In Mediterranea, right now.

Some times  as we talk about things going on in Mediterranea with members and volunteers, we get a surprised look, followed by a comment like "I did not know we were doing that!". It is not surprising that some people do not know all the different aspects and areas of our work and we ought to make a greater effort to keep people up to date with what is happening in Mediterranea in a given moment. So here we go.

What is happening in Mediterranea right now?

1)We are handing out over 14000 litres of milk, a month to children in need in Mallorca (4th world). This requires a mighty effort to accumulate the milk and a masterful logistics operation to distribute it.
2)We are making prescription glasses for children in  need in Mallorca.
3))We are giving Baby food and clothes for babies in 4th world.
4)We are accumulating used/old computers, repairing them, installing software, and giving them to children in sheltered homes in Mallorca.
5)We provide clothing to hundreds of children on the island.
6)We are working on trying to get businesses, clubs and schools to help us accumulate milk to hand out for children in families going through hard times.
7)We are providing books for school children whose parents can not afford to buy them.
8)We are helping to feed between 200 and 350 roofless people in Palma.
9)We provide Dignipacks for the roofless people once a month.
10)We are accumulating towels for the roofless people.
11)We will soon be repatriating Martha whom we have bought over from Ethiopia 4 times for spinal surgery. She seems to be doing well and is loving her stay in Mallorca.
12)We are feeding over 1200 children in Ethiopia
13)We run a school for 250 very poor children in the Akaki area south of Addis Ababa. It is considered one of the best schools in the country. The children are fed (up to 3 times a day depending on on age group), given uniforms, treated when ill, and are educated in a happy environment.
14)We have a nursery in Akaki
15)We run a day centre for severely handicapped children in Sebeta west of Addis. It is called Rainbow House and it has been a great success.
16)We run a stimulation centre for blind children in the Sebeta Blind Children's school.
17)We, in collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands, have teams of Physiotherapists and teachers going down to Ghana to the department we set up in the Dangme East Hospital in Ada, and cooperating with the training of Physiotherapists in Ghana.
18)We are sponsoring orphaned children in Akaki.
19)We are teaching women in Akaki to read and write.
20)We do positive discrimination in favour of women and children who are HIV positive in Akaki providing them with jobs and a place in our school.
21)We continue to collect glasses which we send out all over the world.
22)We are collaborating with a sister organization sending clothes, books, and medical supplies to Senegal where we will help them with a medical centre they run.
23)We have helped to equip and refurbish a maternity centre in the north of Senegal.
24)We are designing low cost, no maintenance transport systems for severely handicapped children in Ethiopia.
25)We are developing a Park project for the Akaki municipality. It will be 14000sq.m big and will be the biggest public park in the country. Parks stimulate intelligence.
26)We are finishing a street we have restored in Akaki. Good access is a way of helping the local economy.
27)We are maintaining a centre in Portals Nous, open mornings and afternoons where meetings are held, supplies are stored and things can be dropped of. We need help manning it.
28)We try to keep our friends and members informed through the Facebook, Blog and Web Page. We need help on translations.
29)We have a considerable amount of administrative work and we have been re awarded the "de utilidad Publica" status by the government.
30)We employ over 60 people in Ethiopia. For every person employed it is estimated that 10 others on average are helped in their families. The umbrella is large.
31)We are providing dental treatment to children in need in Mallorca
32)Behind the scenes are a wonderful team of people working hard so that all of this may continue.


......and we try to create membership and raise funds so that all of these very important projects can keep on going. 

                      You do not know just how much your kind help counts.

I can’t help but be amazed.

Every time I think back about how Mediterránea developed into such an effective organization with so few resources, I can’t help but be amazed.

There were 6 of us at the outset with just a bit of money that each of us had paid into the account to start things moving, whereas now we are helping more than 2,500 children in 2 continents. It wasn’t easy; at times, as many of you know, it was even dangerous just keeping the programmes going. We had to deal with corruption, mafia-like behavior, blatant threats of physical violence as well as veiled threats and general harassment. Over the years Mediterránea has been supported and helped by scores of wonderful people, some of whom have left the organization as their lives led them in different directions, while others have continued to build and nurture our various programmes.

Month after month, in spite of the crisis, we have been able to honour our commitments. The crisis has not stopped us but has hampered us operationally and reduced our ability to expand. It has also given us many a sleepless night. We have on occasions had to adjust this or that programme or sub-programme in order to safeguard their continuity- much to our dislike, but where we had no choice.

One good thing to have come out of the crisis is the fact that NGOs are now working together more and more, helping one another and sharing material, know-how and volunteers. The role of schools, from nurseries right through to secondary schools, is becoming more important by the day for organizations such as ours. In cooperating with Mediterránea, many of these schools use this as an opportunity to teach their pupils solidarity, organizational skills, team-work and even how to make video spots and other advertising techniques. I know children who have grown up with Mediterránea. They see it as something that is always there ready to help the needy and which is helped in turn by their parents and also by themselves at school. I feel proud to think that we have helped to “normalize” solidarity as an integral part of the daily lives of so many “first world” boys and girls.

As is well known, all of us who make up Mediterránea’s driving force are volunteers. All our active members devote the time they can to the organization. Mediterránea pays no salaries in the “first world”, which has allowed us to dedicate all our funds to our programmes but which also has a downside- that of not always having the manpower we needed when we needed it, which meant that at times a huge load was placed on a limited number of shoulders. But even then we were able to keep things moving and now, with greater sensitivity and motivation at large in society as a whole, we are drawing in many marvelous new volunteers to help with our programmes.

