Thank you Tim and Tina Golman and to Bob and Julie Melendi for your generous donation to TRUE Action!

With your support, TRUE and GACS will purchase The Golman African Farm - a two-acre parcel of land in the neighboring village of Nawayango. We will irrigate the farm to grow coffee, bananas, and beans as a cash crop to sustain the school and to provide GACS students a nutritious, balanced meal during their school day.

The farmland is the first step in our plan to becoming economically self-sufficient. Please stay posted here and on the Golman African School Facebook Page for updates.

You were a mother to everyone and the inspiration behind our efforts. We will honor your legacy.

TrueAction is humbly accepting donations in Shari's honor.

Once again, our friends at Rooster Springs Elementary have completed a successful fundraising campaign. They created t-shirts showing their support of GACS. We are so thankful for this smart, giving, and world-changing group of students. Have a great summer vacation, Rooster Springs!!

Thank you to all the wonderful women who attended our latest Fall Fundraiser Brunch. They raised $1,142 for the school! GACS students say...

Students are working hard this month!

TRUE Action would like to send a heart-felt thank you to the Conroy Family for sponsoring 15 students. Your kindness is changing lives.

It was so nice to connect with amazing women at our TRUE Action brunch this morning, and we are blown away by the genuine love, support and generosity of those who have donated and expressed interest in the cause to educate more children. They raised $2,013!!

A sweet girl with a big heart helped collect, clean, organize and send 81 pairs of shoes to GACS. Check out GACS students in their new kicks.

Students sent letters to their sponsors. Look at the sweet one Nikki received last week!

Students are enjoying their newly painted school building


Students having fun at lunch

Thanks to more wonderful women of Austin, TRUE Action raised $521 at our Ladies Fundraiser Brunch on Sunday. Students are getting settled back at school for the spring semester this week. New photos coming soon.

Students enjoying posho, beans, and pineapple

Teacher Monica teaching an important lesson

Primary 2 (Second Grade) learning

A donation was made in honor of Jeannie Hutchcraft, who passed this week. Jeannie was a giving, strong woman full of unconditional love. Her memory will shine on in all our hearts.

GACS students start the new school year next week, and some wonderful ladies in Austin got together to support them. I feel honored to have met so many talented, kind, interesting, smart women. $900 raised and 10 more students sponsored! Thanks, Ladies.

The Monkey Nest Coffee Shop in Austin chose TRUE Action as their Charity of the Month and donated proceeds from their sales to GACS. Not only is this great business run by generous, good people, but their coffee and food is delicious... and healthful. Check them out at www.monkeynestcoffee.com

True Action and the students of the Golman School want to thank Rackspace Hosting for their generous donation!

The students at Rooster Springs Elementary School in Dripping Springs ISD collected 450 pairs of shoes for GACS students! TRUE Action is excited about partnering with this bright, driven, giving school community in the future. Thank you, Rooster Springs!

On Feb 8th, GACS children started having their lunch at school. This included beans, maize bread(commonly known as posho) plus pineapple! Some passers-by got amazed to see our kids eating at school!!! Our thanks go to Michael & Susan Dell Center and all the friends of GACS who are making this possible!

Zaina received a gift from one of her sponsors in Texas. Thanks, Tessa!

With the help of the Michael and Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living, GACS students will receive a balanced meal of beans, corn, cabbage and fruit at school next term. Thank you, Rose J and all the kind people of the MSD Center, for all your support!

GACS Kids are very thankful of their sponsors!

A new fence to protect GACS students

As a sign of appreciation, Gacs kids made this special local broom with their own hands for all the friends who have contributed to their education

Many children lined up in the village to admire GACS kids in their new uniforms!

Thanks to outpouring of love, 24 students have sponsors! We still have 39 kids who need matches. Please, please help out today!

You have always come through for our students. We are beyond thankful for your constant support!

With the help of some generous GACK supporters (thank you, fipi lele!) TRUE Action was able to kick off the school year! Please check back soon for a video update of the kids!

The Fall 2010 school year is about to begin, and we need your help! GACK has become so popular that we now have more children eager for an education than our budget can afford. In order to accommodate these students, we must raise an additional $1,000 before school resumes on August 23rd. GACK is the only school in the area, so your help will give a child an education.

After a year and half of paperwork, the IRS has approved our application for non-profit status. TRUE Action is now a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. All donations made since December 2008 are tax-deductible as well as any donations made from now on.

To all the friends of Trueaction, we say thank you so much for supporting GACK! We believe that however small our number, we can change the whole world.

Sofia eats her porridge so fast and wants to get more from her friends!

Students are learning to count.

Learning outside on a beautiful day.

Playtime! They don't have swings yet but they enjoy running around.

"We received the funds and are busy working 24/7 for GACK! It's not easy, but we are trying. We have employed another teacher, Michael Musasizi, to help us. I was his teacher some years back, and he has great potential. We wanted to have a male teacher around.We also purchased 2 small bicycles, and you can't believe how children and parents are excited about this! Please convey our gratitudes to all the well-wishers. Priorities: Painting the school, more school uniforms, books, and teachers' allowance!"
- Masaidio Kalenga

A special thanks to our good friend, Navid, for his generous contribution. The kindness of donors like you keep our organization afloat. Thank you, thank you!

