| The New Year starts off with wonderful news and wonderful happenings. Under our projects we will be sharing with you the up to the minute news in the progress for Mama Dinah and her community getting fresh water. And finally, we can share with many of you who are interested in donating towards Mama Charity’s passion for getting children educated. |
Wow, it is happening!
There was a lot to coordinate in order to have Mama Dinah sign a contract for purchase and installation of the solar pump and water storage towers. Mama Dinah had access to some funds supplied by private donors and Hand-in-Hand did the significant push for donations in October, November and December. We were counting the pennies and looking at the quotes for the work. Lucille and Mama Dinah negotiating a discount on the work contract. Finally, all the numbers were adding up and we could give a green light!
A day later Mama Dinah received a notice that the main supplier of the equipment for the project was raising prices between 3 and 8% effective February 1. The next day she received a notice that the pump we had selected had already increased in price prior to Feb 1, almost doubling in price! This resulted in a last minute scramble and request to Bridges of Hope to wire money.. Mama Dinah resolved to talk with the contractor she had chosen for the job and to compare the prices given by the local supplier of the pump with those of other companies that were situated in Nairobi, Kenya’s capitol 484 km away. She was arming herself with all she needed in order to negotiate a fair deal for her community. The community has been without any water for weeks now. No water to wash dishes, they get stacked in a big bucket. No water to wash their bodies or their clothes. The only water they have until it rains is bottled drinking water. And the weather is unusually hot!
Mama Dinah dressed nicely; she was staying at her family’s home in Narok because of the lack of water and the need to bathe and wash some laundry. She did not have quite the money she needed to cover the cost of the solar pump and motor and was still waiting for money from Bridges of Hope. She became very creative and called a friend who works in a professional job and asked to come visit her. In her culture you would not ask for a loan of money over the phone, that would be done in person with face to face, eye to eye contact. She told her friend she was short the money she needed to negotiate and purchase the pump and motor and the friend loaned her the difference knowing there was money coming soon for re-payment.
Mama Dinah went to the office of the supplier bringing the original quote for cost of the pump and told them she was prepared to purchase the pump at that cost and had the money with her to do this. They agreed and she signed the contract for the purchase. She then contacted the company that will be doing all the installations and advised them she has purchased the pump before any price increases. They set up a time to meet on Feb 1 and go over the other items on the contract and see what can be done to purchase all items at the original price without the price increases. Now, you know as much as we do. With prayers under her wings, we wish Mama Dinah success on this same day as the Newsletter goes out. We will, of course finish the story in our next newsletter
Mama Dinah arranging to buy the solar pump before the price increase.
Mama Dinah and two other community members, have formed a council to bring new ideas to the community once they have fresh water. They have been thinking and dreaming outside the box! Not only do they want to consult with local experts about what kinds of fruit trees would be a good match for their soil, weather and water availability, they also want to look at how they can bring money into the community, possibly by selling some of this fresh water. They are dreaming and creating possibilities. Everyone realizes they need to first create a structure for monitoring how much water their bore hole is producing, how well the two towers work for storing fresh water and how much can be taken by each family to leave enough supply for all. They also need community agreement that each boma will contribute a pre-determined amount to fund future repairs and maintenance of the water system. After assessing how all this works for the first year, they will know how much water they can put towards agriculture or other entrepreneurial ventures. Right now, the mamas sit and dream of possibilities and we will be working with them to capture some of those possibilities in their 5 year business plan review.
Mama Charity on a recent call had a young girl come to ask her something while we were talking. Mama Charity remembered that Lucille had met this girl as an infant and Mama Charity called in the girls twin brother. Here is Mama Charity holding the twins as infants and Mama Charity smiling with this same, now, 8 year old twins.
Mama Charity has two projects dear to her heart to focus on for the coming months. The farmland that Hand-in-Hand helped her purchase will be prepared for planting starting in March. In April the first of the rainy seasons should begin and Mama Charity will take about 1/2 acre of the land and plant Cassava which have a long season of almost a year before harvest. She will use the harvested Cassava at the orphanage. In the community around the farmland there are many widows raising children on their own. Mama Charity will provide money for seeds and they can plant peanuts and soya beans and when they harvest, they repay the seed money and use the rest of the harvested income to help support themselves and their children.. Most of these women are young and able bodied so Mama Charity believes they can put in work for supporting themselves with some seed money from her.
