Breaking the Chain Through Jewelry
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Coming soon: Charm bracelets!
Coming to Dori Jewelry on February 23, are charm bracelets! The bracelets are made out of connected jump rings and will cost $15. The charms will be made like earrings, but with no hooks. It will cost $1 per charm or $4 for 5. Here's what they will look like:
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Dori in the Alternative Press - Speaker this Weekend
This Sunday, Breaking the Chain through Education founder Evan Robbins will speak in Cranford about the organization, its accomplishments and goals. Dori will introduce Evan and sell her jewelry there.
Dori and Evan were both featured in the Alternative Press, highlighting the speaker event. Here's what it says:
Dori and Evan were both featured in the Alternative Press, highlighting the speaker event. Here's what it says:
When Westfield 7th grader Dori Kaplan heard during a camp presentation that there were kids her age – and younger – who were child slaves in Ghana, she wanted to do something to help. “I felt bad that these kids didn’t get enough food or education, and had to work all the time. I wanted to see what I could do,” Kaplan said. She adopted this as her Bat Mitzvah project and began selling her hand-made beaded jewelry, raising $1,600 so far for Breaking the Chains through Education (BTCTE). The nonprofit buys the freedom of child slaves, reuniting them with their families, and helping them get education and enough food for the family.
Wanting others to hear what she heard at camp, she’s arranged for BTCTE founder Evan Robbins to speak at her Cranford synagogue this January. Robbins will show slides of the kids helped by BTCTE in Ghana, talking about the country’s child trafficking problem and what’s being done to stop it. The talk, free of charge and open to the public, is on Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 10:30 a.m., at Temple Beth El Mekor Chayim (338 Walnut Avenue, Cranford).
Robbins, a Metuchen High School social studies teacher and New Jersey Y camp division head, founded the 501(c)3 nonprofit, BTCTE, in 2011. As early as 2007, he and his high school students started raising money for other organizations to help these kids. Since then, Robbins visited Ghana several times with donors and his family, partnering with the International Organization for Migration to be on-the-ground support. In addition to the 30 kids freed, they’ll pay tuition for several of the kids to get higher education. BTCTE built a school for 250 kids, as well as teacher housing, and works with villages to find other ways to support their families without child trafficking.
The parents who sold their kids to fishermen were told the kids would get food and education, something they could not provide, and that the kids would assist the fishermen as well. However the kids are not given what was promised, and are often injured or get ill from doing dangerous work on fishing boats at Lake Volta.
Robbins was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award by the New Jersey Educators Association last February. Kaplan will introduce Robbins at the event, and will sell her jewelry, as well as BTCTE and African jewelry from Robbins’ recent trip, at the event.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Come hear BTCTE founder Evan Robbins speak
Please come hear Breaking the Chain founder Evan Robbins speak in Cranford about child trafficking and what's being done to stop it. Here is the event flyer!
Breaking the Chains of Child Slavery in Ghana
As we now read B’Shelach, the parsha
about the Jews gaining freedom from Egyptian slavery, Breaking the Chain
through Education founder Evan Robbins talks about modern-day slavery.
The Lifelong Learning Committee is
proud to present Breaking the Chain through Education (BTCTE) founder Evan
Robbins, who will speak on child trafficking in Ghana. Robbins is a Metuchen
High School teacher who founded the nonprofit organization with his students.
BTCTE bought the freedom of 30 child slaves, and continues to support them and
their families, with additional food, social work assistance and funding for
higher education. Robbins recently returned from Ghana, where he visited more
than half of the involved kids. He’ll bring photos and their stories, and tell
of child trafficking challenges in Ghana. Robbins will be introduced by TBEMC
seventh grader Dori Kaplan, whose Mitzvah project supports BTCTE.
When: Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.
Where: Temple Beth-el Mekor Chayim
338 Walnut Ave, Cranford, NJ
Dori’s beaded jewelry, with
proceeds going to BTCTE, will be
for sale at the event, along
with African jewelry and 2014 BTCTE calendars.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Come to the fair tomorrow in Union!
Dori's jewelry is featured in this article about the Jewish Fair & Expo tomorrow. Please come! Dori will be there from 12:30-4 (and her mom will be covering the booth from 10-12:30 while she's in Hebrew school).
