ME to WE Ambassadors Ebook

ME to WE Ambassadors Ebook

A new journey is just beginning.

ME TO WE AMBASSADORS

1

Share your experiences. Leave a legacy. ONE OF THE BEST WAYS YOU CAN SUPPORT WE IS through hosting your own incredible ME to WE trip for your friends and family. Trips help spread our message of making doing good, doable, and grow our community of 100 million people who care and act. See in person the impact you and your loved ones are making with your involvement, presence and donations. It’s a marvelous way to live the change firsthand and understand how powerful your actions and support are. Share this wonderful experience with those you love—what could be better than creating lasting memories with them alongside communities around the world?

3

2

Give a gift that cannot be described in words The feeling of getting to know a country and its people, from being invited into the hearts of a community to hearing their remarkable stories, is indescribable. Why not invite your loved ones on a journey to share in these extraordinary, life-changing moments? At each awe-inspiring turn, you’ll create beautiful memories together on the trip of a lifetime and leave a legacy that you can all be proud of.

5

4

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN YOU on your next trip and leave everything to us—we’ll take care of the logistics, your friends and you. How to host a ME to WE Trip

STEP 5 Contact Our Special Experiences Team will wait for your friends to call, or email them directly to book and we’ll handle the rest. We’ll take care of everything including booking the flights and making sure they have everything they need.

STEP 1 Host

STEP 6 Experience

STEP 2 Choose

Contact your ME to WE host today and tell them that you would like to host your own trip.

Together with friends, travel and experience the beautiful wonders of the world while making a positive impact in the communities you visit.

STEP 4 Share After you’ve made your choice, we will create a customized brochure for your trip that you can send to your friends. someplace new or revisit a place you know and love. Your ME to WE contact will schedule a call with you, and one of our travel experts will reach out within two weeks. Ecuador | India | Kenya Choose your destination— whether you’d like to explore

STEP 3 Plan

STEP 7 Impact

Our Special Experience Trip Concierge will provide you with personalized itinerary options including visiting must-see sites, time with locals and time to help with a sustainable development project.

See the cycle of good your trip and legacy creates—from giving back to giving your loved ones a life- changing experience. Not only are you helping empower others, you’ll connect with them in a whole new way and become a part of their transformative story.

7

6

Visit Ecuador TRAVEL DEEP INTO THE LUSH AMAZON RAINFOREST, the biggest in the world, and witness the sights and sounds of the incredible surroundings. It’s a feeling that cannot be described in words. But with a ME to WE Trip to Ecuador, we also bring you beyond the rainforest and into the lives of the Kichwa people, who have thrived in the jungle for generations. When you visit the local communities that we have worked side-by-side with on sustainable development projects for over 20 years, you will experience Ecuador not as a tourist, but as part of the community.

9

Alongside the local communities, we’re helping implement WE Charity’s five-pillar sustainable development model, WE Villages, with projects that include: Our work in Ecuador

6

PARTNER COMMUNITIES

OPPORTUNITY 4

EDUCATION 1,000+ students we have helped support.

WATER 3 water systems established. FOOD 4 pilot gardens implemented, with three kitchens and dining halls currently being rehabilitated. artisans groups, which create Minga Bracelets, have been established, as well as three girls’ groups and one community choza .

HEALTH 200+ people have been provided with medical care.

10

11

In Bellavista, Ecuador, 15-year-old Yadira’s life changed when WE Charity helped bring clean, running water into her rural community. The power of a little water faucet SPOTLIGHT ON ECUADOR:

Before WE came to Bellavista, Yadira would spend hours walking to a river to collect unclean water. She would need to take many breaks on her way home because of the heavy pots she carried and the long journey. However, before anyone could drink the water, they had to boil it because of the presence of parasites and dirt. For girls like Yadira, this was a daily job and it wasted many precious hours. To balance her chores and her studies, Yadira would often go to bed late and be too exhausted to focus in class the next day. So in 2016, alongside the locals of

Bellavista, WE helped implement a new water project and bring clean water to the local school and 30 homes in the community. Yadira will always remember the moment that purified, flowing water came to her community. Now, she doesn’t worry about her family getting sick from drinking unclean water anymore and she has more time to focus on her education and fulfill her dream of becoming a language teacher.

13

12

Visit India TRAVELERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD VISIT INDIA FOR the vibrant colors, delicious delicacies and beautiful sights like the Taj Mahal and Red Fort. On a ME to WE Trip, you not only get to experience everything that India has to offer, but we also bring you beyond the sights, onto the beaten path and into the communities that live there. For over 20 years, we have worked alongside the locals to help provide a sustainable development model, and from this long-standing relationship with them comes the chance to truly be immersed in the culture and their stories.

