Tuesday
Oct 22, 2019 at 1:10 PM
A nonprofit fundraiser Oct. 26 supports women and children across the world.
Women and Children Transformation Ministry International Inc. is a nonprofit in Dover that has helped create a school for 300 children in Liberia, provided sanitary pads for teenagers in Zambia and helped women earn their college degree in Delaware.
Ever since founder Cecelia Snorton and her son started tutoring students in her home in Liberia, she has been dreaming up bigger ideas to help women and children across the globe.
To fund these dreams, she’s starting local.
A red-carpet fundraiser in Dover will honor community leaders Saturday, Oct. 26 at 5 p.m.
The Community Awards Banquet at The Outlook at the Duncan Center, 500 West Loockerman Street, is open to all.
The honorees include keynote speaker Bishop W. James Thomas, senior pastor at Calvary Baptist Church; the Rev. Leandra Marshall, vice president of development and outreach at the Delaware Multicultural and Civic Organization; the Hon. Nicole Alston-Jackson, a Kent County magistrate judge; Ralph L. Taylor Jr., 2nd District councilman; Pastor Donald Ashley, Greater Life Christian Church; and the Rev. Shonda R. Greene, WCTMI general secretary.
“We want them to know that we appreciate them for their hard labor and love they have shown in their various communities,” Snorton said.
In addition to donations, Snorton said she hopes the fundraiser inspires the community to get involved as volunteers and sponsors.
Sanitary pads saving lives
One of the most urgent needs in East Africa is sanitary pads for teenage girls. When teenage girls get their period in Zambia, they cannot attend school and are often isolated, pushed into the outskirts of town, Snorton said.
“It’s something that they didn’t really talk [about] over there,” she said. “These children are coming down with infections because of what they use for sanitary pads, and they were dying.”
In July, WCTMI provided the girls with sanitary pads for three months, but that supply will run out. They are accepting financial or in-kind donations to cover supplies and shipping costs.
Serving in Dover
The second goal is a multi-purpose building in Dover.
Some services the organization provides here include health fairs, college fairs, grief counseling, referrals to temporary shelters for women and children and workshops on topics from eating healthy to building self-esteem.
They have helped women sign up for adult education courses at Polytech High School and connected them with Delaware State University for higher education.
Running water for students
When Snorton visited her home country Liberia in 2010, she noticed that a lot of children were roaming around and not in school. Snorton lost her first son in the Liberian Civil War and she knew many of the children at the time were growing up with one parent for the same reason.
So, she invited them into her home. What started as tutoring for 50 students in two spare rooms grew to a makeshift school with 300 students from kindergarten to elementary age.
Her son who lives there has helped her expand the school to include seven classrooms, efforts supported by WCTMI and Calvary Revival Worship Center in Dover. The teachers are volunteers from the community who receive a stipend.
Many children were coming to school hungry, so WCTMI provides lunches and school materials like backpacks.
She said one big need remains: clean drinking water and toilets.
“[If we are] hosting children with no drinking water and no toilet, we’re going to have an outbreak of diseases,” she said.
She hopes to raise money, so WCTMI can dig a well and construct toilets for boys and girls.
Anyone interested in donating can visit www.wctmi.org and click the donation tab. Donations by CashApp can be submitted to $wctmi2009. Physical donations can be dropped off at 1028 Lafferty Lane or by calling 302-526-8852 to arrange pick-up.
