Local Edmonton artist David Shkolny David Shkolny is in the process of auctioning one of his paintings in support of Nasratu Sankoh, who is currently awaiting surgery in Ghana. Nasratu has made the journey from Sierra Leone to Ghana in the hopes of having a disfiguring tumor removed from her face.

The painting is a portrait of a young Sierra Leonean woman.

If you would like to place a bid on the portrait (auction closes this Saturday, June 26th), please visit David’s webpage for more information To leave him a message, sign the guestbook. This isn’t the first time that David has lent his artistic skills to Tamaraneh, the latest example being the painting that he worked on while guests enjoyed dinner and activities during our 2010 fundraiser. Thank-you for your continued support David!

The name of the woman you see here is Nasratu Sankoh. She is a mother of 3 children, one of which is attending our Alberta-Canada School in Romano Village. As you can see in the photo, Nasratu has a large disfiguring tumor on her face. To say nothing of the physical pain she is suffering, this young mother has been deserted by her husband as a result of her illness.

Because the surgery necessary to treat Nasratu is not available in Sierra Leone, the Tamaraneh Society is making every effort to raise the funds necessary for her to receive treatment in Ghana. After securing an appointment with the specialist and obtaining a visa, Nasratu left her country for the first time in her life and is now in Accra, Ghana.

We desperately need your financial support to ensure she gets the surgery and receives proper care. We need an additional $3000 to $4000 to cover all the costs (surgery, accommodation, nurse/interpreter, etc.)

We kindly ask you to make whatever donation you can, and hope that you will pass this request to your friends, family and colleagues. Of course, we will keep you informed of of Nasratu’s progress in the coming weeks.

***Unfortunately, due to the fact that Nasratu’s treatment does not fall under our regular programming agreements with our partner organizations, we are not able to offer a tax receipt for this donation. As a result, we kindly ask that you not make donations for Nasratu online, but instead send a cheque to:

Tamaraneh Society for Community
Development and Support
P.O. Box 78170
RPO Callingwood
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T5T 6A1

Please feel free to forward any questions to: info@tamaraneh.org

Kindest regards,
The Tamaraneh Society for Community Development and Support

Those who attended this year’s fundraiser will undoubtedly recall this powerful excerpt from local film maker Rosie Dransfeld, entitled “The Suitcase”. If you haven’t seen it before, watching the video will give you a few more insights into Memunatu’s story and her experience of being president of a refugee camp.

The Suitcase from Rosie Dransfeld on Vimeo.

One of the Associate Producers of CBC Radio’s daily morning show, Edmonton AM, was present for our fundraiser earlier this month. Cassandra also visited Memunatu at her home to find out more about her background. Back in the studio, she put together a small piece to share with the Edmonton AM listeners–the story aired on Friday, February 26th, 2010:

Click to hear the broadcast

Memunatu was also recently interviewed for a CityTv segment

To everyone who supported our annual fundraiser, please accept our most sincere thanks. If you weren’t able to attend and wondered how the evening went, please click on the thumbnails below to open the photo gallery. We played several ‘Tamaraneh Tale’ video clips (see below) as well, and they can be found here on our website. We would also like to express our gratitude to the musicians and artists who came together to create a memorable evening.

Still short of our goals
Despite of the wonderful outpouring of support, we are still short of our funding needs! In order to support the school through the coming year, we are still $13,000 short of our projected costs and our deadline is March 30th.

To this end, we continue to accept donations online through our Canada Helps giving page. Alternatively, you can download their donor form and send it to their office with a cheque. If you would prefer to call the Change for Children office directly, their telephone number is 1-780-448-1505. In all cases, your tax receipt will be issued by Change for Children. Thanks again to all of our supporters near and far!

“I just wanted to write a short note to tell you what a fantastic time I and my kids had on Tuesday at the fundraiser. I literally had to drag them out (being a school night and all). They and I were tremendously engaged by the quality of the function, the great food and, of course, the meaningful projects in Sierra Leone and their impact on the community there.”comment from participant