This month we have a bit about this and that and some challenging as well as lovely stories to share.
First let us talk about the projects:
We have completed reviewing and updating with her, Mama Charity’s business plan. She found it very helpful to look back at the intentions of 2021 and early 2022 and how things are for her now and what intentions she wants to create for 2023 and 2024 as well as looking ahead in less detail to the next 5 years. Water, is an ongoing issue for all three of our projects in Africa from different perspectives for each. For Mama Charity a desire to create a sustainable project that would help pay for the teachers at the Ghana National School is affected by a lack of water, and rampant malaria is a problem due to too much standing water from the heavy rains; for Sister Agnes, it is too much rain and cold affecting the ability to raise young chicks, and for Mama Dinah it is being ready for the community to have water and her health resulting in a delay in getting the water flowing.
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For Mama Charity, the land that was purchased in 2021 has no sustainable long term water availability. And the community surrounding her land suffers from a lack of water as well. She did get some funding from another NGO (Non-Government Organization)) to drill a bore hole on the land and it appears the only water available will need to come from a bore hole at much deeper depth and that of course is a very costly solution. For now, she is able to plant cassava and sweet potatoes on the land without an outside water source. Cassava takes a year to harvest and can readily be used for food for the orphanage. As she did last year, she has supplied seed money to the windows/single moms in the community and then they can prepare a section of her land and plant crops. When crops are harvested, they re-pay the seed money and they keep the harvest for their own use or for selling to bring in needed income. This has been working out very well. No trees have been planted on the property and won’t be until an ongoing source of water can be found. We are all opening our minds to alternatives to a deep bore hole. |
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At our late March meeting with our team, Mama Charity was sharing her challenging week. She has had Malaria with recurrent symptoms for many years. She has recurrent symptoms about twice a year. Right now with the heavy rains the area has had, there are many standing puddles of water that take extensive time to be absorbed. This, of course is good breeding ground for mosquitoes and there are many in the community and at least 15 children in the orphanage with malaria. They use extensive netting for nighttime sleeping etc, there is just no way to keep out the multitude of mosquitoes that are present now everywhere. |
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Mama Charity was just arriving home at the time of our meeting after taking a 9 month old baby to the hospital because of a large abscess on her cheek and jaw that required incision and drainage. The child was kept overnight in the hospital . She was turned over to the orphanage as an infant by social services. Mama Charity explained the mother was a maid working for a family and when she got pregnant, the woman sold the baby to be taken to another country. So once she had the baby , the woman who paid for the baby would cross the border . That was their plan , but the hospital got to know about their plan and called the social welfare agency to arrest them and Josiann, the baby was turned over to Mama Charity’s orphanage. |
| Mama Charity has been planting fruit trees on a parcel on land owned by her uncle and loaned to her for use to grow food for the orphanage. She has 150 more trees to plant this year. This land has more rain for the trees and not enough water for her to start a pig farm. Sister Agnes has found pig farming to be very helpful in raising funds to send children for advanced education and Mama Charity believes it could be a good source of income to help her pay the teachers at the Ghana National School. Pigs get pregnant easily, deliver piglets (anywhere from 8 to 12 of them each pregnancy) in about 3 months and have a high market value. She has room on her uncle’s land, however there is no borehole which she would need to maintain the pigs. We are sitting with her looking for solutions. |
| She has one additional dream for the future and that is to be able to find a plot of land large enough for her Mother Charity Village Project. She would move the orphanage, the orphanage school and the dormitories for the older children to a location where they would have adequate space to live and to have some extra residential facilities, playgrounds etc. The children would then all have a firm identification of the village they are from and belong to. In Africa this is important, and leads to self esteem and higher initiative. Children who go on with their lives as adults would be able to come back home. Young adults would be able to go for training as apprentices to learn skills which will help them support themselves and their future, as well as have a place to live while they train. New moms, single moms, pregnant because of rape or other circumstances could be provided a place to live and to be able to help raise their children at the orphanage. This is a dream Mama Charity has had for a long time. As readers of the Newsletter are aware, she has supporters in Europe who are willing to support her village concept. As always Mama Charity has broad visions for making a difference and having positive impact in her community |