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Dori's Jewelry at the Jewish Fair and Expo 11/17/13
Please visit Dori at the Jewish Fair and Expo this Sunday, November 13, 2013 at the Union Y (501 Green Lane, Union, NJ). The fair is free and has numerous vendors, entertainment, kids' activities, Kosher food and more. Entrance is free. Dori will be selling her beaded jewelry to support Breaking the Chain Through Education, which frees child slaves in Ghana.
More about Breaking the Chain through Education - Conversation with Founder Evan Robbins
Recently, Dori and I talked by phone with Breaking the Chains Through Education (BTCTE) founder Evan Robbins. He was about to leave for
Ghana for nine days. He told us that currently BTCTE is tracking and helping to
care for 30 Ghana kids they released from slavery.
These 30 kids had been living as slaves in one village,
having been sold by their parents at various ages to fishermen there. The
parents were told by the fishermen that these kids would get an education and
adequate food, something the parents had a hard time providing since they were
so poor. Turns out the kids didn’t get that education and were not fed well, plus
they worked many hours a day and were forced to do dangerous jobs. Read more about it here: http://www.breakingthechainthrougheducation.org/the-problem.html
The released child slaves are now spread out in 19 villages,
living with their families.In order to buy their freedom, BTCTE built a school for the remaining
kids in town, the slave owner/fishermen’s kids. The village is now declared slave
traffic-free, and the government is responsible for employing the teacher.
Here’s how BTCTE explains on its website the rationale for
building a school, and the multi-faceted approach to rehabilitation and
changing the economics there: “By establishing schools in destitute villages,
we provide local fishermen and their children with educational opportunities
and alternatives ways to earn a living. In exchange, the children they
traffic are set free and returned to life with their families. In other
villages and regions, we work to educate parents and create a culture where
trafficking is not acceptable, while providing funds to rescue and rehabilitate
their children. We believe this multifaceted approach, with a special
focus on improving educational opportunities, is the best way to “break the
chain” of child slavery.”
Where do BTCTE donations
go?
The money raised right now goes to pay for the social worker
who visits each of the released kids four times a year. The social worker costs
$30,000 a year, including travel and expenses. They pay the U.N. allotment for
lodging and food. BTCTE works with the nonprofit organization the InternationalOrganization for Migration, “the largest organization you’ve never heard of,”
Robbins said, to be the on-ground support and liaison for the social worker. The
organization deals with displaced people world-wide.
The money raised by BTCTE also provides extra food for the former
slave kids’ families, so the families won’t need to migrate looking for more
food. This way the kids can continue their education in the village and live a
stable life.
Where is Breaking the
Chain going in the future?
Rescuing 30 kids is awesome, but there are still thousands
of child slaves in Ghana, said Robbins. It’s an enormous problem. Funding in
the future will be used to pay for secondary school – boarding school for
the released kids.
BTCTE is volunteer-run with no salaried employees, aside
from the social worker on site in Ghana.
Donations
If you’re interested in donating to BTCTE, you can donate online via this link. BTCTE is a registered 503(c)(3) nonprofit. BTCTE will be opening new donation opportunities, in the form of sponsoring a child or sharing in the sponsorship of a child there. They’re working on details for that.
Dori, as her Bat Mitzvah project, is selling her hand-crafted
beaded jewelry through Etsy and also through personal sales and fairs. We’re
also happy to collect any donations and donate in bulk with the jewelry proceeds
if you prefer to write a check to us.
On February 7, 2014,
BTCTE is holding a fundraising event in New Jersey, where four dance troops will perform for
300-500 people, proceeds benefitting BTCTE. Dori has been invited to sell her jewelry at the event.
You can follow BTCTE’s fundraising efforts, missions to
Ghana and other events on their Facebook page. You can follow Dori's jewelry efforts on her Facebook page.
Monday, October 21, 2013
How to Donate to Breaking the Chain Through Education
Thank you for all the interest in my Bat Mitzvah project. If you'd like to support the organization directly, you can make a donation at the Breaking the Chain Through Education website. Unfortunately there is no way currently to tie in the donations with my project, but if you would like to send me an email at dorijewelry@gmail.com, I would love to send you a note expressing my appreciation.
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