water, empowerment for girls and women, sports programs, scholarship opportunities, and medical clinics. Their programs include a Girls Empowerment Program, Women's Agriculture Cooperative, a Scholarship Program, Community Trainings and Medical Outreach. On weekends, the school becomes a community center for hundreds of children and their families.

Shoe Drive

Each Fall, RI runs their Annual Shoe Collection in the Washington, DC area. For the shoe drive, you, your friends, family members, and community groups can collect and donate shoes: any style, condition, or size! You can begin to collect shoes now, and they can be dropped off between October 1 - 15, 2022, at 17001 Germantown Rd, Germantown, MD, in the marked shed.

RI earns funds for every pair of shoes collected. Over the last eight years, RI has kept over 64,000 pairs of shoes from landfills and raised over $27,000 to help fund their school. But the collected shoes go far beyond supporting RI. They make an impact on thousands of lives! The shoes go on to create microenterprises (small businesses) in developing countries, providing opportunities for impoverished families to earn a living. It's a win-win-win! Visit www.rukundointernational.org/shoe-collection to learn more. To learn more about how microenterprise works visit https://funds2orgs.com/micro-enterprise/.

Annual Gala

Please make plans to attend Rukundo’s 9th Annual Charity Gala and Silent Auction on October 15th in Germantown. The event will be full of live music, dancing, and a catered, seated dinner. Make plans to bid on hundreds of incredible items up for grabs in their silent auction: gift baskets; wine tastings; overnight getaways, including a stay in a villa in The Bahamas or a cabin in the Shenandoah Valley; sports items including VIP tickets to the Washington Capitals and a signed jersey from Klay Thompson; African art and crafts; and so much more! We guarantee you and your loved ones will have fun while supporting Rukundo International. There is also a virtual option for those who cannot attend in person.

Rukundo means love in the native language of the rural village of Kabale, where RI works in Uganda. By supporting Rukundo, you are ensuring that vulnerable children have access to educational programs to empower them so they won't repeat the cycle of poverty. To learn more about Rukundo's International life-changing programs, visit www.rukundointernational.org.

Andrea Sedlock
President & Founder
andrea@rukundointernational.org
304-444-1316