Two Dollar Challenge - Looking Back

Our Inaugural Poverty Action Program officially launched yesterday at 8 am when my students and I here at UMW starting taking on Challenge Week (living on $2 a day). This year we are raising money for La Ceiba (http://www.laceibamfi.org/). La Ceiba has a fundraising goal of $10K by May 31. Raising awaareness about global poverty and about a particular organization - like La Ceiba - that is dedicated to addressing poverty in a particular community is one of the two driving forces behind the Two Dolla Challenge's Poverty Action Program. The other is to bridge the divide between intellectual wisdom and experiential wisdom. The classroom takes care of the former. Challenge Week is designed to provide a modicum of the latter.

We currently have 30 non-profit partners and 15 different campuses across the country joining us this year. We have set aside a month in which different campuses can take on Challenge Week (March 29 - April 26). Getting to this point has been a year-long endeavor. Together a small team of students and I have built this organization (which is now a national organization) from the ground up. Designed and created a logo, reviewed the list of registered student clubs at almost every university in the United States, compiled a database, sent out literally thousands of emails, had hundreds of conference calls with ngos and student groups, have had numerous meetings, created a Challenge Week Sourcebook, and are now in the process of hosting a national conference on the UMW campus. All of these efforts have been and are directed at realizing our fundamental objective; namely, to transform a generation of students into engaged, empowered, and effective eradicators of global poverty. Looking back on where we started over the summer of 2008, it is simply amazing what we have accomplished together.

Countdown to TDC Poverty Action Program Launch

We are less than 24 hours away from the national launch of the Two Dollar Challenge Poverty Action Program...