Take Action Assignment with Good Justice

I had the privilege of working with "Good Justice" today which helps provide stable education and clean drinking water to villages in Honduras and Malawi. During my internship I was able to work directly with the Executive Director Jeff Ryal and worked to complete fundraising work.  In short, I spent most of my time stuffing envelopes.  However, the work that I did was important and I was able to speak with Jeff throughout the four hours about what the money collected from this fundraiser would go towards.  Through the process I also learned about how an organization works behind the scenes when they aren't actively putting a roof on a school building.

The first question I asked during my interview was why their organization works to provide clean drinking water and education.  While both efforts are incredibly important, the two are rarely paired by an organization as their two goals.  Jeff explained that dirty/contaminated drinking water is the main cause of death across the world so, by providing clean drinking water the organization helps keep children and their families healthy which leads to their school attendance which is the organization's main goal according to Jeff, "to help every person reach their full creative potential."


During my conversation with Jeff I learned that the organization currently has requests by seven villages in Malawi to drill clean water wells but because the ground is pure rock, drilling a well costs about $7,000 per well there.  This means that they have to increase fundraising including mailings and events but they maintain a policy of hiring local workers to do all of the labor.  Jeff stated that this was important because it allows the community to take pride in their village as well as providing income that will be spent to support and maintain that village.

The organization also has "Hope Teams" that travel once a year to the villages in Malawi and Honduras where the school buildings that they are responsible for are.  On those trips the teams work to repair any damage or wear the buildings have and to create relationships with the villagers and families who attend the schools.  Good Justice currently has four school buildings with about 160 students.  The organization was notified earlier this year that four of their students will be attending University.  They are the first members of their families to graduate let alone attend a University.

Through my work with this organization I was able to better connect readings for this course with faces and personal stories.  I also arranged with Jeff to return to help finish the work I started today.