All posts tagged: compassion

Celebrating Well #8, Launching Round #9!

October 30, 2023 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Round #8 is officially DONE! We are so proud of all of the kids who pitched in to sell elephants and spread the word about Set Free so that another well could be drilled in India. This well provided clean water to 6,500 people in Southern India, thanks to 50 kids here in America that decided they wanted to make it happen!

To date, Crowdsourcing Kids have provided clean water to 28,017 people since we launched five years ago. Ready to do it again!? We’re launching Round #9 on Wednesday, November 1st. Here’s what this round will look like:

Each kit will include 9 small elephant ornaments, and 1 large elephant ornament handmade by young ladies rescued from slavery in India.
Crowdsourcing Kids will sell the 9 elephants for $12 each, and the large elephant for $17, generating $125 for Set Free.
When 50 kids each do that, we’ll have enough money to drill our 9th well in India! We’ll be able to give the gift of clean water to a village that has waited a long time for this simple resource.

Ready to get involved and be a world changer!? We’d love for you to get join!

Our Greenville Festival of Trees Tradition

November 4, 2022 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Since 2019 we have had the joy of decorating a tree for the Festival of Trees. In 2021 we were recognized with First Place in the “Organizations” category. This year we wanted to honor our past Crowdsourcing Kids, while hoping to encourage new children to help us drill a well in India. If that’s how you ended up on this page– welcome!

As of right now, we need 40 more children to each sell 10 handmade elephants so we can drill our next well in India. We’d love for you to join! Each elephant kit contains 10 elephants handmade by young ladies rescued from slavery. When you sell those 10 elephants you will have raised $125 for our non-profit partner Set Free. When 50 kids do that, we have enough money to drill a well in India! Thanks to the power of compassionate kids we have given the gift of clean water to 21,517 people since we started just four short years ago.

Order your kit now and if you’re local, you can pick it up from Set Free’s office on Wade Hampton Blvd. If you’re not, we’re happy to ship it to you! Thank you for thinking of others this Christmas season and for giving the life-changing gift of clean water to those who desperately need it.

Here We Go! Help Us Complete Round #8

August 10, 2022 Alison Events No comments

Thanks to the efforts of compassionate kids, 21,517 people have clean water since Crowdsourcing Kids launched in 2018. Last year alone we provided clean water to nearly 10,000 people. We’re proving that when we work together, anything is possible! We’ve done it seven times and now we’re doing it again!

Packing Round #8 Elephant Kits

Last month several Crowdsourcing Kids gathered to help pack our elephant kits for Round #8. Check out this video of their hard work!

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How Crowdsourcing Kids Works

New to the concept? Here’s how it works! We have 50 kits available for Round #8. When 50 kids each sell a kit, which includes 10 elephants handmade by young ladies rescued from slavery, they’ll raise $125 each for our ministry partner Set Free. With their efforts combined, those 50 kids will raise enough money to drill a well in India!

Ready to Get Started?

Now it’s time to get your kids involved! Order your Crowdsourcing Kids elephant kit now and teach your kids what it means to be a world changer! They’ll see that they’re not too young to make a difference in the world. Help us drill our 8th kid-powered well in India and change the lives of an entire village!

You Did It! Our 7th Well Report!

February 7, 2022 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

A 7th kid-powered well is now giving clean water and hope to an entire village in India thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids! Back in August on World Elephant Day we launched Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids. Dozens of kids, along with Greenville Community Church, sold 500 handmade elephants to fund our 7th well drilling project in India.

Kids CAN Change the World

We are happy to share that because of the combined efforts of kids like Maizey (13), Laila (11), Hannah (15), Elliott (5), Hudson (8), Willow (3), Nash (5), Haven (7), Abel (5) and so many others we were able to make this happen:

Life Before the Well

The villagers living here are low caste. That means they are treated very poorly, and often valued as worth less than animals. Because of that, there have been no efforts to improve their water supply. They were forced to rely on a hand-dug well. But when that water source dried up, they were traveling to an open well outside the village that contained very dirty water.

