About

In Mole, Ghana, a donation of $200 will provide the first soccer balls (and the only athletic equipment) that a school of over 500 children has received in nine years. We will also be delivering some world maps, art materials, and primary school readers. Small sums of money can make a significant difference in these areas, where supplies are infrequently provided or non-existent.

How we started:

Travel Learn Change was inspired by recent travels to Niger, El Salvador, and Ghana. During these trips, Heather Heckel and other trip participants witnessed significant development challenges including low access to education, a severe lack of school supplies and quality facilities, and limited clean water access. At the same time, we also saw talented local leaders working hard to improve the lives of the children and youth in their communities.

After returning from these trips, some participants informally sent financial support to a middle school in Niger and an orphanage in El Salvador. The success of these projects helped to inspire the development of Travel Learn Change, which enables travelers to build upon what they have seen and learned to make a difference in communities they have visited. We hope to use this organization to help support the people who welcomed us and to facilitate their efforts to address local development needs. We also hope, over time, to enable other travelers to support projects that inspired them. Towards these ends, we are pursuing the following:

• Seeking to establish a non-profit organization by the end of 2010. (Please note that TLC is not currently a 501(c)(3) and therefore donations at this time are not tax deductible).
• Accepting small donations from website visitors to support the three programs on the home page: Supplies for a Ghanaian school and a Ghanaian library; bicycles and school fees to allow youth from a rural Ghanaian village to attend school beyond fifth grade; and funding to enhance the quality and size of a rural Kenyan school. Financial donations are either sent directly to a local leader via bank transfer or used to purchase supplies that will be delivered to the Ghanaian schools and community leaders in March of 2010. Purchasing items in the US and delivering them saves a great deal of money in comparison with buying items in Ghana.
• Accepting suggestions for new projects to support. If you have been inspired by a local development effort that is not eligible for micro-finance loans (i.e. not a business), and not receiving funds from any aid agencies, please send a description of the project and the local leader to .

What makes our projects unique?

• Project ideas and management are run entirely by local leaders.
• Projects are not receiving charitable support from other sources, and because they are educational in nature, are not eligible for micro-credit financing. We have been inspired by the success of the micro-finance movement, but believe that there are also many small, worthy causes that are not businesses and instead are social investments in children’s futures.
• Funding under $1000 will significantly and positively affect the success of the project and enhance the lives of children in low-income areas.
• Projects are chosen based upon personal experience – seeing the challenges, meeting the leaders, having confidence that the projects are useful, well managed, and thoughtfully designed – such that they have positive development impacts without negatively affecting the environment, culture, or social issues.

Thank you for your time, interest, and support!

Heather