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Grant Update: The House That Twilight Built

As GO Campaign enters our 15th year of giving opportunity, we have the joy of hearing stories about where some of the children who were transformed by early GO grants are now. ‘The House that Twilight Built’ (a favorite highlight on the GO Campaign timeline) brings us one of those stories. 

In 2010, proceeds from an auction made possible by GO Ambassador Robert Pattinson built a school dormitory for Life & Hope Association (LHA), a GO partner in Cambodia. Dubbed ‘The House that Twilight Built’, the housing gave underprivileged young women in LHA’s Program Advancing Girls’ Education (PAGE) the opportunity to finish high school and pursue their education, careers, and even more opportunities. Prior to a program like PAGE, many girls were forced to drop out of school due to economic and safety reasons.

Local Hero Venerable Lorm Loeurm calls the young women from the PAGE program ‘the future mothers of Cambodia’, as they have gone on to pursue college degrees, prestigious careers, and continue to give back to their community. He shared where one of the students is now. 

Sreyna was one of 7 children in her family. She dropped out of high school in 2009 because her family could not afford to continue her education. Thanks to the PAGE program and secure housing made available by the GO funded dormitory, she returned to school in 2010. Sreyna finished high school in 2012, and pursued both vocational training from a local nonprofit and a Bachelor’s Degree on a scholarship from the PAGE program. She graduated in 2020!

Sreyna continued to work and volunteer for nonprofits in the region from the time she graduated high school until she received her Bachelors. Venerable Lorm says, “She is a very good role model [for] change making and [is an example of] LHA’s strategic goal to bring a transformational change to society.”

Sreyna was married in 2017 and now has one son. Her family has a safe home, and she and her husband are both employed and comfortably support their family. 

Since construction of the PAGE dormitory, many girls like Sreyna have resided there. The PAGE program has a 100% graduate rate of program participants. GO Campaign is proud to have supported them on their journey. Most recently, Venerable Lorm reached out to GO to share that the electrical system at the PAGE dormitory needed to be upgraded, GO Campaign was happy to respond. We provided grant funding in January 2021 to ensure that girls are able to have light, access the internet, and continue their education. 

GO Campaign grants invest in creating sustainable, long term change in communities to help children and families thrive for years to come. The PAGE dormitory is just one of many examples of what is possible when you decide to GO.

Update: India Urgent Need

Thanks to the generous donations from our community around the world, we are delivering immediate relief for our partners across India!

So far, your donations have purchased desperately needed oximeters, booster shots for children and their families, and are feeding hundreds of families as the country still faces shutdown restrictions and many are still out of work. We will continue to work closely with our partners to respond to their most pressing needs.

Check out Scott Fifer's interview in The Argonaut of this article in

The Hollywood Reporter to learn more about our work in India.

GO Grant Helps Build Model for Library System in Malawi

At GO Campaign, we have made it our model to listen to our Local Heroes and respond to their most pressing needs. Here is just one example of a small grant given to a dedicated and capable Local Hero that has grown exponentially and is affecting tens of thousands more children today.

We recently spoke with Local Hero Marie de Silva, CNN Hero and founder of Jacaranda Foundation in Malawi, who connected with GO’s founder Scott Fifer in 2008 and explained how Malawi lacked a reading culture, and that she wanted to share the value and importance of books with the nation’s children as well as educators though the Jacaranda Foundation.

Marie shared her dream and plans of transforming an old house into a library, to bring literature to the forefront of Malawian education and culture, thus opening doors of opportunity to the nation’s children. She had a plan, but she just needed the funding.

So, in 2009 GO Campaign awarded Jacaranda Foundation with a grant of $10,000 and they opened their very first library with just 11 books! This modest library would become the model for another 19 libraries in public primary schools across the region, bringing literacy to over 45,000 students!

Their process is simple:

1. They find an existing room in the school that they can turn into a library.

2. Jacaranda Foundation renovates the room from the floor to the ceiling, providing electricity, furniture, paint and decorations making it a recognizable location.

3. 1,000-3,000 books are brought (depending on the size of the school) and teachers & librarians are trained.

4. The library opens with a big celebration with the school, community, and local government.

5. Jacaranda Foundation monitors the library on a monthly basis, supporting and encouraging the schools to use the libraries to their fullest potential.

They continue to receive books from sister schools all over the world, and because of the reading culture that has been established, students are being accepted into universities and taking their education and careers further than they’d ever imagined. One student was even accepted into medical school in Botswana, all thanks to the reference books made available through the library.

What started as one little library has grown to 20, reaching 45,000 children in Malawi. GO Campaign was at the very root of this change -- that is the power of GO Campaign grants. We find Local Heroes with the dream and the plan, then provide the support and funding. There is no limit to the change that GO grants will inspire today and for years to come!

470 Baby Chickens Saved a Little Girl with HIV

Pooja! Future Teacher!

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