1,000 Classrooms

10 Oct 1,000 Classrooms

Forest Health Alliance partner James Brooks is helping young Canadian students make a connection to their Congolese counterparts with a program all his own – 1,000 Classrooms. Twelve-year-old James pledged last year to get 1,000 classrooms in Canada to donate $3 each to our Eggs for Kids program.

Called a project by kids and for kids, the goal of 1,000 Classrooms is to raise both money and awareness to “help the environment, hungry children, endangered gorillas, and the widows of murdered park rangers who died protecting gorillas.”

James says he has always been fascinated by apes, and began fundraising at the age of 10 with a website called apeaware.org.

He became aware of the Forest Health Alliance when he was searching the web for information on bonobos, and instead of Christmas presents in 2007, he asked for contributions to the Alliance. He donated enough to buy a desk and lunch for one child for one year at the Kahuzi Biega school.

James launched 1,000 Classrooms in October 2008, after deciding he wanted to do something that would do more to get Canadian kids involved. So far James has reached more than 25% of his fundraising goal and has inspired many other students.

“James is a wonderful example of how much one person can do, and in this case it is an 11 year old,” says Dr. Kerry Bowman.

Find out more by visiting 1000classrooms.org and apeaware.org. You can also visit the 1,000 classrooms Facebook page, or read about James on the Year of the Gorilla site.