Features

Upcoming trade shop to benefit One Heart With Africa

By Jill Chipman ’14

February 21, 2013

One Heart With Africa is an organization designed to help African nations and other struggling nations in every aspect of life. The organization examines problems in these nations such as clean water, education, healthcare and community. Hamilton College has developed a tie with this program and works under the direction of Co-Presidents Laurie Sadove ’13 and Sydney Rutman ’13.

Sadove and Rutman remember joining the organization their freshmen year “we really wanted to get involved in something on campus and we heard about One Heart with Africa via e-mail” they said.

This year, the organization decided to donate any funds that are raised to three groups: the Ubuntu Education Fund, Charity: Water and The Supply. The Ubuntu Education Fund was founded in 1999 and works to provide education and health services to children in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Founded in 2006, Charity: Water is an organization devoted to providing simple and sustainable water options to people in developing nations that are without elaborate water systems. The Supply is another group founded in 2010 and is  focused on education. Their mission is to build schools in impoverished neighborhoods.

Since Sadove and Rutman joined One Heart With Africa, the group has benefitted from many fundraising activities at Hamilton. The organization was the recipient from the money raised at the 2011 Mr. Hamilton pageant. Also, this year, One Heart With Africa is pairing with  Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton to host a trade show on Feb 25 in Beineke, they hosted one last semester as well which was a success.

“Lauralyn Kolb is associated with the church and was nice enough to contact the One Heart With Africa group in order to combine efforts” Sadove explained when asked how the trade shop idea came to form at Hamilton.
The two organizations have split the profits raised from the trade shop in half. Last semester, half of the profits went to the Ubuntu Education Fund while this semester, half will go to The Supply.

The trade shop will feature items from around the world including jewelry, baskets and stone carvings. The items come from a variety of groups including BeadforLife, Ten Thousand Villages and SERRV International. All of these organizations are nonprofit and help impoverished nations around the world.

Sadove noted that while the trade shop will only be at Hamilton on Monday, all the items at the trade show are also available at the shop run from  Stone Presbyterian Church in Clinton. The shop is open Thursdays 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second Saturday of each month.

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