From: Clifford J. Thompson [cliff@cresswell.net]
Sent: Friday, March/28-03 12:47 p
To: AfricanOutlet Horgan Edet; Horgan & Judah African Outlet; Clifford
J. Thompson; AfricanOutlet Ziggy Thelwell; AfricanOutlet Tony Moses;
AfricanOutlet Parisa Farvid; AfricanOutlet Dr.Ibrahima Wagne;
AfricanOutlet Clarence "Gus" Brown; AfricanOutlet Chris Diegelman
Subject: Horgan's School Supplies for Africa - Starter Resources

Hi Judah, Horgan and monthly 1st Sunday meeting group,


At the last Sunday Meeting Group, Horgan also mentioned that his village school was lacking certain critical supplies, such as pencils and books, and that he is strongly interested in trying to get such materials to the school. My wife Toni and I teamed up and found the following initial resources:

For pencils and related supplies, "Free The Children International" provides "School Kits", whose contents include pencils, sharpeners and the like.

For books, there is the group "Books For Africa", whose  mission is described on their website: "Books For Africa. A simple name for a simple organization with a simple mission. We collect, sort, ship and distribute books to children in Africa. That's all we do. Our goal: to end the book famine in Africa...Books donated by publishers, schools, libraries, individuals and organizations are sorted and packed by volunteers who carefully choose books that are age and subject appropriate. We send good books, enough books for a whole class to use...They are shipped in containers paid for by contributions from people like you. It costs about thirty U.S. cents to send a book from the United States to Africa. Since 1988, Books For Africa has shipped more than 7 million books. They are on once-empty library shelves, in classrooms in rural schools, and in the hands of children who have never held a book before. Each book will be read over and over and over again. When the books arrive, they go to those who need them most: children who are hungry to read, hungry to learn, hungry to explore the world in ways that only books make possible."

Another organization, "Books Without Boundaries", has a "Project Nigeria" coordinated by Benin City, Nigeria business manager Onajite "Jite" Elegon, who "has a genuine interest in helping schools in his country, many of them…in need of books and supplies for their students and schools...Jite will ensure that the schools receive these supplies...".

Included also are some reports that may lead to further resources: 

An AllAfrica.com story "US Envoy Donates School Materials" reports that "United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Howard F. Jeter, has donated N3.2 million worth of excess school supplies to the St. Anthony's Secondary School, Ohafia, Abia State...(in Nigeria)...the supplies were made available by the US Department of Defense...Since the early 1990s, US has significantly reduced its military presence in Western Europe and this has resulted in the closure of many U.S military medical clinics and schools...The closure was said to have resulted in excess medical and school supplies, and are now being distributed to organizations in Nigeria...".

A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report "SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT FOR AFRICA: The Question of Achieving Universal Education as a Development Goal" surveys the scope of the problems and offers "Possible Solutions".

At this point I would again like to "pass the baton" on this project to the "next person" in the Sunday Meeting Group, someone interested in education for youths, who can connect with Horgan for specific details on the school, needed supplies and the like, as well as hook up with the contact people at the organizations mentioned above, regards getting supplies to the school. I understand Judah has already mailed the school a letter discussing their needs and she is awaiting their reply regards a school supplies "wish list". I understand also that Horgan's mom is a schoolteacher in Nigeria, who may be an additional resource. In the meantime, I still have a few leads out for further school supply resources and hope to hear back from them soon.

To follow up on the next stages of the school supplies project, listed below are links to all the sites mentioned above:


Free The Children International: Information, School Kits, Kit Contents
http://www.freethechildren.org/info/whatisftc1c.htm
http://www.freethechildren.org/projects/schoolkits.html
http://www.freethechildren.org/projects/schoolkits1c.htm

Books For Africa
http://www.booksforafrica.org/

Books Without Boundaries, Projects 
http://www.schoolworld.asn.au/bwb/
http://www.schoolworld.asn.au/bwb/projects.html (Page down to "Project Nigeria:" section)

US Envoy Donates School Materials
http://allafrica.com/stories/200301200638.html

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON DEVELOPMENT FOR AFRICA: 
The Question of Achieving Universal Education as a Development Goal
http://www.londonmun.org.uk/tceducation.htm


Regards,


Cliff Thompson                                                                 Toni Thompson
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