Welcome to the 2019 #WeAreCisco #LoveWhereYouWork Fund supporting our Bridge Award Winners - for every entry into this contest, Cisco will donate $2 - up to $10K - for their charities. Your entry not only helps us share the awesome Cisco culture to attract talent, but helps us give back as well!

Join me in supporting Rising Above the Storms to build a Computer Lab for Former Street Youth in Rwanda. This lab will enable us to empower our at-risk youth through innovations, research, internet, computer skills. We currently have 16 kids ranging from 10-18, and most of them still in elementary school. We’re looking to buy 8 laptops, estimating $500 per laptop before tax (plus network configuration & setup, and hiring a seasonal IT technician to help assist with the lab); we are also looking for 7 people to commit to donating $50 a month for at least 2 years so that we can continue to provide the necessary needs for the kids through counseling, clean clothes, food, a playground, school fees, material & uniforms for a traditional public school, and after school tutoring & mentoring. Giving RAS youth access to technology that they can’t afford in their home environment, will help them catch up with peers, enable them to engage others outside their communities, and maybe turn out to be a career path for some of them. Through this lab/initiative, we are intending to boost our kids’ confidence, promote skills learning, while we provide them with a motivation to stay in our programs, and prevent them from going back to the streets, and prepare them for a future career in technology. We expect to go Live in November 2019. Preps are underway! Thank you very much for your partnership, generosity and support!

Cisco’s Inclusive Communities have established this Fund to support organizations driving Social Justice across the globe. After you make a donation, be sure to match your contribution through your employer’s matching gifts program if available. If you are a Cisco employee, please make and match your donation at cisco.brightfunds.org. A note on tax deductibility: This fund includes organizations based in the U.S., and in other countries. Donors in the U.S. who make a credit card donation will receive a receipt for tax deductibility for all contributions to this fund or the organizations included. Donors outside the U.S. will not be able to receive a receipt for tax deductibility.

Rising Above the Storms (RAS) launched a mobile-based Education Center in Rwanda (Jan 2017) and currently serves 17 at-risk youth from poverty-stricken areas of Kigali & suburbs. In addition to school materials, uniforms, & tuition fees (in a traditional public school), children receive therapy sessions, and much-needed basic food supplies when they visit our mobile-based classroom. With your generosity, our goal is to expand and include extracurricular activities such as sports and musical instruments to keep our students active! Our goal is to raise $50K to meet these needs. With your help, this will allow us to use a facility with additional space to accommodate new programs, add additional students, and provide hope and educational support to these young boys and girls.

Welcome to the 'CONEXTalk' Fund Donation Portal! What is CONEXTalk? CONEXTalk is the leading media program for diversity and inclusion, sponsored by Conexión - Latino Network at Cisco, dedicated to giving Cisco employees of all backgrounds a platform for awareness and advocacy, with the mission of creating and Inclusive Future for All. During the program, Cisconians and keynote speakers will share their own life experiences to help encourage Cisco employees to grow professionally. CONEXTalk also gives viewers the opportunity to learn more about select nonprofits to volunteer and donate to. Any donations made by Cisco or AppDynamics employees will be matched by Cisco! Our next event will be held on August 20th!

As the world grapples with the failing economy due to the coronavirus pandemic, the most vulnerable in the world are impacted the most. As published by UNICEF: "Without urgent action, this health crisis risks becoming a child-rights crisis. Disruptions to society have a heavy impact on children: on their safety, their well-being, their future." Our work in Rwanda is currently focused on street children. As UNICEF paints it, we have seen the extent of impact the COVID-19 has had on those who are already the most vulnerable in normal circumstances. Our kids are out of school and in environments that we fear pushed them to the streets in the first place, unstable homes. We want to ensure that they don't return to the streets. Our top priority is to ensure that while our kids don't go hungry while they are currently home and out of school. Our goal is to continue to provide food relief as logistics permit, until our Center reopens; hence they can get daily meals there. Secondly, we plan to to introduce activities that can keep them busy as soon as healthy conditions allow them to return to the Center. Those activities include computer skills, crafts, languages and brain games for kids. This will be their full time focus until schools reopen in September. Some of the activities we hope to accomplish in addition to Computer Skills Training and providing meals are: 1. Continue individual and group counseling 2. Trainings the children on: - peace building - goal setting - personal effectiveness 3. Talent development - Soccer practices - music dance practices - reading - writing their stories

We have triumphed in the face of adversity throughout the pandemic. A lighthouse is a beacon of strength, a symbol of hope. We continue to see the light at the end of the storm. As the year ends, we ask for your help to bring this lighthouse to the children of Rwanda. Rising Above the Storms (RAS), in partnership with Amahoro Builders, has stood frontline in the continued fight of bridging the socioeconomic gap in education, career growth and quality of life for these children. As we look back on this year, we remember our core pillars of empowerment, community, and empathy. We’ve had our first high school graduation. We’ve started selling merchandise on the Cisco store. We’ve sent our first shipment to Rwanda with items including jerseys, shorts, shoes, etc. These are our proudest moments of 2021 and have acted as our anchors to help us weather the storm. What will this fundraiser achieve? Here are some of our initiatives in the new year: • Launch College fund for High School Graduates • Career & vocational training • Expand extracurricular activities: music instruments & soccer training These children need a lighthouse. Be their beacon of strength! Will you join us and donate? Thank you very much, RAS Fundraiser Team