WISH LIST: If you buy yourself a new computer, we could really benefit from having used laptops so borrowers can educate themselves and keep in touch with me. I will pay for the shipping to my place, then will take them myself to Africa, will personally attribute them to the most ready, and teach the basics myself. Please contact me HERE if you are interested in donating one. Also used cell-phones, but only the kind that has chips.
Update January 2011
So, I went back to Burkina Faso in December to check on everyone’s progress. . .I could write loads about my discoveries of this country and its people -and I will when I get around to doing the promised website (but in all likelihood, it will be a few months before that happens) : This place is so very impoverished, non only means-wise, but culturally and educationally as well. As much as everywhere else, the people have collective and individual issues and it will take time to have a deep and real impact. I feel more and more heart-entrenched in this project and I have many ideas to implement, but I am going VERY slowly in order to make sure to build very solid and long-lasting foundations on all levels.
At This Point in Time,
- I gave one more loan, to a man named Evariste. This was at the request of the artist who donated the money. Evariste is 23 and already sells shoes. He never went to school and started his commerce from scratch, one pair of shoes at a time!
Evariste, our newest borrower, after signing his contract
- The women are making regular payments on their loans ( I loaned them each another 25.000 F CFA ($50) in order to increase their stocks). . . they have really created a little group and are supporting each other. Evariste has integrated the team and has already started repaying his loan as well, so he’s one of them now. Ariette et Solange were so happy to show me their bicycles and Georgette her little salon. . .I followed them in their new commerce, learned more about their ways, questionned, advised. . .they are really moving along considering they are on their own without real supervision. Georgette has become the leader of the group (she’s intelligent, kind and will go far) and Cesar is now just in charge of relaying my messages and letting me know what is going on. He’s also the one who puts the loan payments m in my bank account.
Ariette and her bicycle
Georgette in her salon with her neighbor, who is a well-established hair-dresser in the SAME market . . .To my great surprise, G told me she has been very supportive and has given her great advice . This is one of the good things in Africa. They don’t view each other as competition and actually help the new comer. Notice how she looks at Georgette, with kindness and pride in her ‘protegee’ . . .
- Delphine made me a beautiful outfit with her brand-new sewing machine: (Nadège had to leave the village to help some family member so Delphine solely owns the machine): She took 2 hours for a long skirt and top and without a pattern! I could not believe how fast she did it. I highly recommend this seamstress, and African fabrics are awesome. There are many possibilities to tap into here . . .
- Honorine showed me how she makes delicious sesame cakes, which she sells on the main drag of the village. I bought many from her. If you come soon to the artshows, there might some left for you to try!
- Jean-Pierre, who I had loaned money to buy a better donkey, now has a second donkey and she is pregnant! I questioned whether this was the most useful thing to do. . .Jean-Pierre easily justified his happy purchase by telling me that he could do bigger jobs by switching the donkeys when they are tired (a cart full of bricks is hell for them to pull!) but I was not entirely sold. . . status counts among people of any means (and men are more prone to this hmmm…state that women, sorry guys. . .)
- Cesar is still keeping close contact with me via email. Through working with me and discussing lots, he got to have an outsider’s look on the society he’s living in and had a big wake-up call, which I feel good about. He is a really good man who wants to learn.
- The chicken farm project is continuing and seems to be the beginning seed of much bigger projects (to write about later, but I am starting to see far) : Part of the property with the little house now has a wall around it and a traditional chicken coop is being built inside, so the chicks will have safe room to roam and the hens a comfy place to sit on their eggs. A well is being dug as I write this (hurray for that one!). When all is done, Cesar can at last buy his first set of hens and a rooster. We made a precise plan of what needs to be done to maximize his chances of success. This is a big and expensive project, everything needed to be done!
The site of the chicken farm ( before the work recently done), you can see the young tree protected from the goats
- The children who seem to be happiest when they’re asked to sing and dance (the rest of the time, they are very serious and rarely play), will soon be given a brand-new djembé (a traditional drum) which Cesar is making for them. One of Cesar’s dreams is to have a music school for street children. . .
Life is very hard and very bare for these children. . .
. . . But they come to life when they sing and dance, they are very talented!
If you want to know the current financial aspects of this project, the accounting is up to date and available to anyone wishing to see it. Just ask.
Your financial support of this project is welcome and needed to allow more people to get loans. The more people are helped, the more they support each other (they do business with each other too!). They become accountable to each other better and repay their loans faster.
Want to have a REAL adventure? I have a project developing in my mind of eventually taking donors with me so they gave discover the reality of this place AND decide themselves who they would wish to help among possible borrowers.
If You are Inspired to Help,
Or are Interested in the Adventure, You can:
- email me HERE with your great ideas and wishes. I would love advice and help with how to make dry toilets, solar drying racks for mangoes, and anything ecological and simple to build.
- “ paypal” money (www.paypal.com) to lightofthespring@hotmail.com. Please include a message when you do so I know what it is for.
- send a check to Maya Konforti , PO Box 7115, Vero Beach, FL 32961,USA.
100% of money donated is ALWAYS given in loans.
WISH LIST REMINDER: used laptops AND used cellphones with chips inside (not sure they exist in the US but definitely all french phones ‘avec des puces’)
Please contact me HERE if you can help.
In every present and future borrower’s name, thank you so very much for each little bit you already did and continue to do.