I should like to thank you all for helping us to realize our dream of human companionship and for giving us the hope that we shall be able to continue growing, helping more and more children. The future belongs to them and the little help we can give them, particularly in their moments of greatest vulnerability and need, will make all the difference.


Michael Stoma

THE BENEFITS OF PLAYING GOLF BADLY

Being a member of The Foggies Golf Society based in Mallorca (probably the worst golf society in the world) gives me the opportunity to, not only spoil a nice walk on a Saturday morning, but also to go home and kick the dog after yet another excruciatingly bad round of golf.

Just occasionally (very occasionally) the gods of golf smile down on you and you get close to a par round. On such days needless to say the dog doesn’t get kicked and I am almost civil to “She Who Must Be Obeyed” instead of the grumpy monosyllabic ogre that normally confronts her.
Deciding that the happier days were obviously much more conducive to a long and happy marriage, I needed to come up with a cunning plan to enjoy (cope) with my Saturday Soirees to the course.
Realizing that the obvious solution of knuckling down and practising more just wasn’t going to happen I eventually came up with the following idea.
If I couldn’t improve my moods by playing better golf I was determined to make my fellow members rounds more painful than mine therefore by comparison making my round almost enjoyable (not great logic I understand, but sometimes you find yourself clutching at straws)
So racking my limited mental capacity to its fullest I came up with the following idea
(Remember at the time I was the society’s captain so I was hopeful of pushing my idea through). Any member with a handicap from scratch (some chance!) to 10 paid €1 for every double bogey achieved on their Saturday round.
Members with handicaps from 11 to 19 paid €1 for every triple bogey achieved per round and the “Buzz Lightyears”(Infinity and Beyond) 20+ of the society had to stump up a €1 for every quadruple achieved.
All monies collected would at the end of the year be donated to the captains charity of choice, in my case Mediterranea.
You can imagine my surprise when the guys voted in my scheme, you should have also seen my surprise when they told me of the one proviso to the scheme they had added.
The reigning captain didn’t have to pay for his bogies (fantastic) but had to match all the members fines each week (not so fantastic)
Realizing that I couldn’t now back down without losing all credibility I accepted the new proposal ( I guess you could say justice had well and truly been done)
On the bright side however, the society eventually raised in the region of €1500 that year which was duly donated to Mediterranea.(as I said probably the worst golf society in the world).
Happily all the proceeding captains have upheld the tradition and we have continued our support of Mediterranea.
The upshot being my fellow members may be bad golfers, but they are all good guys and at least some people are benefiting from our inability to hit that little white ball!

Mike Adams

K&M Maritime Mallorca

HELP FROM THE MOUNTAINS

DEIA

Our kind collaborators in Deia continue to accumulate food for those in need on the island. 

Please keep up the good work and encourage friends to join in. 

The more we are the more we can do to help those in need during these hard times.

What we are worth is not what we have but just how much we are willing to do for others.

As we come to the end of a difficult and cruel year for many, I would like to thank those marvellous people we call volunteers.  It is thanks to their efforts and dedication that we have been able to help as many children as we have, both here in Mallorca and in the third world.

Mediterranea is not an end in itself, it is a means where by people, mainly children, get the help they need, firstly to help them survive and secondly to help them develop and grow as they deserve. We are at present helping over 2000 children in all our projects. 

The next few years are going to be very challenging. The way things have gone in our society makes it very unlikely that families struggling through great hardship are going to be able to climb easily out of the pit of misery. We have two options, either we as a society get organized and help those we can, as best we can, or we just turn our backs on them and  leave them to their destiny. These situations challenge us a species and as a society. What we are worth is not what we have but just how much we are willing to do for others. 

Europe over the last 400 years has had civil wars, revolutions, social movements, political unrest, wars and world wars in its struggle to obtain a better quality of life, social justice, well being, and even peace. Now with the crisis all of that, that was obtained with so much sacrifice, is being destroyed bit by bit, plucked like the petals of a daisy. 

 Society has been tested to see just how much it will tolerate before erupting and we are sadly becoming accustomed to accepting the suffering of others. In Mediterranea  we feel that as humans we have the ability and right to decide and we have the chance to get up and work for a better and more just society. We refuse to stand and watch the suffering of others and we do not accept injustice as a natural part of our social make up. 

It is an honour to help in a just cause with people who do not take in to account race, colour, political ideology or creed and who just work for the love of mankind. 

So as to be able to keep up our projects, and even expand them we are going to need the help of our fortunate, like ourselves, members of our society. Volunteering or becoming a  member, or even better, becoming both things is a sure way of being able to become a part of the solution.

So if you too want to help make our society a better place and help give children a better future then do not hesitate to become a member of Mediterranea, and if you have some time on your hands then become a volunteer too. It will help change other peoples lives, and it will very likely change and enrich yours too.

Happy New Year.

Michael Stoma

Truth.

These pictures of our programs in Africa are real. No Photoshop. They might look idyllic but that is the reality we have in the little microworld we have created. Often we have been asked if the pictures are touched up. The answer is “No”.

We also try to avoid the pictures that underline the miseries of those in need and that show the “superiority” of the north. In Mediterranea we strive to better the quality of life of those we are trying to help, and this is obtainable. Because of this we do not flaunt pictures of misery and poverty, there are plenty of those about.

We also do not want to build buildings out of bits of wood and call them schools. We do not believe in giving the minimum and saying that what they now have is better than what they had before. We believe that all children are equal and deserve the same opportunities, love and help all over the world. Children are the future, and how we treat them and how we educate them conditions the future of humanity.