How It Started - Hawk Childrens Fund

Buy-a-Brick Station

During the 2007-2008 school year, a group of seniors in the Hotel and Restaurant Management program at UMES attended a seminar about the struggles in Darfur. These seniors were so moved by the presentation that they wanted to do something to help children in that area. They approached a faculty member and the idea was turned into a project for the spring semester 2008.

The UMES student managed charity “Hawk Children’s Fund” (HCF) was created in 2008. These HRM seniors were able to demonstrate the “hands-on” philosophy of HRM/UMES with the actual creation of this “Charity” entity within the recently established 501(c)(3) Maryland Hawk Corporation. This small group of seniors never dreamed that the organization would take off the way that it has, but today HCF considers them our founders.

The Hawk Children’s Fund began life as the “Children’s Development Fund” (CDF) with a “seed” grant from the UMES Rural Development Center. Quoting from the grant:

“The CDF in 2008 is envisioned as a platform to involve UMES students, faculty and the broader community in the creation, planning and development of a project designed to raise awareness of global issues involving children and to raise funds to assist at-risk children”

The originalHCF student founders developed a vision statement:

“To be the regionally recognized organization for developing proactive partnerships among students, community and other concerned organizations to help children in Africa”.

This vision seemed a long way off at the time, but each year a new group of students takes over the project, and each year HCF continues to grow.

The students created a program called “Buy-A-Brick” in October 2008 to raise $5000 on the UMES campus. This was to fund their first project in Africa, a building of a new primary school for the children of the rural village of Kyamulinga in Uganda. The UMES students donated $5000 by March 2009, through a number of means. Many donations came in a dollar at a time. The slogan was, "You give us a dollar and we give them a brick for their new school." Progress was slow, but satisfying. With the $5000, another $3000 was donated by the local eastern shore community and a $4000 grant was received from a private foundation. Construction began in January 2009, and the new Kyamulinga Village Primary School was officially dedicated and opened in January 2010. This project included the funding of a three year "Literacy Project" for the children of the Kyamulinga Village School. Special thanks to our project partners, One School at a Time and Partnering for Africa's Future (PAF)

This is just the beginning for the Hawk Children's Fund. Read more about what we've accomplished and if you'd like to see us continue please Donate.