F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. What does STELLAA stand for?
S: Stella’s
T: Training
E: Education
L: Literacy
L: Learning
A: & Academic
A: Assistance
2. What is S.T.E.L.L.A.A.'s mission?
STELLAA aims to promote literacy to the children and adults of Africa through providing donated books and needed educational resources. Our goal is to help the people of Africa to realise their potential and create the new futures for themselves, their families and their communities that will eradicate poverty.
3. How can I learn more about S.T.E.L.L.A.A.?
4. What’s S.T.E.L.L.A.A.’s history?
S.T.E.L.L.A.A. was founded in June 2007 and incorporated in August 2008 in tribute to the late Stella Ede Anigozie. As a kind-hearted and well-respected individual, Stella Ede Anigozie inspired the young and old. It is now the goal of this charitable organization to inspire the people of Africa to realise their potential and live their lives to the fullest.
S.T.E.L.L.A.A. was founded by five volunteers who have a passion for global citizenship and want to have an impact on literacy, education, the environment, and poverty in Africa. S.T.E.L.L.A.A. continues to be a volunteer based non-profit organization.
5. Is S.T.E.L.L.A.A. affiliated with a religious or government organization?
STELLAA is a Canadian non-profit organization and is completely non-denominational.
6. Why should I support S.T.E.L.L.A.A. when there are people in need of help in my own country?
We certainly think that every individual should support their own country. However, we feel that it is equally important to help others in the developing world. In particular, many of our donors come from some of the richest countries in the world, and their money can go much further in the countries in which we work. This world really is a small place, and providing a helping hand to those in need has no national borders.
Because we work in very poor countries in the developing world, we are able to have a great deal of impact with a relatively small amount of money and resources. For example, we accept books donated by the general public at 0 cost, but we are able to offer literacy and education programs using those books to a whole community. One person (or a small group) can have a lasting impact on an entire village with one investment. We would not be able to leverage our donor resources nearly as effectively if we worked domestically.
7. How do I stay updated on the work S.T.E.L.L.A.A. is doing?
STELLAA is mushrooming into a stronger non-profit organization, able to reach out to more and more communities in Africa because of the tremendous support our donors. The best way to keep abreast of our progress, STELLAA in the press, and events in your area is to sign up for our e-newsletter, follow us on http://www.twitter.com/stellaaorg, and Like us on Facebook: http://companies.to/stellaa
We promise not to clog up your inbox with spam or beg you for donations! Nor will we sell your information to outside parties! We simply like to keep you up to date on everything that is going on and occasionally email invitations to STELLAA events.
Another way to stay updated is to visit our website frequently. We are continually adding new information, spotlight stories, and other content that we think will interest you. Our goal is for you to learn something new about us every time you visit.
8. How can my school partner with STELLAA to help promote its efforts?
We have a fantastic School Book Drive initiative, designed to foster global awareness, global citizenship, environmental responsibility and social entrepreneurship in the hearts and minds of all students.
Our STELLAA representatives will make it easy, enjoyable, and a fulfilling experience to plan and run a successful STELLAA book drive. Support will be given from beginning to end, and marketing materials along with boxes will be provided. To learn more, or to run a book drive at your school, please email info@stellaa.org.
Your school can go one step further by forming STELLAA clubs, holding a read-a-thon, conduct auctions, and hold bake sales to help raise money for STELLAA initiatives. Through these various activities, students develop and demonstrate creativity, compassion, diligence, and commitment to get involved. With these initiatives, they get to see and feel the impact they are having - a very real, very measurable impact on education in Africa.
9. How can I get my company involved?
There are multiple ways in which to engage your company in the work of STELLAA. The following are a few suggestions:
• Get STELLAA added to your company's list of approved non-profit organizations. This enables employees to select STELLAA as the designate for their charitable giving, and to receive matching corporate donations.
• If your company has a corporate foundation, suggest STELLAA for corporate funding or connect our staff with the right people within the foundation department. We are always looking to expand and diversify our funding base, and we would welcome introductions to any corporate foundation that is interested in supporting educational projects in the developing world.
