Over $5,000 Raised for KHPS in Less Than 48 Hours! Still $1,400 (And A Bit) to Go!

Children at the school watching the first video shown at

the school back in 2011.  (source: KHPS Blog)

At 5:14pm EST on February 11th, we launched a new fundraiser to raise funds for a new permanent home for the Kasese Humanist Primary School in Uganda.  Now, less than three days later, over $5,600 has been raised through the Atheist Alliance International donation page!

You can read more about the fundraiser at Help The KHPS Purchase Land For Its New Permanent Location!

The evening of February 12th we got Pharyngulated, when PZ Myers made a wonderful post in promotion of the effort, Today an egg, tomorrow the world!

I don’t know about this. First they’re getting a whole egg, and next they’re getting a school…I expect some day they’re going to be posting videos of kids graduating and getting diplomas and going off to college…scary stuff. 

If you want to encourage that kind of ambition, go ahead, donate a few dollars.

Then, not long afterward, Canadian Atheist posted in support of the school in Get Cracking Canada! complete with the big blue donation button!

As usual, P Z Myers posted “Today an egg, tomorrow the world!” before I let my fingers do the talking.  While we’re celebrating the news that Uganda KHPS children got their first eggs, we should also be celebrating the fact that we can help Bwambale Robert and the Kasese Humanist Primary School get a permanent home.

Not long after that, I started to see quite a bit of traffic coming in through BoingBoing. I guess I'm too old or out of touch to know what BoingBoing is, but I think that this comment by TacoChuck (bottom of page) also contributed greatly to the cause.

I find it fitting that James Madison was chosen to go 

onto the $5,000 bill.  Some see him as an early

Secular Humanist.

But these are the broader strokes in the painting.  These sites, like my blog, only help to spread the message.  It's the readers who are making this possible. This is the happy result of many donors across the world, each one an individual who chose to donate to this cause.  I do not have a list of your names but I thank you all.

Here's School Director Bwambale Robert's response from an e-mail this morning to Tanya Smith from Atheist Alliance International who is helping with the fundraiser.

Tanya, This is wonderful!  I just can't believe it to have raised such in this shortest time frame. 

Many thanks.

That pretty much sums up how I feel right now as well.  There is a need and the Atheist and Humanist community are responding brilliantly!

I would like to thank all of the donors!  This is fantastic progress just three days into the campaign!

According to the latest numbers I have from AAI, we are around $5,600.  The goal was set at $7,000 USD, so that leaves us around $1,400 off our goal.  Well, and perhaps a little bit more... read below.

I'm hopeful that in the coming days or weeks we can make this goal!

(Be sure to specify you are donating to KHPS on the AAI landing page.)

And Now... Numbers

You may have noticed that the required 18,000,000 UGX converts to around $6,815 USD.  That extra $185 was an intentional padding to take care of PayPal's cut and the bank transfer charges to Uganda.  I thought it would be enough.

Tanya has informed me that PayPal takes around 5% ($350) while the bank transfer is typically $50.  This puts around $400 of required overhead on the collected amount.  So the real goal if we wish to pay for all that overhead is $6,815 + $400 = $7,215, or around $7,250 to be a little more safe.

I'll likely up the goal by just this little bit today, but it is a minor increase and I'm hopeful this can be covered.


(Edit February 14th 11:12EST - I had put March 12th for our Pharyngulation but meant February 12th.  Good catch, Sheldon!)