The spirit of goodwill

28/11/09


The spirit of goodwill in Abugida has reached the Birhan school.


To our great joy, we can inform you that the tremendous spirit of goodwill experienced in Abugida has now touched the Birhan school.
The older teachers retired at the beginning of this academic year and have given way to the new, highly motivated young generation of teachers who are excited, active and "raring to go", singing, dancing and playing with the children.

The generation gap has been closed, replacing old-school teaching through bullying and punishment ( not only the children but also the younger staff, a situation we witnessed during our visits, creating an oppressive atmosphere) and has been replaced by the same spirit of happiness felt in Abugida. The older staff now work in the evenings on our adult reading and writing initiatives.
Both parts are benefitting from this change and the older generation of staff are much more content being in charge of the adult education.


We had a wonderful reception, singing, dancing from children and staff. The teachers were beautifully turned out in traditional dress and looked a treat.
This year the children wear the same uniform as the pupils in Albugida.
After the ceremony we had a meeting with the headmistress.
This lady had replaced the former headteacher and at that moment we still did not know why.
We spoke on an individual basis with all of the teachers who informed us that it was a clear case of nepotism. The new headteacher is a member of the Edir's family. They told us that she is a lovely lady but unqualified for the job and lacking the experience recquired.
We decided to call all of the teachers to vote for who they considered to be the best qualified for the position but that it would be a secret ballot.
They were all keen to vote but became frightened of how the Edir would react when the result vote supported Genet, a membr of the teaching staff.
We told them not to worry and that we would deal with everything. We would have a meeting with the Edir.

We organised the meeting with the Edir and at first there was a lot of tension in the air but through clear, honest talking we managed to bring the Edir around to our way of thinking. At the end of the day , our aims are the same and both sides are genuinely concerned about the welfare of the boys and girls who attend the centre and of course the future of the Birhan school.


The Edir is struggling to obtain official accreditation for the school. Bureaucrocy is slow and complicated in this country.


Despite all of these difficulties the school is flourishing and looking beautifully decorated thanks to the teachers and pupils.
Most importantly, the children are very happy.
Personal files are being drawn up about every individual child including their family background and health.
Thanks to these files we are beginning to identify certain health problems which are being addressed.
The same as in Abugida,the teachers in Birhan will be attending a 3 month computer course.

The reading and writing course in Birhan is a great success.


We are financing one of these groups and the Kebele is using our instalations for two other reading and writing groups.


Barry has completed a construction project for when the school finally receives accreditation. The estimate for this buliding works out to 30,000 euros.


Unfortunately, our attempts to have a meeting with the parents of our schoolchildren was frustrated by the intervention of some mafia-type characters who are trying to upset all of our plans and the future of the families and children in our care.


We hope that the authorities will help us with this matter and that the culprits will be dealt with.


Photos:The Romeos and Juliets of the school, some of the staff,children, Genet, the new headteacher, some dancing, our welcome party.

Kidnappings.

8/12/09


We would like to express our support and distress about the kidnapping by Al Queda of the Spanish volunteers while working for the organisation Accio.
We wish to transmit our support and solidarity to the three kidnapped volunteers, their loved ones  and friends.
We are extremely concerned to hear that they are in the hands of the hardline faction of Al Queda in the Magreb.
We hope and we pray that this situation will be solved pacifically and that they will soon be back home.
They only went there to help those who have so little and need so much help.

Our two year old children

11/12/09


For the first time ever we have two year old children in our school. There are 20 two year olds in our Abugida centre.
Both their psychomotor activity and their physical development are well below their age.


All of the children who are offered a place in the Abugida school have been given a certificate by the Kebele which confirms their poverty status. All of these children started in September at the beginning of the academic year and as yet it is too early to give much information as to their progress.

In Ethiopia thre are practically no nursery schools except for the very few fee-paying centres in Addis.
Since there are next to no schools this also means that there are extremely few trained teachers for this age group.
Therefore the teachers we have already, do their best to work effectively with the two year olds.


Our priorities for the 2 year olds are the following.


