The feature below is brought to you by For Life an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. We Do Beautiful They say to make a difference in this world, you must dream big. It started with the death of our founder’s father. Upon returning home, Madame Athena recognized that her birth home in Manchester, Jamaica had become plagued with hardship; increased crime rate, food shortage, an increase in diet related disorders, limited education for youth and adults, and lack of access to running water played out before her and she returned to the states with a yearning that penetrated her dreams and made its way into her everyday. On Christmas morning of 2011, she decided to put desire into action and wrote a letter to friends and family asking them to assist her in empowering her community. With donated funds in hand, she returned home in August 2012 and launched the Jamaica for Life project, the first of the For Life programs. Created from a place of passion and love, For Life Inc is a non-profit organization that houses education and wellness projects globally. Our projects are formulated to fit the needs of the local populous and are centered around empowerment rather than dependence. We assist individuals, families and communities in becoming healthier and self sufficient. Our mission is to increase access to education, raise health awareness, decrease the risk of obesity, malnutrition, and diet related disorders in underrepresented communities around the world. Presently, we have For Life projects in the United States, Jamaica and Cape Verde, West Africa. Our LA for Life project focuses on decreasing the obesity rate within Black and Latino communities. For Life classes are taught within schools and are formulated according to region, age and needs. Classes range from yoga to cooking. Through the Adopt a Family Program, high risk families work one on one with our Health and Wellness Coach and Personal Trainer to create healthy lifestyle changes. Believing that the way out of poverty is by lessening barriers to education, we adopted 4 schools in Cape Verde and Jamaica. Through the Jamaica for Life and Cape Verde for Life projects, we provide students with school supplies and book bags; we also assist in making healthy breakfast programs available at school sites. On an individual basis, we sponsor students and work closely with their families providing them with additional educational support and healthy food bag deliveries. The See Beautiful grant will assist For Life in providing uniforms to students with the greatest need in Cape Verde and Jamaica. The high cost of uniforms keeps many students at home due to the families’ inability to purchase them. With removing this barrier, we are able to increase attendance rates. With the money awarded, our goal is to supply 392 families with uniforms. With a team of volunteers and all monies raised going directly to the communities we serve, we create beautiful. We live beautiful. We do beautiful. To make a difference, we will continue to dream big eradicating barriers and always remembering the vision that became reality. Written by Madame Athena Chang, Founder and President of For Life
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