Before the month of January comes to an end, we would like to take a brief look back at 2017, which represents a milestone in the development of our association. Exactly one year ago today, I traveled to Cambodia with my daughter to visit the Safe House.
It was a very interesting, exciting and intensive time with the enchanting Theavy Bun and her dedicated and likeable husband Patrik Roux and of course with the children. My daughter read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry in English with the teenagers and followed their greeting card project.
I worked with Theavy on the Femmes des Rizières project, which has unfortunately come to a bit of a standstill in the meantime – but which we definitely want to continue working on. Volunteers for this project are very welcome!
My daughter Anna was also very impressed by her experience at the Safe House and I would like to quote from her internship report: “I am speechless. Poverty is relative. These children gave me something that I can’t even put into words and I hope I was able to give them something like that. I miss them and I would have liked to get to know them better. (…) Now when I hear others complaining about something material, I realize what a luxury it is to be able to complain about it.”
In the following months, the website was feverishly tinkered with and preparations for the 10th Bazaar got underway.
On July 7, 2017, we went to Kenya for the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of the Maasai farm. You can also read our travel report here. Manuela and I visited the community of Olpirikata, whose residents had donated 18 hectares of land for thefarmproject. We received a very warm welcome there and tried to explain to the local men in particular the need to take responsibility for the farm. The farm project has been very successful so far. The sale of milk has been very well received by the local population and the first calf was born in November. The second calf is due to be born in March – we are already very excited. Various areas of the farm are still missing, such as the dyke and the complete planting. The expectations for improving the nutritional situation of the population through the cultivation of fruit and vegetables are high. The cultivated aloe vera is also to be commercialized and thus represent another potential source of income.
The next stop was Iloshion, where we decided to support the “Nasaru – Learning Center for Girls” project.
In Tanzania we met Mokili, who made these beautiful ponchos for us. The ponchos can be purchased from us for CHF 120. If you are interested, please send an e-mail to hello@wecare-association.com.
The 10th edition of Susi’s Bazaar took place in November and we were able to raise a total of 80,000 francs with the satellite events. A big thank you to all donors and participants!
We have big plans for 2018: we want to launch a scholarship program for talented students, who we want to support and place with suitable sponsors. We would also like to create apprenticeships in Kenya based on the Swiss model (hotel management school). In addition, the Nasaru project must of course be implemented.
There will be another event on March 1, 2018, when a performance of the extremely successful one-person play “Caveman” will take place at the Weissen Wind in Zurich for the benefit of the WeCare Association. Tickets and info are available here.
It’s going to be an exciting year!