• Hold a Corporate Book Drive. A Corporate Book Drive allows your colleagues to donate their gently used books to help build libraries and resource centers, promoting literacy to the children and adults of Africa. Our program is cost free, adaptable to any size group, and simple to implement. The holiday season in November and December is a great time to host our “Literacy Meets Green” campaign. To learn more, email joannaf@stellaa.org
• Start a corporate fundraiser. Many individuals working in both small and large corporations have decided to launch fundraising campaigns within their corporations to support STELLAA’s projects (for instance, a library in West Africa). These campaigns can center around holiday parties or perhaps a summer outing. Once the fundraising goal is reached, everyone who participated gets the satisfaction of seeing the final STELLAA report on the given project. Each report comes complete with photos of the community directly impacted by the new project.
• A corporate sponsorship allows community members or employees to make a direct monetary contribution in support of underwriting the cost of a shipment of +40,000 books to Africa. STELLAA uses the most economical shipment method, but the costs of shipment using a sea container and terminal clearance are still high. STELLAA's Sponsor Drive is also adaptable to any size group and simple to implement. To learn more, email joannaf@stellaa.org
• These are some of the more popular ways in which people choose to get their companies involved with STELLAA. If you have another idea, please let us know! Send an email to info@stellaa.org if you need additional information or have an idea on how you want to get your workplace involved with STELLAA.
10. How do we form a partnership with your organization?
It’s important for S.T.E.L.L.A.A. to partner with organizations that have similar goals and objectives as we do. It is an important strategic aspect of S.T.E.L.L.A.A.’s development model. Working in collaboration with local NGOs helps us build upon the strengths of existing work and also ensures long-term sustainability of our programs. We are currently focusing on developing and strengthening new relationships. If you are interested in partnering with S.T.E.L.L.A.A., please contact Joanna Ferensowicz, President, joannaf@stellaa.org. Please include your mission, your strategy, and possible partnership strategies within your communication.
11. Does the work you are doing in these countries mean you support their governments?
S.T.E.L.L.A.A. acts as a non-governmental non-profit organization. Because we work in public schools, we work with local governments to ensure our projects have the greatest impact through participation, but we are not involved in the politics of these governments.
12. How does S.T.E.L.L.A.A. choose the countries in which you work?
After initiating our work in Nigeria, we will identify other countries in sub-Saharan Africa that faced with similar literacy and education challenges that our programs are able to address. We will learn from our experiences in Nigeria and in turn, develop an initial analysis that uses indicators such as high rates of poverty, high inequality, and low literacy with gauges of a basic threshold level of peace and stability that are necessary for us to effectively conduct our work. Additionally, we will prioritize countries where the government has demonstrated a commitment to education so that we can help support and augment their positive efforts.
Following the analysis, we will begin to network with other organizations, meet with in-country officials and start the conversation to offer our programs. Nevertheless, S.T.E.L.L.A.A. recognizes there are many countries and communities facing illiteracy challenges, all deserving support. We aim to, one day, provide the access to literacy and educational resources to all the communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.
13. What other countries does S.T.E.L.L.A.A. plan to expand into?
S.T.E.L.L.A.A. is always expanding its work within its countries of operation. As for working in additional countries, we are planning towards establishing S.T.E.L.L.A.A. in Liberia and Ghana. We are also researching other opportunities and needs in Africa with a goal to register and launch programs in one or two additional West African countries after 2013. As always, we will keep our donors and interested parties abreast of expansion plans through our website, social networks, and our e-newsletter(s).
14. Can you start working in my country?
Unfortunately, expansion is not that simple. As mentioned above, we have a detailed planning process that guides our expansion into new countries. For this reason, we do not take requests for expansion into new countries but will keep you posted on our expansion plans. If your organization is in a country where S.T.E.L.L.A.A. does not yet work but you would like to be included in our database of potential partnerships for the future, please fill out a Partnership Request Form and email it to info@stellaa.org.
15. Can you work in a particular village that I know needs your help?
We appreciate your interest in helping a particular village. At this time our projects are fully selected so we cannot accommodate individual requests. If you are a donor and are interested in contributing to a particular country or region, please contact donate@stellaa.org.
16. I didn't find an answer to my question.
We apologize if we did not answer your question. Please email info@stellaa.org your question and we will answer it to the best of our ability.
