WEBSITE

New website is up and running! Check it out effectinternational.org

Also, we have a new blog, effectinternational.tumblr.com

I'm not sure what this blog will be. Probably follow random exciting events of my life..lol

Thanks for your support,

Casey

More Books Then Ever

Yesterday, I received a phone call from Deseret International, an non-profit organization out of Salt Lake City. I have been working closely with them for a month and their Director called to inform me that we would be receiving 30,000 books. I was really excited! So many children will be affected by these books. We are putting these in a large shipping crate (20 by 40 and 9 feet high) in SLC, which will be leaving in a couple of months. The crate will be transported to L.A, then to India where it will be taken to Kathmandu, Nepal. We really want to fill this crate completely full of books, so any extra books you may have, we can put into eager little hands.

How can I help?

I've had a lot of people asking me, "How can I help?" I've been responding with several key points. I've now written a letter that explains our trip this past December and gives 3 action points for people to follow. Here's the letter:

As you may know I recently returned from traveling to India and Nepal. The reason for journeying halfway around the world was to try to establish educational programs for our organization, Effect International. What awaited me were several hundred eager children wanting nothing more than to attend school. After a long flight I arrived in New Delhi and met up with my friend Bushra Zaman, a PhD student at USU who is native to India. We traveled to the poorest state in India, Bihar, which is the size of Illinois and the home to 84 million people, 53% of which are illiterate. We went to the village of Sasaram and met key village leaders and surveyed the area for needs. We found over 500 children who were powerless to become educated because their parents cannot afford the meager price of tuition. We met a girl named Meera, who spends her days holding her naked brother on the streets because their parents died of tuberculosis and they now live with their grandmother. Meera expressed her great desire to attend school but she is convinced that education is a privilege reserved only for the elite and not for her.

We left India and went to Nepal, one of the most beautiful countries back-dropped with the Himalayan range, terraced farms, and kind people. However, it is also plagued as one of the poorest countries in the world. We went to the Pokawaki Village where we were greeted by hundreds of villagers who draped us with flowers in appreciation for our visit. We hiked to their primary school and found a broken down building with a dirt floor and caved-in roof. The first grade room was in such deplorable condition that the children must meet outside for class. We asked Bakshish, a math and science teacher where their library was. He responded, “We have no library, no books.” We asked, “How do you teach these children with no books?” He humbly answered, “We do the best we can with what is provided.” The secondary school for the village is a 3-hour walk for the children to attend. Since these children are needed on their family farms, the 6-hour daily walk keeps most of them from school past 6th grade. What does the village need most? They ask for desks, a library, and a secondary school. We promised to return with desks and books on our next trip and to start construction on a new school once we had the funding.

Therein lays the crux of this letter. We need your help! Think about how much books meant to you as a kid, or how fortunate you were to attend a school with your own desk and study material. Then imagine it being taken away. It would have had a profound impact on your life path. We have vowed to provide in Pokawadi, Nepal and Sasaram, Nepal. Our school in India will open its doors to 120 children this April in a rented building. We will also provide books for their libraries. If you would like to help, there are three things you can do:

--Send any books you have that would be suitable for students from ages 5-18. 70% of the books will be in English, the rest we’ll buy in their native language. Collection points will be in Idaho and Utah of the U.S. listed at the bottom of this e-mail.

--Forward this letter to friends and family or even print it for colleagues at work or church. Let anyone you know who may have books for their own children but have outgrown them. Let’s put them into eager little hands which are in dire need of these books.

--We can’t build these schools out of donated books. The cost of material requires cash and these communities will provide free labor and land. To build these schools it will cost under $25,000 U.S. This is a meager price compared to developed countries around the world. A school bench costs $20, a school uniform $15, a child’s scholarship $250. We are asking for your donations to help. All contributions are 501(c)3 tax deductible.

