Project Reports

SAN ANDRES HOME, CHOSICA, PERU
The Home for orphans and abandoned children continues to grow in size. The building of another classroom,which we sponsored to celebrate our 25^th anniversary, is nearing completion.We have been sent somephotographs which we will display at the AGM in October.The Head of San Andres, the Revd Brian Attwell,is delighted with our gift. We also sent the usual annual amount of £750 for general purposes in May.

COMUS, EL SALVADOR
A number of the committee met Jamie Coutts, the COMUS co-ordinator when he was overhere in November last year.All seems to be going well with this self-help organisation of poorsmallholders and they are still hoping to expand the market for their very drinkable coffee intoEurope.We have paid Alfredo, Jamies very able assistant and local manager, most of his annualwage as usual.

GAMBIA - ST JOHN'S SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF (Danish)
We are very pleased to say that a start has been made on providing the School with Solar energy for lighting and power.This has been made possible by our sponsoring a project through The Funding Network (TFN), who provided over £5000 for the installation of such energy in September last year ( see below ).A number of classrooms now have guaranteed lighting for teaching - so important for teaching using sign language.Supporting the case at TFN was the charismatic ex-headmaster of St John's and a great friend of the School from Denmark, who has now raised the money for the remainder of the Solar energy from Rotary Clubs in Denmark. We were delighted to see them later at our Gala evening onthe same day.

GUATEMALA CRANFIELDS SAFAD PROJECT
Last year we gave £500 towards the ongoing work of designing and building gravity-fed drinking water systems in the district of Comanche, Bolivia. This year we put forward a proposal for a much larger project through TFN for the design and provision of similar systems in Guatemala but unfortunately there were a number of excellent proposals going to TFN from other sponsors and SAFAD was not selected for the upcoming TFN meeting although it is possible that the project, which is ongoing, can be submitted again for a future TFN meeting. We gave our usual £500.

TOOLS FOR SELF RELIANCE (TFSR)
We have continued to send on old hand tools to TFSR for renovation and despatch to poorcountries. Please let John Allinson ( 213347 ) know if you have any.

DISABILITY & DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS ( Ex 'The Jaipur Limb Campaign' )
We have given £350 towards the work of Keshab, a very able young prosthetic technician, who is training a rehabilitation worker in Nepal. There is a big demand for artificial limbs in Nepal and for the consequent training of those fitted with the limbs. We have previously supported Keshabs work. On a point of interest, the inventor of the Jaipur foot, Dr Pramod Karan Sethi died early this year. The foot design was innovative and cheap to produce and has been made available to large numbers of amputees in India and elsewhere.

SOUTHERN AFRICA THE HELWEL TRUST
As for last year, we have given a further £800 towards a programme which the HELWEL Trustsupports in Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa for the training of practitioners in Early ChildhoodDevelopment. Essentially, they help poor children to learn to mix and play with others and to getready for schooling, a very necessary requirement in South Africa.

TANZANIA - BEREGA HOSPITAL
We have funded additional facilities for the maternity unit.

VSO - UGANDA
We are supporting Duncan Smith a VSO nurse tutor working at the International HospitalKampala.  He is teaching a group of nursing students which includes writing lesson plans for them, training them in resuscitation and critical care, accompanying them to a village health centre in northern Uganda for their community outreach, and so on. He finds them a very lively and bright group. He also works with the Director of Nursing to develop various services within the hospital. Duncan writes most enthusiastic and informative reports, which may be borrowed on request.'

UGANDA - RAINBOW AFRICA
Our sponsored child, Andrew Gumbo sent us a Christmas card and is continuing to progress with his studies.

MALAWI - LAKE COMMUNITY CHICKEN FARM
Colin Ellesmere has asked TWOAT to fund some elements of their ongoing spend rather than concentrate on new initiatives. Once a number of activities have been started it is often the case that development activities in a geographic area find that their priority for funding is to keep those activities going which are really effective. There are large scale examples where donors have built new wings for hospitals but then not funded the ongoing staff or drugs costs. In the case of LMP we are looking at funding the running expense of the HIV testing clinic.

INDIA - SANGAM SCHOOL
There are unfortunately some difficult issues facing the school with some questions concerning its continuing use of land provided by the village. We await further news with concern.

INDIA LUDHIANA HOSPITAL
We are sponsoring another student nurse this year.

ELMINA YOUTH TRAINING PROJECT, GHANA
We have donated £800 towards the equipment needed for a training project in the poor fishing village of Elmina to encourage the younger members of the community to learn a trade or skill to lift them out of poverty. The project embraces training in clothes making, masonry, basic computing skills, carpentry, etc. It is overseen by a minister who was linked to the Good Shepherd Church in Tadworth some years ago.

THE KAKAMEGA PROJECT, KENYA
Elizabeth Noble, a Reigate resident, who set up this project with a friend in 2002 as a result of a holiday in Kenya, spoke at our annual meeting last year. Her enthusiasm for promoting the existing self-help arrangements in the village was infectious and we sent her £500 for the building of a family home for a needy widow and her family. We are considering fund-raising on a larger scale for this village as we are impressed with its endeavours to help itself.

CROYDON NURSERY SCHOOL, BAKULI, UGANDA
This project is concerned with providing elementary education to poor children. It issponsored by the Croydon area of the Southwark Anglican Diocese. We have given 360 forthe annual fees of two children whose parents cannot afford to send them.

DISABLED WOMEN'S GROUP - MALAWI
During one of her visits to Africa to assist with eye care, Sally Nethercott, one of our committee,came across a group dedicated to assisting disabled women to be more self-sufficient. We havesent them £320

St John Eye Hospital (Jerusalem)
Funds we have sent this year have been used to develop a play area for children whilst they arewaiting to see medical staff at the hospital.

TFN IDENTIFIED PROJECTS
We have continued our membership of the Network. We have given a total of 1080 to seven of their projects since last year. Our main contribution was in support of the provision of Solar energy at St Johns School, as described above. Other projects were concerned with sustainable agricultural training in Bali, a womens initiative in China to set up stoves using gas from animal waste and community development in Burundi through the rearing of shared livestock. Further projects included the introduction of school children to the basics of good farming and tree planting in NW Cameroon, the provision of text books to schools in Tanzania and the production of gas from natural products in Kenya.

GAP YEAR - GENERAL
You may have seen some adverse publicity concerning the usefulness of some Gap Year projects in the press recently. TWOAT takes a view that there is still plenty of opportunity to build cultural bridges as well as doing good work during such assignments. However, we prefer to support individuals who have some particular connection to this area, as an opportunity for direct contact with the person undertaking the Gap Year helps us to confirm that the assignment is worthwhile. Please let us know if you are aware of any projects that might be appropriate for us.

OTHER PROJECTS
In addition to the above we have continued contact with or given financial support to Imagine(Mozambique), Motivation (various including Sri Lanka), Street Child (India), SOS ChildrensVillages (Georgia), Pilcomayo Primary Health Project (Argentina), Vision Aid Overseas (various), Practical Action in Kenya & Nepal and Light Force International in Albania/Serbia/Croatia and Mtandika School in Tanzania. SOS Childrens Villages (Georgia), Pilcomayo Primary Health Project (Argentina), FRIENDS OF CALCUTTA RELIEF SERVICE

All those who have been involved with running TWOAT have been deeply impressed with the generosity of people who have donated their time and money over the years and with the calibre and compassion of the aid workers the Trust has supported. We look forward to the future and the privilege of helping those very much less fortunate than ourselves.