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Jonathan Renich
After graduation from Churchill High School, Jonathan
Renich studied children's social services in a modular
program at the Kona, Hawaii, campus of the University of the
Nations. "We spent three months in class, then six months as
an intern with a non-profit," says Renich, who served one
internship with the French agency Pour un Sourire d'Enfant
in a training program for kids who worked at the city dump
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. When he finished his degree, Renich
stayed on as a staff member and led two groups of students
to the town of Barunburen in Mongolia. Returning to Oregon
in 2005, he launched Edurelief, a program to help Mongolian
kids who had dropped out of school. "The government had cut
support for school supplies," he notes. "All they needed was
$20 per kid for a packet of books." Renich recruited some UO
students, printed fliers, and raised $10,000 in four months.
"We sponsored 525 kids," he says. "When people found out, it
exploded. We got calls from New York, LA, Europe, and Asia,
asking, 'What can we do?'" Find out what you can do at
edurelief.org.
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 1 February
2007
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