Village Ventures Africa

I have to tell you not only were we on TV last week but on Saturday past we also had a National Radio broadcast.
The broadcast not only spoke on many of the donations given by the Rally this year but there was also an interview from our Mayor who stated that the town was very grateful to village ventures who has in previous years .. been a fore runner..so to speak.. in supporting much of the towns people as well as rural areas.
On Wednesday after spending the previous 2 days with Janos and Andras in Mambourke ..some 30kms in the desert area surrounding Diema..Where these 2 men worked tirelessly to install a very costly solar powered irrigation system to assist in our poverty alleviation programme for one of our poorest villages..I ,together with 5 team members set to work on organising and assessing needs of our poorest,listing villages, school’s individuals and nomadic tribes who where in the greatest of need to receive some of Budapest Bamako incredible donations..
We started with all the donations of clothing and shoes as there were some 90 boxes in total..
As you can imagine it was a huge task.. But one we were thrilled to share with as many people as possible..
One this was organised we prepared lists of all our schools,including the garden de enfants and koranic schools..23 in all and shared most of the equipment and schools materials between them..
Thursday we continued with our distribution planning and prepared boxes of toys for the garden de enfants as well as setting many on one side ready for our children’s party evenings..
It was on Thursday evening that we checked all laptops were in working order and realised we had 22 in total..absolutely incredible.. So a decision was made to give 2 laptops each to 10 schools. One laptop was still in IRS box as brand new..so I made a decision to donate that one to our Diema Correspondant…who works hard to share information with bamako on all important matters pertaining to the town as well as covering our presentations..previously I’d given him his first old laptop and camera..he was so thrilled..
The other laptop had no battery so it was decided to donate it to the library where electricity is available.. Though in frequent at present.
That bought us to the food participants had left us..obviously I enjoyed a few treats.. But much of the food was donated to our paster of both the multi religion church in town..
On Friday 6th/13 february we had a party for the children.. Handing out…toys.. pens..sweets.
On Saturday 7th February after an announcement on local radio we invited the chiefs of 40 villages in the Diema area to come to our centre to collect from one to 5 boxes of clothing and shoe s for distribution to the poorest.
The commandant oversaw the proceedings and was grateful and impressed with the incredible donations handed out.
During the following week donations were collected and also taken to the various villages..
Saturday 14th of February was our presentation of the laptop’s.
All headmasters were invited as all schools were to collect their box of school materials at the same time as others were to collect their laptops.
The chief(director)of CAP oversaw the proceedings. I spoke briefly insisting that these laptops should be used to teach and encourage youth to gain world knowledge which is a programme close to my heart and I was thrilled to hear the director of CAP state that the school curriculum would now include IT skills lessons..
You helped us achieve this status in this area.. I am so excited about it..
I hope in the near future we can set up a school exchange programme..
A sewing machine as already been donated to our youth organisation.. Who have no work at present(I also donated a small netbook to the president to help source work via internet in other areas of Mali..
On to our motorbike ambulance.. Lessons are being taken by our team members and as soon as confidence has grown suffiently it will be used cars an emergency form of transport collecting the sick from rural areas..
I was very surprised when one young woman told me she wanted to donate her small vehicle..very economical..Great for our team members to travel to check on our projects.. Extremely grateful for it..
As I was about to leave Bamako with motor ambulance and small car..A rally team from Finland offered to give me his 1980s Jeep.. I was sceptical about it and told him I could only take it if we could sell it as it would be far too expensive for us to run..he agreed and I have since found a buyer in the form of a team member..he is our Conserge National and offered 500euro..we havent recieved payment as yet. But it will help towards costs of the upkeep of our centre included guardian costs..we also need new batterys for our solar so all donations of money will be used very wisely.
Now to the Incredible donation of the radio station..
Unfortunately we couldn’t set it up during the Rally’s brief visit as there were several parts missing..but a team offered to send those to me..and as soon as they’re received Our National Conserge will arranged an engineer to come from Bamako to set it up..and we believe we can then transmit up to 150 kms..in the meantime Podcasts and a weekly programme schedule are being set up..
I cannot begin to tell you how incredibly grateful we are to everyone whose to support our town of Diema..
God bless you all
Pam

(click on the foto’s for a larger view)