This past year has brought many exciting developments at Setso Project.  We have launched three new exciting Initiatives, brought on a new Development Coordinator and are very very close to filing our application for tax exempt status, which will mean soon we can solicit donations to Setso Project proper, without having to rely on a fiscal sponsor to collect tax-exempt donations!

If I told you that Tom Cleveland brings energy to Setso Project I would be grossly underestimating this guy’s dedication and creativity.  For the second year in a row, Tom has taken his hand-made reindeer to the streets for Setso Project.  Inspired at first by a wooden reindeer given to him as a gift in the mid-eighties, Tom has since set his craftsmanship to work, producing a yearly flock of deer with an efficiency and scale that would make any factory foreman proud.  “At some point I had dreams of megalomania,” Tom recounts, “and New York City was going to be my first triumph”. 

He may not have made the millions he hoped for, but these little log creatures have an anthropomorphic charm that just might make miracles happen.  For one thing, Tom’s reindeer have become an almost ubiquitous symbol of kinship in the quiet neighborhoods of CT; One can always spot a friendly household by the deer welcoming visitors from the front steps, or grazing in the garden.  In fact Tom met his sweetheart while making one of his reindeer.  But perhaps even more heartwarming, for the past two years his reindeer have been charming shoppers in NY City’s Union Square, where they are sold for $20 a-piece in support of Setso Project’s work on HIV/AIDS in Botswana. 

Despite the fact that Tom hasn’t raised his prices since 1996 and that he can’t help but give them away for free to kids, the “Reindeer for Botswana” campaign has already brought in $1,300 in proceeds.  Some little-known reindeer facts? “They love kids!” Tom exclaims, and “reindeer the world over are determined to fight AIDS in Africa”. If you were lucky enough to get one this year, please remember Tom’s warning: “One night before Christmas, your reindeer may disappear in the twinkle of an eye. Do not worry – Botswana is only a short flight away”.

Those of you who received our first newsletters may remember Wame Mhaphi, a graduate of Setso Project’s Craft Workshops back in 2006 who has since won national awards for her paper mache jewelry two years in a row.  Wame was also recruited by Otse Community Home Based Care and the Botswana Prisons system to teach jewelry workshops.  When she lost her formal job as an HIV educator because of funding cuts, Setso Project quickly scooped her up to fill our vacant Development Coordinator position. Wame’s creativity and enthusiasm for getting things done is now on our team!  She is already hitting the dirt to start up Edna’s Educators, our new tutoring initiative for kids in Gabane village.  Wame has also begun organizing our Village Movie Nights Initiative (see insert), which we hope to kick into action with the new year.  Please join me in welcoming Wame formally to the Setso Project team. 

Link to Edna's Educators

How often have you found yourself at a loss for the perfect gift for family and friends?  For those of us fortunate to have so much plenty in our lives, the last thing we need is one more soon-to-be discarded or forgotten gift. That’s why we created Setso’s “Make Someone You Love Feel Special” Projects.

This program was first conceived in 2007 when Grandma Edna turned 85. Her life-long dedication to tutoring at-risk children inspired family and friends to create a fund through Setso Project (see Edna’s Educators) where Edna’s passion for teaching will be celebrated every day, providing the children of Gabane with much needed after school tutoring, providing Edna’s family/friends with a meaningful, and, yes, special way to honor her on every birthday and providing Edna with a sense of pride that her unique contribution to the world is valued.  

So come to us with your ideas and we will work with you to identify a program and budget that speaks specifically to commemorating those important moments and people in your life.  We will provide you with an artistic email-able announcement of your intentions, inviting others to join you in this gift-giving that will mean so much to everyone involved.  Soon your project will expand to Setso supporters outside your immediate circle, inspired by your initiative as they read of the progress of your program through newsletter updates. What could be more fulfilling than making a difference in the real lives of real people, all in the honor of someone you love?  

Link to Village Movie Nights

Link to Meals with Care

Setso Project has recently launched three new Initiatives!  Edna's Educators, Village Movie Nights, and Meals with Care need your support to get off the ground. Please see the colored inserts and our website for more information.  Collections for our existing Initiatives, Medical Supplies, Craft Workshops, and Business Skills Training, are ongoing.  Find an Initiative that sings to you and help us move this critical work forward. 

Becca Lowry

We have recently formalized our Board of Directors and Advisors, bringing many creative minds on board to support Setso Project’s mission to bolster critical community development initiatives in Botswana.  Our Board is comprised of yours truly, as President, Tom Cleveland, financial guru, as secretary, and Wendy Lewis, Her Highness of Getting Things Done as our Treasurer.  Our Advisors bring to Setso Project a diversity of talent and applicable knowledge: Jessica Birks, formerly a development worker in Botswana, now serves as part of the Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Response Group with Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs; Maggie McConnell, a PhD student in Experimental Economics at Caltech, provides us with insights from her research on charitable fundraising  and behavioral economics; Billy Kgosikwena heads Botswana’s multi-sector HIV/AIDS response for Tsabong District and is formerly the Director of Tsholofelo Counseling and Support Center, one of our Partner organizations; and Koreen Reece offers us more than 5 years of experience working for AIDS service organizations in Botswana as well as the Botswana Department of Social Services.  We are very honored to have such incredible people behind us. Read more about our Team 

Our application for tax exempt (non profit) status is in final review with a group of wonderful volunteer lawyers and law students at Yale Law School. Once we get the okay from them we will submit to the IRS and then it’s just a matter of waiting and hoping.  In the mean time, we are thankful to Innovations for Poverty Action for offering fiscal sponsorship that allows your donations to be tax deductible even before Setso Project becomes its own tax-exempt entity.

Special thanks are due to the Yale Law students who have worked hard on our behalf. Last year I had the privilege of working with Lucas Mills and Theresa Lee and this year Andrew Thomas and William Murk will help us to the final stretch.  Huge thanks are also due to Tom for his outstanding fundraising efforts.  I wish we could all be so inspired, it would be a beautiful world.