15

We’re partnering with communities in the Rajasthan region to implement WE Charity’s five-pillar sustainable development model, WE Villages, to break the cycle of poverty and empower the people who live there. Our work in India

12

PARTNER COMMUNITIES

EDUCATION 100+

WATER 9 community wells rehabilitated. OPPORTUNITY 23 women’s groups have been established and over 725 goats distributed. HEALTH 3000+ people have been provided with medical care.

schoolrooms have been built, including classrooms, teacher offices and libraries.

FOOD 200 farms participating in food programming.

17

A school built on love SPOTLIGHT ON INDIA:

Jhumi Bai and Dhana Lal fell in love with learning and each other, and have redefined the landscape of education in their community together.

Jhumi and Dhana were subject to marginalization and poverty as members of the Scheduled Tribes in India, an indigenous group designated by the government. However, the couple grew up dreaming that education would change their lives—and it did. Jhumi was the first female in her family to attend school, after a local teacher convinced her father that education would help their family. When Jhumi was in the third grade, she was arranged to be married to another determined student, Dhana, who was in the sixth grade. When the pair became educators, they started teaching local children in the community of Kalthana, where there was no school.

So, Jhumi convinced the authorities to create a primary school for grades one to five. The school’s infrastructure was very humble and classes were often canceled when it rained, because of leaks. In 2013, WE Charity, which had been partnering with villages in Rajasthan since 2008, expanded to include Kalthana. Over the next few years, travelers from around the world worked alongside the community to help build the new school. With everyone’s help, Kalthana now has a newly renovated classroom, with new desks, toilets, stalls for girls and a clean water system featuring a handwashing station.

19

18

EVERY TRAVELER WISHES TO GO ON A SAFARI AND SEE the stunning Kenyan landscape, the wondrous wildlife and be a part of the story of Kenya. But with a ME to WE Trip, we’ll also take you beyond the safari and onto the beaten path—not the one that’s walked by tourists, but by the people who call this beautiful country home. We’ve worked alongside the Maasai and Kipsigis communities on sustainable development projects for over 20 years and established deep, genuine connections with them. Now, when you visit, those connections are extended to you, and you are welcomed into the community not as a tourist, but as family. Visit Kenya

20

Our work in Kenya We’re partnering with Maasai and Kipsigis communities to implement WE Charity’s five-pillar sustainable development model, WE Villages, with projects including:

25

PARTNER COMMUNITIES

EDUCATION 11,500+ students who we have helped support from elementary school through to high school. WE is now building a WE College to help continue their academic careers. FOOD 10 demonstration gardens that have been implemented in schools, along with three community farms in Sikirar, Pimbiniet and Kipsongol.

WATER 14 boreholes—half of which are solar—that are currently serving 15 communities, with four more boreholes planned for 2018. OPPORTUNITY 125+ women’s, men’s and youth groups have been established, and over 1,400 artisans supported by WE.

HEALTH 36

mobile clinics held each year in the most remote communities.

23

22

Faith, a determined young student, overcame all obstacles to achieve her dreams of going to school and seeing the world.

Faith was 13 years old when her father decided it was time for her to marry. But the persistent teenager had other plans—she wished to be the first in her family to attend high school. Despite the obstacles thrown her way, she faced her challenges head-on and made her dreams a reality. Faith’s father firmly believed that only boys could attend school and girls were to stay at home until they were married. He discouraged his daughter from pursuing an education and doubled her chores so that she didn’t have time for her studies. However, she refused to quit and completed her tasks at all hours of the night so that she could study during the day. When Faith was rejected from Kisaruni All Girls Secondary School in Oleleshwa, opened in

partnership with WE Charity, she thought that it was the end of her journey. Her father saw that she was disappointed and it pained him to see her defeated. But not long after, she received a late acceptance and he realized that her story was just beginning. With her father’s support, Faith went on to become Oleleshwa’s first school president. And in 2014, she fulfilled her wish of seeing the world when she attended the WE Day Tour. Today, WE Charity, along with Kisaruni Secondary School, is helping young girls across the Maasai Mara accomplish their goals. Now, Faith and other girls just like her are leading the way to show that everyone has the right to an education.

Defying the odds for a girl’s right to education SPOTLIGHT ON KENYA:

25

24

WE AMBASSADORS

SIR RICHARD BRANSON , business leader and founder of the Virgin Group, has shared with the WE movement the positive effect of social enterprise businesses and the importance of businesses being mindful of their impact.

ARNE DUNCAN , former U.S. Secretary of Education, is helping empower youth as a WE Day Illinois Co-Chair.

THE KURET FAMILY witnessed firsthand how communities are coming together to help break the cycle of poverty, and their family was transformed by the experience and its lasting impact.

THE VIET FAMILY connected with the local communities and saw firsthand the positive impact they were making and the power we all have to change the world.

When you are a part of the WE movement, you are part of something bigger.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI took the stage at WE Day UK in 2014 and inspired millions of people around the world about the power of education, community and love.

27

26

Our team is here to help bring this life-changing experience to you and your friends and family. Below is the contact information for the Special Experience team that will help you start your journey. The next step

1.416.964.8942 x1555 [email protected]

28