Effect International commits to see these libraries full of books and schools functioning. Please remember the energy, creativity, and desire for youth to learn about the world, and do something to help these children. Think of the effortless opportunities most of us have had to get an education. Get your friends and family involved! We all want to make a difference in this world. Here is your opportunity to make a difference, you may think its only a small way but it will have a huge impact on these children’s lives who have been denied the opportunities of education. The worst option is to do nothing. Thanks in advance. Sincerely, Casey Allred

Idaho shipping address:
533 N 3800 E
Rigby Id, 83442

Utah shipping address:
627 1/2 E 400 N suite 4
Logan, Ut 84321

If you would like any more information or would like to help Effect International please contact us at effectinternational@gmail.com

Return from India and Nepal

I know I know, I have been horrible about updating this blog. Detail accounts about our project are coming soon. I've been working on a write up and will post it as soon as it's done.

I do want to outline the changes that our organization will be facing this year:

--Our first school will open it's doors this April to 140 primary students in Sasaram, India. Currently we have a Principle and 3 teachers who will work in a rented building with 4 classrooms, until we can build our own unit. We surveyed over 250 children that don't attend school. We believe it's probably closer to 500 children if we were able to survey the entire city of Sasaram.

--Library program has now started. While Rachael and I were visiting schools in India and Nepal, each of them followed a sad pattern of having no books. We have started book drives in Idaho and Utah trying to get English books donated. Effect International will be providing these schools with 70% English books and 30% in their native language.

--Now we will be working in Nepal! Nepal is boarding the state of Bihar, Inida where our first school is located. We have great contacts and a sister NGO that will be working with us. We will be working in the Pokawadi Rural District in rural Western Nepal. This small village is in dire need of a secondary school. When students graduate from the 5th grade, they have to travel 6 hours a day to attend secondary school. Consequently most of these students don't get past the 5th grade. We have promised to return with desks, tables and a library and we'll start construction on the secondary school once we have the funding.

--Our student club, USU Effect has now started (thanks Tyson!) We will start recruiting, fund raising and getting books.

--BYU Effect is now started in Provo. Matt Hillman will be the President.


Here are some more pictures.

Crowded classroom learning English in Nepal

Meeting with local Muslim leaders and children, India.

First grade class, Nepal.

Effect International

The sole purpose of setting this blog 6 months ago, was to show the progress, development and success of a new organization named Effect International. Effect was started by yours truly and some of my good friends and colleagues that have done humanitarian work in the past. If you're not familiar with our organization, here is some info. (If you're familiar with it, skip this part)

Effect International is a non-profit organization that empowers communities in developing countries to create sustainable infrastructure by providing opportunities for education and healthcare. For children in developing countries like India, opportunities for education are merely a dream. The right to receiving adequate healthcare and an education are reserved only for the elite, privileged, and prosperous individuals. Effect International’s objective is to deconstruct the Socio-Economic hierarchy that bars individuals from achieving their full potential. This is done by creating educational and healthcare opportunities which would otherwise be unattainable.

Effect International’s fundamental project is in Bihar India. Bihar is the poorest state in India where:
83 million people live in an area the size of Illinois.
60% of the population live below the poverty line.
90% of the population live in rural areas.
Over 45 million are illiterate.

Bihar is in dire need of schools where children can be given the opportunity to make their full potential a reality. Communities receive little to no support from the government of India leading to an overwhelming amount of children without access to academic facilities. Without education many children are destined to live a life of abject poverty with the array of struggles and hardships to which it is associated.
Effect International is providing these children with new opportunities by facilitating adequate schools and materials for proper education from grades one through ten.


You've probably heard the phrase “I'm just fine.” FINE meaning: Freaked out, Insecure, Nervous and Emotional. That's how I feel sometimes about this project! JK

Tomorrow Rachael Senft and I will be leaving SLC to India. It's about a 29 hour flight and 10,000 miles. We've been preparing for this logistics project for over 5 months now. I feel like we've got a lot of things dialed in and planned for a successful trip. We will return on January 7th. I would like to say thanks to Bushar Zaman, she is an amazing Phd Civil Engineering graduate from USU who has planned and carried a lot of our work in India. She is a success story of one person being educated and in return, empowering hundreds.

