The Change Foundation is hosting a hygiene drive at Millbrook High School, so bring in pads and diapers to any of your humanities classes! All donated items will be going to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants to help refugees in need. USCRI and the Change Foundation are partnering with each other to make this hygiene drive possible. 

  By donating to this hygiene drive, you will be changing the lives of refugees here in the Triangle. Sophomore Maya Frenn, the President of the Change Foundation at Millbrook says “I hope the hygiene drive brings accessibility into the lives of refugees here in the Triangle. We live in such uncertain times in an uncertain world and nobody knows what might happen next, but through this all I want to provide a sense of stability in the lives of those who need that extra care.”

  USCRI is a committee that works with refugees and immigrants to give them possibilities and opportunities. Some of the services that they help provide refugees and immigrants with are housing, employment and interpreting, legal work, physical and mental health, social services, and so much more. 

  The Change Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is run by students at Millbrook High School. The organization uses microfinance to grow the businesses of local refugees and people living in poverty worldwide. The businesses that the Change Foundation helps and funds all do not have any form of funding or resources to help their business reach its full potential. They help people locally here in Raleigh and internationally. Frenn adds, “We aim to grow the business of refugees worldwide and to help give them stability in their lives.” 

  The Change Foundation also recently created an official club here at Millbrook High School which anyone can join! Some of the people the Change Foundation have made an impact on is a man named Charles who lives in Madagascar. For 25 years, Charles worked as a farmer and made a living by growing potatoes. With a loan from the Change Foundation, Charles was able to buy plant protection products, seeds, fertilizers, and much more. These products helped grow his business, make it more successful, and also increased his household income.

  Another person the Change Foundation had an impact on is a woman named Arzoo. Arzoo currently lives here in Raleigh, North Carolina, but her journey to get here has not been an easy one. Arzoo is originally from Kabul, Afghanistan. She and her family lived there until it was not safe at all and then she and her four kids left and made their journey as refugees to Pakistan. They all lived in a refugee camp there for three years until the camp they were at was attacked by the Taliban, which led to her and her kids leaving again. They came to America in 2017 and left everything they ever knew behind. 

  Back in Kabul, Arzoo used to make and sell embroidered items at a marketplace she made herself. When she came here, The Change Foundation gave her a loan to continue what she created back in her home. She was able to purchase a sewing machine with the loan she received which made her creating process much easier and faster, as she was working by hand before. The loan from the Change Foundation helped grow Arzoo’s business and it led her to be able to support her kids. The Change Foundation’s impact has been very big, and it continues to grow and help more and more people locally and internationally.

   “Fleeing your home country and trying to assimilate into a new culture can be one of the hardest things anyone has to go through. We want to help.” Frenn adds. We live in a complex and unpredictable world. But together we can slowly and surely make it a better place by helping each other. 

  Be sure to donate pads and diapers to your humanities classes! Your support is changing lives.  By donating you are helping people gain everyday essentials that they can not easily access or that they can not access at all. You are helping babies, families, parents, teenagers, kids, the elderly, and so much more. Be part of the change. Your support is highly appreciated by many.

Check out The Change Foundation’s Website!

https://www.raleighchangefoundation.org/