Third Time’s a Charm

Thanks to Crowdsourcing Kids and our ministry partner Set Free, we were able to send a drilling crew to this village for a life-changing mission. Finding fresh, clean water didn’t come easily, however. It took the drilling crew three attempts before hitting fresh water. But they did not give up! And the village’s 9,562 people are so glad they didn’t! Because now they have a clean water source.

Children Reunited With Families

Not only did this Crowdsourcing Kids well provide clean water for nearly 10,000 people, it also offered an opportunity to restore families and share the love of Christ. Through the drilling of the well, the Set Free partner pastor heard of children that were taken into slavery from the village. The pastor helped free 36 children from slavery and reunite them with their families in this village.

Let’s recap that and let it sink in…

Kids in America sold 500 handmade elephants, raising $6,250.
That money funded drilling a well that gave 9,562 people clean water.
Through the well-drilling, a visiting pastor helped free 36 children from slavery and reunite them with their families.
Thousands of villagers have heard the Gospel and many are part of a weekly Bible study.

WOW! By now we all know kids can change the world! Get your child involved with our next round of Crowdsourcing Kids! We’ll be launching Round #8 soon so stay tuned!

We Made Some Changes With Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids

September 7, 2021 Alison Events, Kids No comments

Round #7 of Crowdsourcing Kids launched on World Elephant Day, August 11th, 2021. We currently have less than 20 elephant kits available and we’d love your help to complete this round so we can drill our 7th well in India and bring clean water to another village. Getting a kit is easy! Buy your kit and have it shipped, or pick it up locally at the Set Free office in Greenville, South Carolina. We’ve made a couple of changes with this round that we want to tell you about!

We Switched From Boxes to Bags

You’ll notice that our kits no longer come in boxes. They are packaged in beautiful teal bags instead! We did this with hopes of saving some money on shipping costs. It also significantly reduced the time it took to prep this round during our annual packing party! (Thanks again to our amazing volunteers who pitched in to tag and bag the elephants!)

Each Crowdsourcing Kids Kit Contains 10 Elephants

In the past, each elephant kit contained 12 elephants, 10 smalls and two larges. Now each kit contains just 10 elephants: 5 larges and 5 smalls. When your child sells their elephants they will have raised $125 for Set Free. When 50 kids do this, we will have raised enough money to drill a well in India! So far Crowdsourcing Kids have drilled six wells in India, giving the gift of clean water to 11,955 people since we started in 2018.

We Partnered with Greenville Community Church

For round #7, we partnered with Greenville Community Church. They’re taking this on as a project for their GCC Kids program! They’ve set a goal of selling 100 elephants. Members of the Set Free team will be on hand during a Sunday school service to teach the kids about the water crisis, and what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus. They’ll learn who makes the elephants and how selling them helps us share the Gospel! If you’re part of a church that would like to partner with Crowdsourcing Kids, please connect with us! We’d love to work with you!

Well #5 Report: Clean Water for 3,980 People!

October 15, 2020 Alison Clean Water No comments

Because 50 kids in America decided to pitch in during a global pandemic and each sell 12 handmade elephants, 3,980 people in the village of Naidu Palem have clean water! Isn’t that amazing?? This is our 5th Crowdsourcing Kids well drilled in India.

Life Before the New Well

Previously, the village of Naidu Palem relied on four hand-dug wells that have dried up. When these wells ran dry, the women and children began collecting water from a river far outside the village. Because of the financial strain brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, both parents needed to work to help support their families. Due to their lack of easily accessible water, many of the wives couldn’t support their families because their time was used to collect this dirty water.

Why This Village?

Our partners in India assessed the village’s needs, and our pastor partner arranged for the drilling of this deep well to begin as soon as possible. Once the drilling of this well was completed in August thanks to the money raised by the Crowdsourcing Kids boxes sold, men and women rejoiced because they had more time to work to support their families!

What the Gift of Clean Water Means to Them

Drinking dirty water impacts a person’s health in many ways. One of the issues it creates is damage to the immune system. Because of this, many residents of this village struggled with illness. They had a difficult time fighting COVID-19 and one person there even passed away from the virus. But now that they have access to clean water, residents report feeling healthier overall, and there have been no Coronavirus deaths.