I've had several people ask me..."So what are you actually doing for this first trip?" To answer some of you.... We are doing a community needs assessment in several cities in India and Nepal. Since Rachael is the expert (graduated from Social work 09), she will be doing most of this. We will also be meeting with govt. officials, police department, lawyers, potential donors etc. The biggest hurdle we have to jump over is obtaining the right legal documents. We are registering ourselves as an NGO (Non-Government Organization) in India, but we also have to obtain a FCR license. This license is extremely difficult to obtain, and we can't use any foreign money unless we obtain it. Our goal is to "use" another NGO's license for a few years until we can obtain our own. That being said, we will be meeting with several NGO's to determine which one will allow us to use their license.
In Nepal it's a bit different. I met a professor at Utah State University named Narayan, who is our newest board member. He has been very gracious and helpful to set up travel contacts, places to eat, sleep. We'll also be visiting several small villages to determine how we can help with future educational needs. Mainly we'll be visiting Kathmandu, Pokhara and Pakawadi.

Rachael and I have decided to travel light. We are only taking our backpacks so that we can travel quick and efficient. I'll try my best to update this blog for the duration of our trip; however, I'm not sure how often we'll have internet capabilites.

Thank you for your support, and Merry Christmas!!

The things toursists say!

Skagway Alaska is nearly 100 percent tourism, which offers ample amount of jobs, opportunities and headaches. It's a love hate relationship with the average 40,000 tourists a week that visit Skagway. Love because the tourists offer everyone jobs and money and hate because they do stupid things. Here is the list of stupid things that were said to me or others this summer, enjoy!
(I didn't make any of these up, they are all true!)

Driver what is the elevation of Skagway? (Skagway is a port town)
What is the Temperature?
Is it "really" colder on the glaciers?
Does it snow in Alaska?
Why is it raining? (me) Because you're in a rain forest! (tourist) Really?
Do people really ski those mountains? They look way too steep?
What are the chances of it raining today? (Me) Sir this is Alaska, anything is possible.
While driving over the Skagway river bridge a tourist asks... Why is the ocean tide so high?
(Me) Sir that's a river! (Tourist) oh?
Is Skagway a "real" town or is it fake for us tourists?
Does Princess cruises own all of these stores?
What kind of rocks are those? (driver) It's granite carved by the glaciers. (tourist) What's granite?

One of our drivers was next to the Fraser Lakes in BC, Canada (several miles away from the ocean). While driving, another motor coach was heading the opposite direction. The other motor coach has huge printing of whales on it. The driver says, "Hey everyone look a whale!" As he looked into his mirror all of his tourists were smashed against the window looking at the lake. Driver says, "umm folks, jokes on me! First off the whale was a printing on the other bus and second that's a fresh water lake!

White pass railroad has to give safety annulments before each ride. They always emphasize safety with your fingers for many have been lost. An impatient husband was trying to get his wife into the train cart and while she walked through the door he slammed it, with one finger still in the door. Her finger was chopped off. Screaming downsized to shock where she eventually was laughing and making jokes about her one lost finger. This particular day had such bad weather that life flight could not get fly a helicopter, all medivac planes couldn't fly. She won her self (and husband) an ambulance ride to Whitehorse Canada (3 hours a way) and then a flight to Seattle. Expensive trip eh!
( I never heard if they saved her finger.)

Employee Jokes

We have an older couple that work for Holland America. The husband drives busses and the wife does Hollands finances and is also a Dock Rep. She helps with the madness on each dock where our shops dock. The wife was helping drivers park their motor coaches and her husband got on the radio and says "Hey, where do you want me to put this thing?" Wife says, "You shouldn't say that on the radio!"

During a driving meeting we were checking the oil, transmission fluid, antifreeze level, etc. Another employee asks, "So how do we check the gas level?"

Goodbye Alasaka:( (for now)

All good things must come to an end for a season. Tomorrow I leave to drive home towards Idaho. My experience in Alaska has been amazing. Being here in Skagway for 4 months has brought me closer to God, friends, nature and myself. My experiences have been timeless and I'm excited to come back next year.