| We have spoken in the last couple of newsletters about the Ghana National School that Mama Charity founded and runs. The need in this community has been so great, the school is growing rapidly. Mama Charity has calculated that it costs 100 euros to educate one child for a whole year of schooling. We, here at Hand-in-Hand, are starting a campaign and hope you can join us by either donating a lump sum of the equivalent of 100 euros each year or set up a monthly donation of 10 euros each month. We know, 100 euros, what is that in Canadian or US currency? Of course it varies based on the exchange rate each day. On the day this was written it was equal to $108 USD and $148 Canadian. Obviously it does not need to be exact. Mama Charity uses CFA Franc for currency so all currencies change value day to day. We will continue to provide photos and stories in each month’s Newsletters to demonstrate how your donations are making a difference. The future of Africa is in the hands of these children today. We have the ability to impact the world by helping to educate these children. |
Click here if you wish to donate to Mama Charity’s education fund
| Sister Agnes has also been working on upgrading her business plan. We all felt so thankful for how much has been accomplished in these last 2 years. As noted earlier they are experiencing lots of rain and cold weather which is very hard on the hatching and the rearing of new chicks. Chicks need for it to be dry and warm to have successful hatching and the incubator needs a constant source of electricity. They are experiencing frequent electrical outages and have lost some eggs and newly hatched chicks. It has been a steep learning curve with steady improvement. Sister has a new volunteer who recently retired from his profession, who is going to build a partition in the hatchery so they can create a small, enclosed area that can be kept warmer. They have temporarily moved the incubator to Sharon’s home where they have a small generator for when the power goes out. They are adding to their wish list: purchase of a small generator which would sustain the incubator and heat lamps during the power outages. During the business plan discussions there was consideration of doing this seasonally during the warmer and dryer weather until they have all the resources they need to make it a full time operation. |
| Sister Agnes has been very successful with the pigs she has been raising. She has found a volunteer who is helping with the pigs. He has studied Agriculture at the University level. She currently has 4 pregnant sows and expects many piglets towards the end of April. As noted earlier 4 pregnant sows could give birth to anywhere from 35 to 48 piglets. Sister wants to give two of the piglets to two of the older boys to learn how to raise them. This will help them learn responsibility and what is involved in pig farming. She will, of course, oversee the project. Sale of the piglets will help raise money for additional children to attend advanced school and help support the purchase of chicken feed and medicine and heat lamps until the hatchery is more self sustaining. Sister feels very proud that she has supported children in receiving advanced education and pointed out to us she has two nurses who have graduated from their training and are now working. Again, during the discussions of the business plan, she is considering making a more formalized program with scholarships for education and after graduation, some pay back in time or money. This might be better stated as pay forward in time or money towards children who are coming after them |
| We are all working still to finalize Sister Agnes’s 2023 business plan. Recently she was given the opportunity to work a 7- acre plot of land and plant crops on it. The land has not been planted for many years so it would need to be plowed, weeded and fertilizer applied before crops could be successful.. The challenges are to have the funds needed to do this and sister is re-aligning her thoughts about how much she can put towards education of students immediately and how much she needs to invest in the 3 areas of business she has so a greater amount can be used towards education in a couple of years. |
Mama Dinah after almost 3 weeks in the hospital and two surgeries has finally been discharged. After our call with her last month from the hospital, she had some complications that resulted in two more weeks in the hospital for treatment and at least one change of doctor. She was finally discharged but had to stay for another week or so with extended family in Nairobi where she was cared for by family and had a nurse visit every day to change bandages etc. Finally on March 27 she was allowed to return closer to home. She is now in Narok which is the nearest city (and home to her son and daughter) to her village of Oloonkerine. She is recovering well and anxious to step back in to oversee the project of storage tanks and solar pump for their new bore hole. We are certainly hopeful that next month we can include photos of families opening a spigot and getting fresh water in the community and a smiling council that is overseeing the plans for distribution of water in the community.
The cost of medical care is daunting for a community who struggles to have their basic needs like food and water satisfied. Next month we will share with you the outstanding charges not paid by health insurance as well as the unique way individuals and communities face such expenses.