Food: We provide them with extra milk and protein.
Health:Vaccinations and healthcare for all.
Communication skills: After food and health, these children will need help to enable them to survive in society.


At the moment the two year olds are sharing space ( separated by a partition) with the three year olds until their classroom (currently being built) is completed.
The new classrooms for the two and three year olds will be spacious, have plenty of natural light and bathrooms.

Photos: Ato Tamirat, president to the Edir and the Abugida's school's administrator. The class of two year olds.

Mata de Jonc School

The Mata de Jonc school in Palma this week organised a campaign to collect food for Mediterranea to distribute amongst those in need in Mallorca. We calculate that they accumulated just over 200kg which will be distributed this coming week.


We hope other schools will join in the program. If we could get 5 schools encouraging students to bring one food unit (any of the following: 1kg of rice, 1L.milk, 1L oil, 1kg of pasta, sugar, flour, couscous, tinned food, biscuits etc) one day a month we could probably double the number of people we feed at no great cost to all those involved. One kg of rice costs as little as 0.75€.

If you have children at school, please feel free to ask your school to collaborate.



At present we are providing food for approximately 750 meals a day. In the last month we have delivered neat to 4 tones of food in Mallorca.

With your help we can do a lot more.

Up until now, Mediterranea have not been involved in any.........

Up until now, Mediterranea have not been involved in any individual fostering initiatives but the precarious situation of some of the families with children attending our schools and the invaluable help being offered by Ana, one of our members, has made our involvement a necessity,(bearing in mind that we are an organisation totally dependent on volunteers).


Our battlefront is one of poverty. A battle, to prevent situations of such extreme poverty, that sons, daughters, nieces, nephews and grandchildren are wrenched from the arms of families and friends, and condemned them to a life of  abandonment and - for the over fives, a life fighting for survival on the streets.


We want these children to continue living with their biological or adoptive  families wherever possible. Where their entire families have died, we want them to be fostered, to continue to live in the same neighbourhood, to attend the same school, to enjoy the company of their own friends, and to grow up in their own culture. We want them to have a chance in life.


In Addis alone, there are 90,000 children living on the streets. There are only two possibilities for these unfortunate children, and we do not want them to end up in an orphanage or on the streets. Our fostering program has taken off now with the first 8 applications received by Mediterranea. We thank directly from this page our first 8 pioneers in this new humanitarian venture. We need 13 more sponsors for pupils who attend our school in Abugida and more willing sponsors

to help pupils in the Birhan school. Every case has been chosen by the Edir and by the school itself. In both schools it is the Edir ( the neighbourhood association which controls the schools and with whom we have a signed contract, in this case with Akaki and in Yeka) who choose the children and families because, evidently, they see and work with them daily, know them personally and are completely up-to-date with their plight.


All of the children selected in Abugida as part of this program attend or were attending our schools last year. Those pupils who are no longer able to attend our centres now go to public school but come daily to have breakfast and lunch in Abugida. Not all of the children who come to eat take part in the fostering project since we have only been able to accommodate the most desperate cases. All of the children to be chosen are currently attending the Birhan centre. They are all orphans or almost orphans being looked after by single mothers, biological or adoptive grandparents, adoptive mothers, sisters, aunts, or in one of the cases in Abugida, by a foster family - because all of the child's family is dead. All of these families have little or no income. Some of the children are HIV positive. Almost all of them have a terrible story to tell, of tremendous difficulties and misery but they all help each other. We watch them, under these extreme circumstances, attending school, trying to  live a normal, routine life and we hope that they can continue to do so for a long time to come.


During our last trip too we met the families selected by the Edir and the school in Abugida. We witnessed their lives first hand.


The Mediterranea charity would like to make it very clear that we are not involved in the selection of the children. We feel that by "sitting on the fence" in the selection process that we are seen to be totally neutral and cannot be accused, at any time of favouritism or manipulation. We endeavour to  be transparent in all of our work, to be guides and not judges.

We only become directly involved in cases of extreme health problems and in the arrangement, if necessary, of paying for treatment in Ethiopia or organising trips to Spain in cases of dire medical need.