Since founding the school just across the border from Togo in Ghana 2 years ago, Mama Charity has accepted many more children. She now has 2 kindergarten classrooms, 2 grade 1 and 2 classrooms and then 1 classroom for each grade up to grade 6. Each classroom has at least 1 teacher and her cost for teachers alone is 1000 euro/ per month, October through August. As we have mentioned before, she accepts students even when the parents cannot afford to pay the school fee. She does not believe any child willing to learn should be refused admittance based on a parents ability to pay. She has estimated 10 euro/month or 100 euro per school year would pay a child’s education for a year. Some of our donors have expressed interest in supporting education for these children. Right now all donations will be used to support the cost of the teachers’ salaries. If you are thinking of donating, a helpful way of doing this is to pledge the equivalent of 10 euros a month on the donation page and a system will be set up automatically to charge that to a card or to do a bank withdrawal from your account ( which of course allows more of the money to go toward education and less to the bank charges for your credit card.). Of course, lump sum donations are also most welcome! As noted in the following photos, Mama Charity has done well in having desks and benches built to accommodate many of the students. She is going to have to replace some of the roofing and walls that were made of bamboo and are now two years old. Mama Charity is one creative and loving mama!
There is a special donation page set up for this that is different from our regular landing page. See here
Here are some photos of different classrooms with different ages of students
Use this link to donate to Mama Charity’s School and Students
We are still looking for a person or two to work on our volunteer team leadership who will organize social media content and posts for us to give us a greater presence primarily on Facebook and Instagram. Ivana has created a very detailed description and we know that University students and perhaps even some special project high school students would love to use their creativity and know how on these platforms to spread the word. Students often get special credit for such projects. If you or someone you know might be interested, click here for more information:
Financial Update
In our last newsletter we mentioned that we would present a financial update that reflects activity from the time of our inception in late December 2019 to the end of December 2022.
In the past two years since Hand-in-Hand became a charitable project, thanks to our generous supporters, we have been able to raise $33,814 (Can) through Canadian, US and global donors. As a project of Bridges of Hope, all eligible Canadian and global donors receive a donation receipt from the Bridges of Hope office in Canada, and all eligible US donors receive a donation receipt from the Bridges of Hope US office. Canadian and global donors may use the red donation link with the maple leaf on our landing page, and US donors may use the blue donation link with the US flag on our landing page.
Since becoming a charitable project we have been fortunate to be able to coordinate with already existing private donors known to the African Project Leaders. We coordinate reaching the goal together for the cost of a specific project. This collaboration has allowed us to help fund especially costly projects much sooner than we would have been able to do alone.
As a project of Bridges of Hope, we share in the cost of doing business, which is factored into our overall budget. One thing we have noticed is a rise in credit card and other processing fees. In some cases there is no way around those fees; it is the cost of doing business. One way we can reduce those costs is if donors send checks or make their monthly donations through their bank account instead of through their credit card. Worth considering for your next donation! Of course, we will continue to gladly accept credit card donations, we just wanted you to be aware of this.
For the purpose of clarity, we are including a summary of our 2021 and 2022 financial report. It shows the overall income as well as the expenses to the projects within Hand-in-Hand that you have been supporting.
| Hand-in-Hand with African Women Financial Summary for January 2021 through December 2022Donations: $33,814Project management admin costs: $4,115Bank Charges: $999Disbursement to different projects: $20,580Money being disbursed to project January 2023 $10,700. |
| We are filled with gratitude, and we thank you for partnering with us. We look forward to your continued support in bringing light and hope to women in east Africa |
We expect to have more information in our next newsletter about Sister Agnes’s hatchery. She has been away on a special assignment and has let us know they are still hatching baby chicks as well as selling piglets and using some of the income for secondary education of children with aptitude.
A team is working on business plan updates and we will report more on that in future issues of the newsletter.
| Note to our supporters and donors in the vicinity of Edmonton, Alberta |
| Hand – in-Hand with African Women have created a partnership with Caprice Consignment , not just a fancy consignment store but a place that gives back. If you are cleaning your walk-in closet of timeless treasures, (clothing and accessories), bring them to Caprice Consignment at 10630-170 St. Edmonton, AB. Be sure to inform them you are choosing the option to put your earnings of the pieces you are consigning, to Hand-in-Hand with African Women. Thank you for being partners in spreading love, hope and compassion! |
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.