Many of you know about The Palestinian Circus School. For those of you who don't know, our school started five years ago in the West Bank. Its purpose is to teach Palestinian children and youth Contemporary Circus, which is different from traditional circus in that there are no elephants, tigers, or animals of any kind. But there is clowning, juggling, trapeze and many other circus arts. 

The purpose of the circus is to be funny, amazing, and full of wonder. But it's also very serious business. At its heart, the circus is a social change agent. The Circus School teaches young Palestinians the circus pedagogy to stimulate and develop their physical, mental, artistic, emotional, social and cognitive abilities.

The Palestinian Circus School is starting a fundraising campaign. We have been donated a new building in the beautiful town of Birzeit, just outside of Ramallah in the West Bank. This building is perfect for our headquarters and for some basic training. But we urgently need a training structure that would serve as an addition to this building. Currently, we are holding practices outside, where the students are exposed to rain and cold in the winter and intense heat in the summer. The new training structure would provide us with a protected space that is strong enough and high enough for our trainers and performers to practice their most difficult moves safely. 

We are launching our campaign on IndieGoGo, an online crowdsourcing fundraising platform. We have exactly 70 days to reach our goal of $25,000. An amazing team has come together to support this campaign, and we are excited to spread the word over the next few months. The best thing about IndieGoGo, is whether you have $20 to give, or $1,000, every donation will bring us closer to our goal. This is the power of independent funding: we are not beholden to any singular funder, but dozens of friends old and new to whom we owe nothing less than our strongest worth ethic and most resolute integrity. The Circus School belongs not just to the few of us who come to the office every day, but also to the scores of people around the world who are helping us to make it real. As always, thank you for your incredible support.