Fifth
Container Goes to Africa (December 2004)
GambiaHELP featured in Seattle Times Holiday
Wish List (December
2004)
Second Annual Auction & Dinner: A Wonderful
Success (October 2004)
GambiaHELP
in the News (March 2004)
Fourteen Bikes on Their Way to The Gambia! (January 2004)
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Fifth
Container Goes to Africa
December 28, 2004
On December 28, 2004 Gambia Health Education Liaison Project (GambiaHELP)
shipped a 20 foot container filled with books, educational supplies, medical
equipment and computers to The Gambia, West Africa. Sailing out of the port of
Seattle, the container ship is due at the port of Banjul, The Gambia on March
9, 2005. Over the past year, through the efforts of a dozen Seattle and Shoreline
volunteers, 8,900 books were collected, sorted, boxed and inventoried that are
destined for rural schools where little to no books exists. Shelby Tarutis, Executive
Director, states that “the gathering and packing of this number of books
and supplies wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated volunteers
and donors who consistently make personal contributions of time and/or money.”
On
a bi-monthly basis, volunteers gather at the Bel-Red Self Storage in
Bellevue to go through the many books that were donated. Several
notable book and educational
supply donors include the University of Washington Gift Department, Seattle
Friends of the Library, William Rainen, Shorewood High School’s Rotaract Group
and the Shoreline Breakfast Club, Westside School, Stevenson Elementary, Eckstein
Middle School, Lake Forest Park Montessori and North Creek Day School.
In late February 2005, Shelby Tarutis will be traveling to The Gambia to coordinate the distribution of the books and educational materials to rural primary, middle and secondary schools. Thanks to all of you who made this fifth container possible.
Preparations for next year’s container are already underway. Want to have a book drive at your school for GambiaHELP? Look here for book donation guideline or call us at 206.542.3056.
GambiaHELP
featured in Seattle Times Holiday Wish List
December 2004
Recently, GambiaHELP was featured in the Seattle Times. Each
year, the Seattle Times publishes a list of worthy non-profit organizations
and their needs for the upcoming year. This year, over 500 non-profits
are listed on the Seattle Times website,
but only six are listed in the story that appeared in the Sunday, December
12th story. GambiaHELP was one of the six non-profits in the Sunday
paper. Full story here.
(pdf)
Second
Annual Auction & Dinner: A Wonderful Success
October 2004
This year’s auction brought people in from distances as
far as Portland and Mount Vernon. Held at the University Women’s
Club, 1105 Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle on October 16, 2004. Guests
were greeted at the doors by local Gambians amid displays of Gambian
art, cloth and project photographs. A no-host bar and appetizers started
with the evening’s silent auction. With African music in the background,
guests bid on silent auction items in the spacious gold and fireplace
rooms. Following the silent auction, a dinner of chicken with peanut
sauce was served and entertainment started. Teranga, for a second
year in a row, demonstrated the beauty, power and rhythmic drumming and
dancing experienced widely in West Africa. Once the entertainment ended,
the live auction began. Gerald R. Tarutis, Attorney at Law, was our auctioneer
again this year. Highlights of the evening include the sale of two bookcases
for a rural library, the sale of a wooden mask for $800 and the sale
of 34 backpacks containing school supplies for students attending rural
schools. Each backpack included plenty of ruled paper, a 3-ring binder,
crayons, markers, No. 2 pencils, colored pencils, black pens, pencil
box, erasers, a protractor, a compass, a ruler, scissors, a mini stapler,
a bottle of glue, glue sticks.
A big thank you goes to all of our donors and friends. Proceeds from the auction fund health and education projects in The Gambia including the shipment of books and educational materials to The Gambia.
GambiaHELP
in the News.
Recently, GambiaHELP and Shelby Tarutis were featured in the Daily
Observer, one of The Gambia's main newspapers.
