The last few months of 2006 were very successful ones for The Tamarineh Society. In this issue our our newsletter, read about our most recent large-scale fundraising event in Edmonton, the support we’ve received from the Wild Rose Foundation, and what we’ve accomplished for Romano Village in recent months.

November Fundraiser

On November 25th, 2006, the Tamarineh Society held our first large scale fundraiser at the Ramada Inn on Kingsway Avenue in Edmonton. We were fortunate to have as our Master of Ceremonies the renowned Dr. Andy Knight, recipient of numerous awards for his peacekeeping work in Sierra Leone. There were presentations from a number of dignitaries, a slide presentation about the development of the project and tributes to our Founder, Memunatu Dura Kamara. The youth dance group Sierra Diamonds entertained with two dances, one more traditional and the other an African version of hip hop which were both warmly applauded by the audience of 170 people from a variety of races and cultures. Isokan Afrika also contributed their pan-African drumming and singing. African clothing and material was sold and we raffled a gift certificate for a romantic weekend for two at Jasper Park Lodge.

Our net revenue from the fundraiser was $13,000.00. A surprise donation was announced by Dr. Rick Lewis on behalf of the Grant MacEwan College Global Education Fund in the amount of $1,700.00 for school supplies and text books. Tamarineh Society Board members were very happy with the fundraiser and felt that it really bonded us into a solid team in addition to making a profit that will go towards teachers’ salaries for the primary school. We still need another $13,000.00 to meet our obligations towards the primary school this year. Plans have already been made for a spring fundraiser to be held in a couple of large high schools in the form of an African Fashion Show…more news to follow on this event.

Grant applications

Our hard work applying for grants over the summer paid off when we received a cheque from the Wild Rose Foundation for $20,000.00 for the completion of the junior high school just two days after our fundraiser! We are very thankful to the Wild Rose Foundation for putting their trust in our fledgling society. This grant has to be matched by $20,000 of fundraising from us, so any suggestions from our supporting members about how we might do this are most welcome. We have some things in place, but new ideas are always helpful.

Sustainability

From the Canadian end, we still need to secure ongoing funds independently of our fundraising events. The way we could most easily do this would be to have 25 new people donate $50.00 a month. This would pay the teacher salaries for one of the schools and give us a little breathing room for our other work. In Sierra Leone we are working to encourage local entrepreneurship for collective sustainability of education and health care in Romano Village. More about that in our upcoming newsletters.

Digging a water well

At our December monthly meeting, held at the Los Comales restaurant to welcome new members, we were privileged to hear a presentation by Sharon Boechler about the foundation she started to dig a water well in Ethiopia in memory of her son Brad who died tragically in a lake in British Columbia (www.livingmemorywaterwell.org). This presentation gave us lots of ideas for our own well project and we were invited send a representative to join a network of pan-African fundraising groups that have multiple projects in Africa. Our meeting must have been more exciting than most, since our unity of spirit moved one of our new members to donate $400.00 afterwards!

News

Jeff Kuziew from Edmonton, has offered to go to Romano village to take pictures and document our work there while attending the wedding of a friend in Freetown. He will provide us with highlights of his visit for our next newsletter. Because the pictures will be digital we can post them on our NEW website as soon as they are sent to us. Many thanks to our web designer Steve Melnyk for donating his time, expertise and talent for putting together our fabulous new site: www.tamarineh.org. Please visit it regularly for updates on our work and send your friends there to become supporting members or to make donations.