What is RD Cares?
RDCares is a one-for-one give back program, geared at empowering and supporting school children growing up in marginalized and low income communities around the world.
RD Cares has sent more than 300 educational care packages for distribution among organizations throughout Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, England and the US. Royal Dynamite works with the following organizations: The Visao Foundation, Excelling Youth Educational Scholarship Program (EYES), The Wilberforce Primary School, Achieve in Africa, Follow My Steps Foundation and Creating Aspiring Personalities for Success.
Here’s how it works. For each graphic t-shirt purchased, Royal Dynamite will donate an educational care package to a child in need around the world. Each package will contain the following items: a composition book, a pencil, an eraser and a sharpener.
Eventually, RDCares plans to develop a platform that will leverage the collaborative capabilities of the web in order to connect the following groups: 1) people who purchase t-shirts from Royan Dynamite; 2) students and organizations who need educational supplies; and 3) people who can take these educational supplies abroad while on their travels around the world. The platform will solve the distributive difficulties associated with sending educational packages to those who need it and it will also re-imagine the typical donation process as a more interactive and enriching experience. Ideally, Royal Dynamite customers will be able to track their educational care package as it travels the world while discovering the impact they are making as a result.
Why an Educational Focus?
In December of 2010, Royal Dynamite’s co-founders Cecil Williams and Raphael Saye visited their home country Sierra Leone. This was Saye’s first visit to his ancestral home and the second visit by Williams since fleeing the war-torn country in 1997. Both men were immensely changed by the visit and forced to face the scathing reality of the daily struggles many children of Sierra Leone are faced with. High rates of unemployment and illiteracy amongst the 15-30 year-old male demographic was also particularly shocking. Williams’ returned to his parent’s home in Wilberforce, Freetown and was alarmed by the high percentage of friends he grew up with that had not completed their high school education and remained jobless. Limited financial resources had prematurely ended the academic journey of most of the young men he once casually hung out with.
Despite having inadequate educational background and poor job prospects, most had gone on to father multiple children with no viable way to support and educate them. Williams and Saye observed this troubling pattern in numerous young men and came to the realization that if nothing was done, the cycle of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty would continue to be repeated for generations to come, perhaps even to a greater degree. Both vowed that upon returning to the US, they would create and use a sustainable platform wherein the “water would never run dry”. From this need, the RD Cares program was born.
Read our blog to learn how each educational care package will help children everywhere gain a better education, have more self confidence and develop the desire to truly help others.