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:

When Westfield 7^th 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.

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.

Admission to this event is free                                        

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.

   

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.

Learn more about Breaking the Chain through Education

Breaking The Chain: In the News!

Click here to learn more about how this organization started and about the founder, Evan Robbins.

Click here to watch a video on how this organization got started and how students are helping. It's excellent.

Click here to learn more about what this organization has done.

Click here to look at photos from Evan's trip to Africa.

Click here to watch their YouTube video

Click here to read an article that tells you more about the problems of child enslavement and what this organization is trying to do.

Click here to visit their Facebook page.

Click here to learn about what the child slaves have to do and what this organization is doing to help.

Click here to visit their website.

I hope you have learned more about this organization. If you have any additional questions, please email me. My email address is dorijewelry@gmail.com