For the past two years, Olivia Cowell has been raising an incredible amount of money for a school over 6,000-miles away, with her Etsy shop Hope for Excel, after spending a month volunteering in Kenya.
We caught up with Olivia, 23, who works as a teacher by day and whose family grew up in Herne Bay, to find out more about how the fundraising initiative started and just how much she’s managed to raise for Excel Emmanuel Education Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.
Olivia, who has a passion for arts, has been predominantly fundraising by making handmade crafts that she then sells on Etsy, as well as a fundraising page which has managed to raise £700. The Etsy sales have managed to raise an incredible £13,000 in generated income, which translates into around £8000 in donations, taking out the cost of postage and the materials.
Talking to CommunityAd, Olivia explained how it all began and where it’s developed to today: “It began by a volunteering stint I did with the charity Porridge and Rice in the summer of 2019. I went to Kenya for 1 month to volunteer – teaching the children, preparing and serving lunches, and more. The trip changed my life.
“The money is donated to the schools for the feeding programme which provides the students and staff with 2 meals every day, teacher income, and essential facilities like new desks and printers. The school had their national exams in March and I was able to provide them with 45 new desks for the students to complete the exams on. As a token of appreciation, they added my name and Hope for Excel onto the desks!
“In April 2020, I received a handwritten letter from one of the students who I taught, explaining COVID has caused devastation in the community and the school was forced to close. I couldn’t bear the thought of somewhere so special to me closing, so I had to do something.
“I am hoping the readers will be inspired by the story and potentially keen to help out by purchasing items from the Etsy store which will contribute donations to the school.
“I would like to add a shoutout to the student who wrote the initial letter, Caroline Wakio, who is now a dear friend of mine who writes me a letter every month updating me on her family’s situation and how she is getting on. She is entirely responsible for the setup of Hope for Excel so all the benefits that Excel school experience due to the generated donations is due to her.”
For those who would like to purchase one of Olivia’s handmade crafts and donate to a worthy cause at the same time make your way over to her Etsy shop Hope for Excel.