Daily Observer, The Gambia, West Africa
Thursday, March 25, 2004
By Lamin Kujabi
Gambia Health and Education Project (GambiaHELP), a US-based nonprofit organisation, will continue its successful pro-gram of community development with the arrival of its fifth supply container in Banjul this month, said Shelby Tarutis, executive director.
To date, GambiaHELP has delivered over 60,000 books to educational centres
throughout regions 1-6 and developed computer labs at Nasir and Armitage
Senior Secondary Schools. In addition to providing resources to schools,
GambiaHELP is also active in community development at the grassroots
level, providing funding for infrastructure and personnel training,” she
said.
Mrs. Tarutis said the Neema Kaafo in Dankunku, Central River Division
has received a milling machine for rice processing and plans are
underway to construct a cereal bank and bulk goods store.
The Neema Kaafo is also receiving training through GambiaHELP in the areas of project management, group dynamics and the importance of roles and responsibilities. In Mbaye, GainbiaHELP, funded the construction of a well after the flood of 1999, which contaminated the drinking water supply in the previous wells.
Although GambiaHELP provides materials and seed money, the community is responsible for the development of the project through collaboration and partnership with others. Projects are identified by the community and then communicated to GambiaHELP for review and consideration. An in-country GambiaHELP representative reviews requests for completeness and examines all budgetary sections. "All projects must promote the mission of GambiaHELP which is to enable communities in The Gambia to protect, conserve and improve their health and the health of their community while building a sustainable economy and environment," she said.
She revealed that in 2005, GambiaHIELP is planning to develop libraries in the Central River Division with the World Library’ Partnership Programme. “This programme seeks to provide 10 selected sites with 20 interns skilled in librarianship and 1iteracy training. The group, which will stay in The Gambia for about two months, will receive technical, language and cultural training prior to their site placement, GambiaHELP plans to supplement this endeavour with a large book shipment in their 2005 delivery for the schools involved,” she concluded.
Fourteen
Bikes on Their Way to The Gambia!
A big thank you goes to Rob Chapman who has spent his
days and late evenings working in his garage to get used and discarded
bicycles
in working order so they would be ready to ship to The Gambia.
Rob has been working on bikes since July, 2003 – sometimes
spending 5 to 6 hours an evening tinkering with the spare parts
he pulls from other bikes in order to make a whole, “new” bicycle.
Bicycles that have been donated by friends, purchased from garage
sales or rescued from the side of the road have all become a part
of the assembly process that is Rob’s “labor of love”.
When asked how he got started repairing old bikes and making
them new so that could be sent to The Gambia, Rob Chapman
reported that
his friend, Joanne Wysong, told him about the need of children
in West Africa, the scarcity of any form of bicycles and the
difference that even one bicycle might make in the life
of a child. This was
enough for Rob who says he had a bike when he was a child and
it meant the world to him. Rob remembered how much he loved
to dirt
bike and the times he rode in the “Chilly Hilly” in
Poulsbo. With these memories in mind, Rob got started. Every time
a bike was completed he said, he could see a child’s face
with a smile.
Rob contributed all of the labor, all of the parts and all of the expenses. A father himself of three children, ages 16, 13 and 3, he says that “every child should have a bike” and for Rob, this is one way in which children with little or no resources can experience that joy. When asked about this contribution, Executive Director, Shelby Tarutis, said she was simply overwhelmed by the amount of work and dedication that went into this project. Ms. Tarutis noted that in addition to providing fourteen bicycles for needy Gambian children, the bikes are also a gift of love and caring which only adds to the value of the bicycles.
The children in The Gambia will be able to enjoy these bikes as they come off the container when it arrives in The Gambia in March 2004. GambiaHELP also sends a special thanks to Joanne Wysong who helped to inspire Rob. If you remember, Joanne went to The Gambia with Shelby Tarutis in 2003 and spent time in the schools working with children.
If you want to help, the container is being packed this Wednesday, January 21, 2004. It is not too early, however, to start your own special project for next year. You too can help put a smile on a child’s face and send a gift of love over 6,000 miles. Help us, help a child. Contact GambiaHELP.
