Before you settle in to watch football next Saturday, why not help change the world first? Join ‘A Self-help Assistance Program (ASAP) for coffee, donuts and snacks plus a tour of the new “Tools For Empowerment” tool donation and recycling center. Here your donated tools will bring hope to youth in Haiti. Stop by Saturday at 341 D-Bob Industrial Way, Unit C, in Peachtree City between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Tools For Empowerment refurbishes and packages donated tools into tool kits for trades such as auto repair, carpentry, masonry, electrical and plumbing. Initially, these tool kits will be awarded to the graduates of the six vocational schools in Haiti, operated by the Salesians Missions of Don Bosco, a Christian order that has been offering vocational training to the poorest of the poor since 1857.
Bring a tool to donate! Your unwanted hand tools and equipment will make a life-changing difference to a family in Haiti.
It’s amazing the way these basic tool kits transform lives, where poverty prevails. With their own tools in hand, skilled graduates of Salesian schools will be able to find work or start their own enterprise, filling local needs as they help rebuild Haiti. Tools For Empowerment also offers many opportunities for volunteers to help with tool processing and do something that really does make a difference.
Providing tools for Haiti is only the beginning. Today the Salesians operate training schools in over 130 developing countries. ASAP is working in partnership with their headquarters in New York and envisions expanding operations to fill needs throughout Central America and the Caribbean.
Elizabeth Bara and Tom Arsenault, who met and married as Peace Corps volunteers in Swaziland, created ASAP in 1992 to foster cross-cultural understanding and self-reliance. From 1994-2005 they lived in Zimbabwe, working to improve education and promote entrepreneurship, until returning to the U.S. to settle in Peachtree City.
ASAP likes to practice what they preach – self-reliance – and has always operated a social enterprise to help cover operating costs. In Zimbabwe, ASAP’s carpentry-with-production training center helped fill the desperate need for furniture in rural schools and generated income for ten years. And many of you in Fayette County supported ASAP’s work between 2006-2009 by raising funds with private labeled fresh roasted “On Safari” coffee.
Everyone is invited. The open house will feature great deals on tools, equipment and cabinet hardware that are not appropriate to send to Haiti. Bargains Abound. Coffee, donuts and snacks will be waiting for you.
