Including Musical Performance by:

We have a partnership with McNally School in Edmonton to continue raising awareness and support for the people of Sierra Leone through the Tamaraneh Society. It is pretty exciting to see what young people can do when they get motivated! To launch our work with McNally School we have put our creative juices to work and built a white board infomercial together called “McNally Rally for Romano”.

Click below to see the 2 minute clip:

Another Tamaraneh Year marked at our Annual General Meeting at Koulture’s restaurant!

We held our annual general meeting at Koultures Afro-Continental restaurant this year on October 27th, 2011. It was great to see people, recall our triumphs and challenges and support a local restaurant. Pictures are up on our Facebook Page and a pdf of our annual report is here

Kids Go Global Partnership with Trickster Theatre

Another interesting partnership is emerging through Trickster Theatre’s Kids Go Global project. The details are still in the works but you can take a look at the work already done to see where we might be heading with them in a partnership with Tamaraneh. The contract is signed, we now need to get the project rolling. Here is the website: http://www.trickstertheatre.com/, and you can also download a pdf document explaining more about the Trickster Theatre Kids Go Global Project

Grant for school roof replacement has been approved by Community Spirit

Our submission for a grant for the school roof replacement that was done after torrential rain and winds destroyed our primary school roof a year and a half ago. We had to beg and borrow to get matching funds for the roof in place, but it looks like all the hard work paid off. Unfortunately we have not yet seen the money because the format for providing the cheques is now accompanied by an official presentation by an MLA and this requires that we wait in line for that moment and photo opportunity. But we promise to post the “official” photo with the cheque in hand as soon as we get it!

Change for Children fundraising has earned us the funds for an on-site employee in Sierra Leone

Thanks to the ongoing efforts of Change For Children, we now have enough money in our account there to pay for a salaried employee on site in Sierra Leone. This is something we have desperately needed and are happy to be able to set up. We have a job description and will be advertising in January for the position.

Decision about teacher salaries

We originally intended to set up the school component of our development work so that the Ministry of Education of Sierra Leone takes on teacher salaries after three years of support from the Tamaraneh Society. We have letters and certificates guaranteeing this from the government but they have not fulfilled their promise. Our teachers who are Tamaraneh supported have been sharing their salaries with the teachers who were supposed to be paid by the government and they just informed us that they have been doing this for three years. We could lobby the government but it likely will not result in any real action. In the mean time we are faced with a dilemma: paying salaries from Canada is not a sustainable way to run a development project but if we do not continue the salary payments, the schools will shut down. Teachers have refused to come to work since we stopped payments in June 2011 and the government employed teachers have still not received their salaries. The community will only be able to support its teachers when it has a stronger economic infrastructure. We are working on getting micro-businesses and industry initiatives started in the area but this will take several years to be solid. In the mean time all our work will be for nothing if the children are not able to get even a basic education.

We want to keep the learning happening in Romano Village, but it is not realistic to think that anyone can wait three years for their salary with no likely changes on the immediate horizon. Most projects that provide teacher salaries do it through a “foster child” type initiative. What should we do?

Help us solve this dilemma, we need your input!

We will be asking you for feedback on our facebook poll. You can also feel free to contact us at info@tamaraneh.org or to tweet us an idea @Tamaraneh.

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Dear Wendy and Marie,

We are very happy to tell you that the container landed in Freetown on the 28th August, 2011 just as you informed me in your last email. Thank you.

On behalf of my personal behalf and members of the school committee, I want to thank you very much for your kind gesture and we hope that our relationship will grow from strength to strength.

We were granted duty free by the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone, for which we were very grateful.

Thank you.

Regards,

Abdul Salaam, Container Coordinator
__________

Once again, we would like to thank the Emmanuel Foundation for their help with coordinating and supporting the shipment of donations from Edmonton to Romano Village.

The award is presented to someone who has contributed towards multiculturalism, shows dedication to the community and is of assistance to immigrants - all of which Issa Kamara, through his local organization Sinkunia, does in his work to help emerging African community youth and families. Even being considered for the award is a wonderful honour so please join us in congratulating Issa and his achievements. We would also like to congratulate Issa’s co-recipient, Amson Saintime, who is the Executive Director of the Arbre de Vie Fine-Arts World Fellowship.

For our supporters not familiar with the annual Heritage Festival in Edmonton, please have a look at this video for a bit of background— the organizers actually talk about the Citizen of the Year award at the 3:40 mark of the clip.

The shipment, which included clothes, school supplies, shoes and medical supplies bound for the Romano Village area, left on June 4th.

We would also like to thank the Emmanuel Foundation for their help with coordinating and supporting the shipment of donations from Edmonton to Romano Village in Sierra Leone:

The 2011 RISE Awards Gala was held on Wednesday, June 8th in the Citadel Theatre’s Tucker Amphitheatre.

“Learn the ins and outs of the wonderful medium of soft pastel with instructor David Shkolny. Join us for a day filled with fun and study as we create two pastels, a vibrant still life and a big prairie sky. No experience required.” (click image to download brochure)

Need increased confidence and skill to facilitate meetings, presentations and workshops? Please register for Global Leadership Associate’s Facilitator Fundamentals workshop Thursday, May 26. (more info on page one of brochure)

This workshop is about targeting meetings towards unified collective action. It practically targets principles of productive group interaction that help individuals rise above their egos to contribute personally and meaningfully towards the goals of their organizations or projects. Friday, May 27. (more info on page two of brochure)

Hello Friends of the Tamaraneh Society,

Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to our fundraiser for Romano Village development work in Sierra Leone this past January. The fundraiser went well and we raised $12,000 towards our water well and agricultural projects there. However the Tamaraneh Society needs to raise closer to $30,000 each year or we cannot make ends meet with our financial obligations to our partners in Sierra Leone.

Because of our current shortfall, we have an urgent situation with two of our projects. Our $6,000 loan from Change for Children to pay our loan for teacher salaries has to be paid back by March 28th, only a few weeks away and we still need $10,000 to complete the rest of the year’s salaries. The school roof that was destroyed during last year’s heavy rains needs to be repaired at the cost of $10,000. We are trying to negotiate a stronger roof with some disaster-friendly roofing companies and will keep you posted.

There are three ways to donate:
Directly to the “Tamaraneh Society for Community Development and Support”. 100% of the funds will go directly to the people in need. The mailing address is:

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

Online to the schools through “Canada Gives”. Donations are done online at: Canada helps

and also Change for Children through their automatic donation page

Please click on the image below to download a two-page pdf that gives a brief overview of our society.