Notice that the most rescent letter is the September2003Letter
See also [Eva]
Torino, January 18th 2003
Hello to all the visitors of www.nkoni.org
I am Eva Biginelli of Legambiente Ecopolis [1] Torino and I work on the Long Distance Adoption project in the Nkoni school, Uganda. I have felt the need to write these few lines in order to respond to the numerous (thank you!) requests for more information that I recieved through e-mail.
Uganda is a golden country; one says that all seeds are budding and will bear fruit. It also has a splendid people, dignified and not used to beg.
This project was born by my initiative almost 10 years ago, because I was continually amazed to see how the women at the place, so poor, took on the work of watching the children orphaned by AIDS in turn (at the time I worked as a journalist) in order not to leave them to themselves, despite the absolute lack of means and help, governmental or foreign.
This school was born in 1993, wholly thanks to the humanitarian help of the citizens of Torino - and the birth of the website www.nkoni.org - and the italians of our entire country.
This is a small project, born by the initiative of a few motivated people, who wanted - whatever the preliminary conditions - to create something that avoided to the utmost all the wastes.
We didn't want the money from the donations to be used to maintain the organizational structure which operated (or would have operated) at the place of the project itself.
Infact, we didn't have our own office for Nkoni, nor any payed emplyees, nor car, or anything of the kind.
After the first years, in wich we tried above all to create a refuge, but also to give some professional instruction to the children, the project has also developed from an environmental viewpoint:
We can now happily say that the project has a solid core; the school with walls of mud and rami intrecciati with banana tree leaves is now - with the years - in solid brick, we have the recognition of the government and 9 teachers with diplomas who regularly teach in our school.
We are still lacking doors and windows, as we do floor and benches in some classerooms, also because the confluence in our school is in constant growth thanks to it being completely free, and the distribution of a warm meal among all the children every schoolday. And so the first and second grades are very numerous (more than 50 children for each class), but little by little we are improving on various areas.
Participation in the project provides for two possibilities: supporting a child who wants to be adopted through secondary education (the first 6 years at our school are free), or, if you want to adopt a class or the school in a more general way regarding the meals or didactic materials, school materials (pencils, pens and notebooks), materials for games, materials for the workshops (carpenter and taylor's shop, garden), etc.
Until the end of the previous year, the children (the number varies from year to yeat, at the moment they are more than 500!), ate at the school only a very meagre meal (a small cup of porrige) and only 3 times a week, and we could not guarantee more. The women in the area always offered to prepare it.
From this year, thanks to the cooperation with an advanced scholastic institute of Latin (Rome) we are able to guarantee all the children a meal based on porrige every day.
The school is open witout charging any of the children of the area, most of them orphanes as a result of AIDS, thus the first 6 years are free thanks to the funds we gather in Torino and now, we can say, in all of Italy.
For those who want to proceed, the long distance adoption is neccesary, for the 264 Euro per year for 6 years of higher education (4 years in the institute, 2 years of apprenticeship) and after the two years of apprenticeship at an institute to return to the Nkoni school (thanks to which s/he has been able to study) to teach for two more years: We are in this way trying to create a continious circle of children-students-teachers in the area, without which the youth would have to go to Kampala (the capital) once they finish their studies, leaving the original school in a constant difficulty of finding teachers.
The adopted student regularly sends letters and report cards (3-4 times per year), and the director of the school (Christopher Kalemba) sends letters and drawings also from the younger children, reports on the costs and activities, on the work on the school (outhouse, well, vegetable garden etc).
the deposits - above all for the adoption of individual children for the continuation of their studies - are only done in the beginning og october, the schoolyear in Uganda begins in January.
The adoption of the school in general or of a class can be done with a chosen figure and kan be made for a single year or a single time.
For the adoption of the students we ask that you continiue for the entire course of the 4+2 years of the studies.
We being like Legambiente Ecopolis recognized by the Piemonte region as a Voluntary Association (Associazione Legambiente Volontariato Ecopolis Torino is recognized as an ONLUS), the deposit can be deducted from the income tax return (if done by bank transfer to prove it).
The details for the contribution are:
Bank transfer
* c\c 52848386480 - ABI 03268 - CAB 01009 addressed to:
* ASSOCIAZIONE LEGAMBIENTE VOLONTARIATO ECOPOLIS TORINO cause:
* International solidarity project NKONI EDUCATIONAL CENTER
As concerns a voluntary work at the place, however, one of our volunteers has unfortunately returned this winter due to malaria, after being indisposed for three weeks. This has for the moment made us reconsider sending volunteers, since the place does not at the moment have the structural support to guarantee a minimum of prevention.
The volunteer was, in fact, hosted by the project repsonsible at the place, with all the related limits.
We are trying to find public fundings and/or collaberation with richer NKO's than us for the construction of a support house for the volunteers, furnished with running water, internal bathroom, roof, mosquito net for the windows etc. so as to avoid such insidences in the future.
I tempi sono molto 'africani', ma non demordiamo.
I have lived in Africa for several years and have personally never been sick, but the immunesystem is a very personal thing which cannot be anticipated in advanced.
The website www.nkoni.org is updated with budgets and financial reports, to give and idea (...with this little money, what can one do!) of the expenses and the use of the money.
We have sent down:
* December 2001: 2.150 USD
* May 2002: 900 USD
* Beginning of January 2003: 4.130 USD with 4 new students who will begin higher education!
Circa una Vostra eventuale partecipazione, I must inform you that in the new schoolyear, we're no longer selecting new students, since the year begins the 15th of January, and above all - other than the difficulty of communiacting in such a short time with the local responsible, Christopher - we cannot guarantee a sufficient number of adult volunteers to guide the young orphans in their years of studies.
As you can well immagine, for the young orphans it's already very difficult to manage their daily lives on thier own, and we hold it as indispensible to have adults who guarantee to each of them the time and capacity to follow up on them in the most chritical phases (exams, adolescence etc.), otherwise they would be abandoned to themselves.
So if you wish to consentrate on one individual adoption you have to wait some months and re-confirm your availability closer to June, so we can begin giving requests to the school comittee who selects a student.
However, I'd like to bring your attention to the many other projects that need financing, once or continiously, for the school itself, which can be developed with a contribution e che possono essere sviluppati con un contributo a sua scelta o equivalente all'adozione individuale:
Thank you anyway for the interest you have shown in our project!
Available for any clarification,
Cordially,
Eva Biginelli <evambiente@nkoni.org>
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