Lucille met Linda Tara, a wonderful local artist in Edmonton at a women’s gathering in her community. After Lucille shared the story of Hand-in-Hand with African Women, Linda was inspired to donate one of her paintings to be auctioned off in a fundraising event for Hand-in-Hand.The plan is for Hand-in-Hand to hold an event at her gallery. Planning is underway and we hope to have an interview with the artist and present this in our next Newsletter. Here is a photo of the painting Linda donated to Hand-in-Hand:
Hand-in-Hand is so fortunate. We want to introduce you to a new member of our team, Rovena Shkreli. Rovena attends a couple of the same groups as Lucille does in Edmonton so had heard about Hand-in-Hand from Lucille. She was intrigued and asked if she could join the leadership team. Rovena was born in Albania, moved to Italy with her family during very challenging times in Albania and then she and her husband and at the time 3 children moved to Edmonton Canada in December 2015. She has a 6 yr old son born in Canada as well now. Because she grew up in Albania during economically challenging times, even though she came from a more middle- class family, she was touched by the challenges many families had who were less fortunate. This has instilled a desire in her to give back when she can to help all of humanity to thrive and she would like to do that within Hand-in-Hand.
As the team considered where we needed the most support, it was in social media posting and sharing the Hand-in-Hand story.
Rovena courageously agreed to take this task on and her 18 year-old-son, Andrea, has graciously agreed to support her in learning any of the technical things she needs to learn. Andrea will bring a second source of creativity to the project. We are so excited to have them and hope it will be a steady flow of articles and photos on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
| Most of you know something about Ivana as she has been one of the hard-working volunteers on our team. She has supported posting on social media, she has studied how we can have the greatest impact in our projects and has been a collaborator in developing such an amazing team leadership model. Many know Ivana from the interviews she has done with many of our project leaders. Ivana recently returned home to Macedonia from a visit with family in Slovakia where she was born. |
| Ivana was born in East Slovakia and attended University in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. She learned to speak English and French through her travels. After finishing her Master’s Degree in Slovakia she traveled again, this time to the Balkans for an internship in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her travels built partnerships around the globe (Europe, Asia and South East Africa. She then went to North Macedonia where she met her husband and continues to live today. She discovered what she most cares about in the world is self-development, education, conscious impact and social and green economy. |
Ivana as an ecosystem builder has launched her own consulting business called “Impact from Heart“ and is working with organizations in Central and Eastern Europe to help develop long-term projects and make their impact more conscious. Her goals are to collaborate and co-create with other like-minded people and create communities and sustainable ecosystems which are essential for the future of the planet. She is developing a holistic approach to the well-being of organizations and individuals working with them uncovering their full potential, with a special focus on guidance for female leaders, trainings and mentoring for young people and well-being retreats. Hand-in-Hand is so fortunate to have Ivana on our leadership team!
Ivana also has an interest in supporting tourism in a way that tourists really get a flavor of culture and everyday life in an area in addition to visiting well known attractions.
| Note to our supporters and donors in the vicinity of Edmonton, Alberta |
| In 2022 Hand-in-Hand with African Women created a partnership with Caprice Consignment in Edmonton , AB. The shop owner is retiring and closing the consignment store so it is no longer an option to bring your gently used clothes there and share the proceeds with Hand-in-Hand. We are looking for another partner. We had fun doing a fashion show as a fundraiser in the spring of 2022 and hope to create that opportunity again. If you have ideas please let us know. |
| Please visit us on our Facebook page and Instagram. . Please consider forwarding our Newsletter to your friends and family if you know of others that may be interested. |
| We are so grateful for the many donors who have given so generously to the different projects. It is gratifying to see how much the projects have accomplished in such a short time . We would also like to encourage those of you who have been gracious and donated a few times, if you would consider setting up a regular monthly donation through our partner Bridges of Hope Hand- in- Hand . It’s very easy to arrange: and the money is either deducted directly from your account which means we avoid the credit card fees and more of your money goes to the projects or you can do this through Credit Card/PayPal as well. As we grow our monthly donations, it allows us to plan our projects and know more about the funding of them. Thank you for considering this. When you hit the donate button, you will be given the opportunity to set up monthly donations. |