Thanks to our donors, the girls at GACK are ready for the new Spring 2010 semester! They shyly pose for the camera in their new uniforms.

GACK was able to move to a new eight-roomed building! Students now have several classrooms, a play area, and a library! More pictures coming soon.
The students at GACK thank you for all your donations and support.

GACK needs to expand! Fifty more eager children are waiting to enroll, but our resources are limited. After much research, our school director found an eight-roomed building to accommodate the new students and two additional, qualified teachers ready to begin the semester. Unfortunately, plans are on hold until we can raise the necessary funds. In total, we need to raise $2250 (see below). Please help us reach our goal and give these new students a chance to learn.

Fundraising Goal (2/10-2/11): $2,250
Rent the 8-roomed building for one year: $650
Hire 2 additional teachers: $600 ($300/yr)
Supply food for 50 new students: $600

If you would like to help, please either donate through ChipIn or through our website. Your generosity changes lives. Thank you!

Kim's Kids Inc. just held a fundraiser and raised enough money to help us hire a new teacher! We deeply appreciate their generosity. New pictures coming soon...

Help sustain a school for an entire year!! TRUE Action introduces the 50/50 Campaign:

Keep a school running for an entire year! These 50 individuals donate $50 each year to sustain GACK and will have an opportunity to visit the school to volunteer their time and talents.

CLICK HERE to learn more

Thank you Casis Elementary in Austin, Texas for holding our first spring fundraiser for GACK. The students from Ms. Ross's class made art from nature and sold their photos and poems to raise funds for GACK students!

We are preparing for another successful year at GACK, and TRUE Action needs your help. We would like to raise funds to buy our own school building with running water, electricity, and the Internet for the next school year!

Here's how it works:
1. Reply positively to this Evite if you would like to participate.
2. If you would like us to send you a donation box, email your home address to:trueaction@trueaction.org
3. Collect change for the next 6 weeks in your donation box.
4. Either bring your box to our end of the school year celebration on May 27th at Alborz Restaurant OR send us an e-mail and we can come by to pick it up before the party.

Also, look for our TRUE Action blue piggy banks at local stores and donate if you have the change. We will collect these once they are full and break them open at our end of the school year celebration.

Email from the School Director:
"Children are back to school and I am amazed to see that almost each child came back with his or her friend to study at GACK. They are 45 now. After careful deliberation, we finally hired another teacher and a part-time headmistress."

TRUE Action incorporates as a non-profit in the state of Texas and files with the Secretary of State. TANO agrees to be our fiscal agent until TRUE gets full status from the IRS. A Board of Directors is formed, and bylaws are adopted.

TRUE Action successfully sends GACK it's first package full with school supplies, drawings and greeting cards from the donors, and kids from the Austin Baha'i community and Andrew's Elementary. We also sent school T-shirts donated by Sweet Manufacturing.

Masaidio returns from his trip to Colombia where FUNDAEC trained him on their teaching principles for rural and poor communities.

Some of Fundaec's principles:
*Consider the people as potential resources, not as problems.
*Develop human potential through a proper education that acknowledges and promotes human nobility.
*Work for a development that is not conceived as "Modernization."
*Engage in the search for pertinent knowledge.
*Avoid offering "pre-packaged" solutions.
*Recognize the need for endogenous structures in the region that would connect it to corresponding external structures. www.fundaec.org

Inspired by Masaidio Kalenga's vision for a school in his local Ugandan village, Staci and Mandi contacted friends in Texas to raise funds. In backyard BBQ style, we were able to raise $2,000 to pay for the initial start-up costs of the school. Word caught on and expansion began. Five months later, the children have new clothes and toiletries, a two-roomed rented school building, and two teachers. School has been in session since August 2008.

Rarely in life do we meet a person like Masaidio Kalenga. His story is not what makes him so special, although it is profound. It is his strength of character. Here is a brief glimpse at a humble, warm man who survived tragedy, overcame triumph, and now selflessly fights to better the world.

Masaidio grew up in Goma, Congo amidst extreme poverty and violence. He was forced to flee from his home to Kampala, Uganda where he could find relative safety. Alone at the age of 19, he had to start his life over as a refugee in a new country also riddled with violence. It was there that he touched the life of Anlo Sepulveda, a 26 year-old carpenter/film-maker from Texas. During Anlo's four month stay in Uganda he befriended Masaidio. He immediately knew this man had the potential to do great things. Anlo returned home with the hopes of finding a way for Masaidio to attend university. Staci, a teacher in Austin, and her sister Mandi, a college student, offered to help. After completing a four-year degree, Masaidio wanted to give back to his community. He worked in a rural village, teaching the community how to better produce food with their land. He then moved to another rural village called Nawanyago, where he met a group of inspirational young children. He would watch them play outside, work in the village, or sit at home from sunrise to sunset. Understanding first hand the opportunities that an education can reveal, he began envisioning a plan to open a small kindergarten of about 20 children in the village. He knew the enormity of the task, but resolved to send the young kids to school.