Our prime concerns are food, health care and education. We have over 400 children in our 2 schools and we have 46 employees working in these centres paid by Mediterranea. The children who attend our schools all have access to health care provided and paid for by our charity.


All of those members who come forward to sponsor a child will be put in contact with the children, can visit them if they so wish, and will be able to receive photos and communications from the children. The foster families have given permission for all sponsors to have access to the entire history and information about the background and experiences of the children they are sponsoring.


To sponsor a child, please contact apadrinamediterranea@gmail.com, and/or linda.a.spratt@gmail.com

Calvia Christmas Fair 2009

The Christmas Fair held in Puerto Portals has been a great success this year. The Medettes (Mediterranea volunteers) had worked very hard and the Mediterranea stall was amongst the best. Over 900€ were raised and fun was had by all. Not only was a lot of money raised that will help with our various programs but awareness was created and we hope to reap few new members to our swelling ranks.
If you wish to see the snap shots click---> HERE

100% genuine.

Mediterranea is a direct help NGO. This means that not only does 100% of the money go directly to the projects but we also start working immediately when we discover a problem we can act upon without having to go through long tedious procedures to get a subsidy.

Mediterranea does not receive neither state nor municipal aid. We are a pure, 100% independent Non Governmental Organisation.

All the economical and logistical support we receive is private, which allows us to act as flexibly and promptly as we do. We are also non political and non religious.

In Mallorca we have at present the following programs:

Zaqueo Collective:
The Zaqueo Colective supplies food on a daily base to hundreds of people in need in Palma. We from Mediterranea help out with food, clothes and voluntary work.

Can Gaza and Casa Llarga:
These are two homes which shelter senior men rejected by  society. The good spirit, and the motor of these two homes is the one and only Jaume Santandreu. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of some volunteers, we have helped to improve the infrastructure of the two places (including central heating, hot water, electricity, paint jobs etc), provided them with clothes, TVs  HIFI, electrical appliances, furniture  medical supplies, linen and food.

All this didn’t cost Mediterranea anything because it was all donated and organised by members and friends of the NGO.


Programs sustained by our 4th World charity fund

People from Mali:
The people from Mali  that we attend number around 150 people. We provide them on a weekly base with food in sufficient quantity for them to be able to cover their basic needs for that week. This includes:, pasta, oil, milk, sugar, cocoa, pepper, onions, garlic, flour, salt and clothes. None of them receive institutional support.

The “Son Dameto” neighbours’ association where we have distributed the food in the first two weeks have refused to help us any more. So we had to find another distribution point, which we did. Here we have not had any problems so far. We have already  handed out more than 2 ½ tons of food for them. This project costs us every week between 380 EUR and 440 EUR. The rest of the costs are covered by donations from collaborators.

We are expecting the help of schools from the islands, which have volunteered to donate food to the project. This way we will not have to spend so much money from our funds which are desperately needed for the continuity of our long term projects in Ethopia.

People from Senegal:
In collaboration with Father Eugenio of the Palmanova church, as remarkable a priest as you can find, we have started to hand out food to the Senegalese of Calvia. These are also people without any institutional help. The church attends all sorts of people in need. We are concentrating on the Senegalese as the Subsaharians are the weakest link in the immigration chain. The first contact that we made was while they were looking for food in the rubbish bins of a supermarket in Calvia.

Working with homogeneous groups makes our work easier, because they know each other which helps a lot logistically.

We deal with 100 Senegalese, which makes it 2100 meals a week.

At the Senegalese request Mediterranea will start giving classes in Spanish and English. The classes will be given by volunteers.

We need computer screens, computers, mice and keyboards to start with IT classes.

We will maintain those two programs throughout the winter.

A big thank you from here to all of you who make Mediterranea possible

English lessons for the Senegalese in Magaluf

This week,Heidrun gave her first English lesson to members of the Senegalese population that we are helping in Calvia.


There is a slight problem and that is that quite a few of the members of this community can not read or write. So we are having to start right at the beginning.
Nothing is impossible.