Every time you create an album with Lush, 10 percent of the proceeds go to Beautiful Together, the charity that Tamara Lackey started to raise money and awareness for orphaned children waiting for families. Ten percent might not seem like much, but part of the Beautiful Together philosophy is that even the smallest things can be the spark that effects change in people’s lives.
The mission for Beautiful Together is to identify and complete specific projects that improve the day-to-day lives for orphaned children living in the United States and Africa.
Over the summer, Tamara and her family visited the Kidane Mehret Orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on behalf of Beautiful Together. While they were there, they managed to finish the planned bathroom renovations, as well as completing an unplanned printed portrait gallery (Tamara’s BEST Gallery Opening Ever!) of all the children in the orphanage, many of whom had never seen a printed photo of themselves. Tamara came home inspired and with many other projects in mind to be completed.
Beautiful Together didn’t wait long to implement new campaigns, and started fundraising immediately for the Safeguarding the Orphanage project, even before Tamara returned to the States. It was fully funded relatively quickly, ensuring a safe playground for these deserving children. Learn more in the video below.
Most recently, they just reached a major goal when the project to light classrooms and provide computers at the orphanage also received full funding. A solid education in a safe environment is the best chance these children, especially the older ones, have for a bright future.
The current three classrooms at the orphanage school are poorly lit; electricity is unreliable and prohibitively expensive for the school. The Education Center computers are inoperable. The money raised will install solar panels to provide energy to light the classrooms and provide updated computers and tablets for the Education Center. You can see how dark the classrooms are in this video:
They also have another project in the works in which Beautiful Together is partnering with Life to Live for Korah. This Feeding Fund will raise money for the supplies necessary to sustain the feeding program for orphaned children in the Korah community. One hundred percent of the donations to this fund go to food and supplies. Tamara was in Korah during her last trip to Ethiopia, and got to see firsthand the incredible work of the feeding program founded by Korah native Cherenet Gullene.
Korah was built around a leper colony, but the community has grown to more than 120,000 people. Most of them live in poverty. The word korah actually means ”cursed,” but the people who live there have an incredible spirit. Feeding the orphaned children of that community is an essential way to put those children on track to grow up with the chance to strengthen their community. Tamara put together another video to share more:
Interested in learning more? Visit the Beautiful Together website to learn more about ongoing projects. You can donate directly to projects on the site, and we appreciate any and all assistance!
Also, know that every time you design a beautiful album from Lush that you are giving just by doing what you love. Contact us to learn more!