Now Announcing...

Our first annual dinner fundraiser in Atlanta will take place this next year on Friday, March 18th.

Invitations will be sent out soon, but in the meantime, we are looking for volunteers!

Please email info@theAfricanSOUP.org if you are interested in attending the dinner or helping out.

2nd Annual SOUP-off Results

Many thanks to all who came out last night for our 2nd Annual SOUP-off! We had 38 soup-makers, approximately 350 attendees, and raised over $3,000. We could not have done it without you, so thank you all for your support and statuses and soups.

These funds will first be directed to the children for food, medical care, school supplies, clothes, and other basic necessities; we will put all remaining funds in our account for the building of the orphanage.

Thank you again for your enthusiastic participation in the SOUP-off this year. There was some heavy competition! The following awards were presented last night:

• The Golden Bowl Award- Lindsay Larkin's Baked Potato Soup
• The Silver Spoon Award- B.E.S.T. Team's Gumbo
• Trustees' Choice Award- The Biology Club's Curried Pumpkin Soup with special recognition to The Briggs' Carrot Ginger Soup and the BAA's Chili

We have already begun planning our next big event- mark your calendars for March...

5 Days and Counting....

5 days until our 2nd annual SOUP-off. 3 days left to register.

We are very excited with this event coming up; last year we were blown away by the 40 soup entries and the 400+ participants that attended. We know that this year's competition will exceed the last for the Golden Bowl, Silver Spoon, and newly added Trustees' Choice Awards.

So come out to Krannert's Spruill ballroom on Thursday from 5-7 pm if you are a Berry student, faculty, or trustee, for your voice in this year's SOUP-off. Come taste our 40 soups, meet the faces behind the SOUP, and speak with a panel of people passionate about African and Ugandan culture. Entry fee is $3.

Announcing...

New Grant for the SOUP

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION FOUNDED BY BERRY STUDENT

EARNS NATIONAL AWARD FROM JENZABAR FOUNDATION

Rome, Ga. – A student-initiated nonprofit committed to assisting Ugandan orphans has earned Berry College national recognition through the Jenzabar Foundation’s Student Leadership Awards. Berry joins Brigham Young University, the University of Southern California and seven other institutions of higher learning on the list of 2010 award winners.

The Jenzabar program recognizes student groups and their respective leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to making a difference through community service and/or humanitarian endeavors in the United States and worldwide. Honorees receive a $5,000 grant to support their future efforts.

Berry was honored for a grant proposal drafted by a trio of students in support of The African SOUP – Sponsorship of Orphans in Uganda Project. This new nonprofit was founded by student Brin Enterkin in response to the tremendous need she witnessed while teaching microfinance to rural Ugandan women in 2009. Working in collaboration with Experiential Learning International (ELI), Enterkin and her fellow students are undertaking various initiatives to raise funds that can be wired directly to Uganda to support the country’s nearly two million orphans.

The successful grant proposal was prepared by Enterkin with assistance from fellow students Brenna Conley and Morgan West.

“The grant money will be used cover costs of necessities and education for children in the orphanages of Iganga, Uganda,” Enterkin stated. “And construction has already begun for a safer and more sustainable orphanage [the Capital Building Project].”

Enterkin is no stranger to community service. While still in high school, the Fayetteville, Ga., native helped raise funds to build a school in Cambodia. After arriving at Berry, she earned a grant to teach microfinance to women in a rural Ugandan village. It was that experience that ignited her passion for Ugandan orphans and led to the founding of SOUP.

In addition to her work with SOUP, Enterkin also lends her time and talents to the Berry Enterprises Student Team (BEST), a student-led consulting group that provides expertise and assistance for student-operated enterprises on the Berry campus, and serves as CEO of Berry Nonprofit Strategic Services, a student-operated enterprise that provides strategic planning and business planning services to community nonprofit organizations in various levels of development. This summer, she is in Washington, D.C., working as a policy writing intern for the American Friends Service Committee.

“Brin Enterkin is the consummate Berry student – smart, always smiling, driven to make a difference in the world,” said Provost Katherine Whatley. “She sees a need, is moved by it and then finds a way to help. She meets challenges head-on and keeps on finding ways to solve problems as they crop up, without getting discouraged. Brin is an embodiment of the Berry mission.”

Learn more about SOUP at http://theafricansoup.org/.

EDITORS: E-mail rwoodall@berry.edu to request a photo of Brin Enterkin.

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Berry College is an independent, coeducational college of approximately 1,900 undergraduate and graduate students that is recognized nationally for the quality and value of its educational experience. Located on a magnificent campus encompassing more than 26,000 acres near Rome, Ga., Berry challenges students to embrace a firsthand education that unites strong academic programs with opportunities for meaningful work experience, spiritual and moral growth, and significant service to others.

The Soup-Off

SOUP-off!

Disaster and Response to Haiti

Haiti is heavy on my heart.


This torn and desperate country is heavy on the hearts of millions around the world right now, after the 7.0 earthquake hit Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas a few days ago.

However, unlike most modern crises, the world rose up in response to the quake and aftershocks that devastated the already struggling country. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised, hundreds of agencies and non profits have dropped everything to go help bring order into the chaos, and hundreds of millions of people have been woken up to the realities that natural disasters bring into the the cities, surrounding areas, and the governments of affected countries.

In light of such a disaster, it is easy to get overwhelmed with any number of feelings: grief, frustration, guilt, anger, etc. We must make sure that any response to this crisis in Haiti (or any other genocide or cause) through donating of time or money does not stem from these overwhelming emotions, because often they do more harm then good. Instead, any support should spring from a heart of compassion for suffering. Anger, frustration, and grief are perfectly natural initial responses, but after a little while, they just turn focus towards the past (which you cannot change). Compassion moves one to action, and actions that will take root and build hope.

So, what is to be done in the light of such an enormous disaster?

1. Donate: almost every non-profit in the world has put Haiti as their number 1 priority right now.

Red Cross, Compassion International, World Vision, PIH, itunes, "Help for Haiti Now" CD...

2. Go: If you have the resources and time, and know that you are willing to go because of a heart of compassion and not obligation, GO. Many many medical centers, orphanages, villages, and homes were destroyed and need re-building. Again, find an organization that is taking volunteers (see above).

3. Pray: definitely should not be last on the list, because for most of us, this is the all we are able to do right now. Thankfully, it will also do the most, because our prayers are "powerful and effective." This should be our natural response to those feelings I mentioned earlier, for in handing them back to the Lord, He fills us with His heart for His people, that heart of compassion.

Now you may ask, "Why should I pray/where was God in the middle of this crisis?" I choose to declare that He is in every heart full of hope for their future despite the slums they are now stuck in. He is in the 1000's of volunteers who have had a revelation of His love and respond by pouring out their time and resources to give the people of Haiti hands on help. And He is in those who choose joy, despite the losing of a beloved one, because they know they are blessed to be alive.


Go. Donate. Pray.


3 options. Let's run with them.