Projects
Current Fundraising Project
Hello everyone! This is Teebro and Trishita Paul, directors for the Youth Mentor Program at Kids Like Us Community Learning Center, a non-profit organization tailored for children and young adults with special needs. After our successful fundraiser earlier this year, exceeding our goal of $5,000 for the stimulated workforce grocery store in the Workforce Development and Afterschool Program, we are hosting another fundraiser for KLU’s Early Learning Center.
Kids Like Us (KLU) is a one-of-a-kind organization that has many needs as they expand their programs to offer additional services to those with special needs, some of them being Life Skills and the Workforce Development Program for those who have aged out of high school. KLU believes that children and young adults, regardless of their ability, should: have the same opportunity to connect with others, be able to learn and interact with new friends, and have a sense of belonging in the community. The goal is to provide training and skill-based hands-on learning that will assist with independent living and working within the community.
KLU’s Early Learning Center is a childcare facility for infants and toddlers ranging from 6 weeks to 5 years old. Kids Like Us was designed with the family in mind, so the program offers a safe and nurturing environment that enables children to grow through fun, intentional, and developmentally appropriate activities. The program works one-on-one with all children to benefit them to their full potential.
Many different groups have been affected by COVID-19, and one that is overlooked is the special needs community. Due to the closure of many schools and organizations, those with special needs are not able to be in an environment that will help them grow and develop the skills they need. Therefore, we want to support Kids Like Us because they are working on benefiting these children and young adults.
Our goal is to collect $10,000 for the Early Learning Center, which will fund for one of the five classrooms. Needs List for each classroom is on the KLU’s website. We sincerely thank you for supporting us in a case that we truly believe in. KLU has been working diligently in creating a safe and enjoyable atmosphere for those in need.
If you have any questions, please contact us at globalrevivalservices@gmail.com.
KLU’s Website: kidslikeuscc.org and KLU’s Facebook: facebook.com/kidslikeuscommunity
Caring for Those with Special Needs
Our passion to bring awareness to autism and kids with special needs comes from an early childhood. Both of us had friends with autism in our classes in elementary school, and we were able to help firsthand.
Partnering with “Kids Like Us” and “LiiNA”
We have been connected with Kids Like Us (KLU) and LiiNa (Learning through Interactivity INtelligently with Accountability) since 2018. Kids Like Us is a local non-profit organization tailored for the special needs community. It is a unique program located in the East Tennessee area. LiiNA is a sensory learning device used for students with autism, emotional and behavioral disabilities. Not only are we on the advisory board of LiiNA, but we are also the first directors of the KLU youth committee. We took the initiative to create a youth committee for KLU, where a group of children and young adults will collaborate together to help KLU grow.
Donating Abroad to Bring Awareness and Help Those with Special Needs
In December of 2019, we started working with a television channel in Bangladesh in which one of the shows - called Power Parents - raises awareness regarding health, autism, and people with special needs. As children, we watched the show with our parents. But we never knew that we would become a part of it. Munni Saha, the host of the show was kind enough to invite us to the ATN New s Bangla headquarters, and we collected and donated 200,000 BDT (an equivalent of about 2,300 USD) to help give more opportunities to those with special needs. Our family was given a chance to be on Bangladesh’s national television broadcast to talk about what we want to do to help people with autism and other special needs. Click down below to watch the show. We plan to continue to collect money and donate for those with special needs, both in Bangladesh and in the United States.
Click here to see us on ATN News national television broadcast.
Helping the Homeless
Donating Unused Surgical Towels for Hygiene
In operating and procedural rooms, sterile surgical towels are used for many medical procedures; however, some are not used but thrown away. To prevent these towels from being wasted, we have set up a bin in hospitals that allows us to collect these towels. Afterwards, we donate the towels to homeless shelters including the Downtown Day Center, The River, and Family Promise. These organizations care for the homeless and offer many services such as a laundry system, showering facilities, and a clothes closet. The Downtown Day Center and Family Promise are open to all homeless while The River aids all homeless women and children under the age of 12. By donating unused towels to these facilities, we offer better hygiene to those in need of such resources. We have already donated over one thousand towels.
Providing Food and Other Necessities
In addition to donating unused towels, we also provided the homeless shelters with food and other necessities periodically. In November of 2018. our family cooked and set up a Thanksgiving lunch for the homeless people at the Downtown Day Center. Subway was kind enough to donate leftover bread for the feast. In fact, Subway donated bread several times throughout the past few years for us to deliver to the Downtown Day Center.
Education Lifeline: Our Youtube Channel
We also have a Youtube channel called Education Lifeline. We use our channel as a platform where we help teach high school math and science concepts in short videos with our tips and tricks. Over the past few years, many people have asked us if we can tutor their children. Even though we have helped students both in school and out of school as much as possible, we knew that we did not have time to tutor everyone. While in quarantine, we decided that we could create a Youtube channel, making videos that people could watch for free. Alongside sewing masks for ETSU Health, we started working on our Youtube channel. We are continuing to update and add more videos. Through our channel, we are now able to reach more people than we could have tutored. Please feel free to subscribe and share with your friends and family.
Masks Up
As the coronavirus reached its first peak around April, online school left us with more free time to do what we love to do. We decided to put our knowledge of sewing to good use during these difficult times by becoming volunteers for ETSU Health clinics. During those couple of weeks, masks were a true necessity, with an estimated need of around 150 masks per day for the ETSU Health clinics. Both of us learned how to sew and knit when we were young, and we knew that this was the right time to use what we know to help. After completing online school each day, we would sit together to make masks. Sometimes we would both sew masks at once, one of us with our hand and the other with our sewing machine. Other times, we were making measurements and cutting fresh pieces of fabrics for more masks. All in all, we finished with around one hundred masks that we were able to donate to ETSU Health.