We are excited to announce the launch of round 6 of Crowdsourcing Kids. These 50 boxes of elephants will help fund the drilling of a well in another village in India that desperately needs access to clean water. Will you and your family help?

Registration is CLOSED! What Does That Mean?

December 14, 2019 Alison Kids No comments

Registration is now CLOSED for Crowdsourcing Kids! What does that mean? It means a couple of things:

All of our elephant boxes to fund our FIFTH Crowdsourcing Kids well in India have been snatched up! That’s great news! It means that when everyone sells their elephants and submits the funds to Water of Life, our fifth well will be fully funded and we’ll be able to drill another well to completely change the lives of an entire village. Want to see the last well we drilled? Check this out!
Since all of our elephant boxes have been claimed for our fifth well, we are now asking new friends to sign up for the waiting list. That way we can notify you when a fresh batch of elephant boxes becomes available. We anticipate the next round launching around World Water Day 2020.

Meet Our Newest Crowdsourcing Kids

We are having so much fun seeing photos of our elephant salesmen and saleswomen from our fifth class of Crowdsourcing Kids! They’re doing a great job sharing the story of Water of Life, while learning about the water crisis.

These three world changers are Caleb, 5, Joshua, 4, and Samuel, 1. They sold elephants door-to-door on a drizzly Friday afternoon. We love what mom Jennifer had to say about the experience, “What a blessing it is to teach them what it means to love others and what that looks like in action. They understand that not everyone in this world has access to fresh water like we do. We’ve had conversations about slavery and the freedom that these elephants represent. And they are walking away from this experience with the understanding that even though they are young, they can still make a difference in this world.”

Thank you boys, and thank you to all of the kids who are making our fifth Crowdsourcing Kids well possible. We can’t wait to show you photos and video from India!

Teaching Compassion: School Sells Elephants to Fund Well Drilling in India

August 14, 2019 Alison Clean Water, Kids No comments

Sixth grade teachers Jean Crosby and Lynn Connelly at St. Joseph’s Catholic School are always looking for ways to teach students life lessons that extend beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. They want students to learn things like compassion, kindness and the importance of serving others. But, how do you teach kids compassion? With that goal in mind, they invited Set Free’s Executive Director Sarah Kelley to the school to talk about the ministry’s work in India. “Her message was so beautiful,” recalls Lynn. “[Set Free] wants to take care of the whole person, not just the water, but also spread the message of Christ.”

An Eye-Opening Message

Sarah’s stories deeply impacted the students. They learned how children, just like them, don’t have access to clean water, and how others are forced into slavery. The students even practiced carrying jugs of water, just like children in Africa and India must do for their families. Sarah explained how Set Free works to share Christ through the gift of clean water, and cares for hundreds of children pulled from slavery. “I think our little 6th graders found it hard to fathom,” says Jean. “A lot of them did not know there was still child slavery.” Lynn adds, “when they realized there were children in slavery it really touched their hearts. They wanted to do something.”

Can We Sell These?

The teachers knew their students were taking the message to heart because 60 of them sat quietly the entire time, soaking it in. The students heard about how the rescued girls make stuffed elephants as a way to learn a trade so they can gain employment and end a cycle of poverty. “[Our students] were like ‘can we sell these?’ When they heard it was helping others it took on a life of its own,” says Jean.

Young Seamstress Makes Elephant

Elephants Practically Sell Themselves

The students started selling elephants and the goal quickly expanded. The school now hopes to sell enough elephants to fund an entire well drilling project in India. “[The elephants] sell themselves. We just didn’t know it was going to take off,” says Jean. “We had the elephants in our rooms and the kids came flooding in.” The school plans to adopt this project again for the 2019-2020 school year, when the theme will be ‘compassion.’ “I think for the students it’ll be very meaningful that they were able to accomplish this as young as they are,” says Lynn.

Get Your School Involved!

Do you teach, attend, or know of a school that would like to sponsor a well in India or Africa? Selling elephants is a great way to incorporate math and entrepreneurship into lessons. Learning about the country teaches geography and history lessons. We’d love to support you in your goal! Please reach out and let’s change the world!