Christina flying out in December

Development projects due to start very soon! Thank you to everyone who has donated for helping to start the projects. Christina will work with local communities to provide adult literacy and more.

We're starting out first year projects. We plan to deliver two programmes of projects over the next few years:

Schools Programme

• English for Children
• Schools Link
• After-School Study Sessions
• Nursery Sessions
• School Books, Furniture and Food

Community Programme

• Adult Literacy
• Library and Internet
• Co-operatives
• Community Savings Schemes
• Vocational training
• Adult Numeracy

We're starting with English for children, adult literacy and planning the agricultural co-operatives in this first year. However, as we believe our priorities should be driven by local communities, our plans may change in response to local needs. Our plans need to remain flexible to accommodate the real needs as they change.

Christina will be posting blogs here as often as she can, from Abene, Albadar and Diannah villages.

Thank you again to all those who have helped make this possible by donating. It's still not to late to donate. Your support really is vital to making a sustained difference in Abene. Click here to find out more.

Fans on Facebook

We've launched this Fans page to make it easier for you to track our progress. Become a Fan of Abene Karantaa and keep up with community development in West Africa.

International School Library Month

As part of International School Library Month (throughout October) we are focusing on reading and writing skills, by doing a sponsored twitter and sponsored read-a-thon. The Read-a-thon involves setting yourself a goal to read more than usual in a specified time. That could be reading a whole book in a weekend or three books in a week, or more if you're a fast reader.

Abene Karantaa works with local people in three rural villages in Senegal, West Africa. Your support is vital in helping us to provide our English for Children project, providing opportunity and a way out of poverty. Help us give children in Africa a better start in life.

Join our Read-a-thon. Set your own reading goal, and a date to do it, and then create your own fundraising page online at www.bmycharity.com/abenekarantaa. Tell all your friends and contacts that you're doing it and why you support Abene Karantaa, asking them to support you online.

You can see my fundraising page at www.bmycharity.com/christinaballard. Why not join our group at www.bmycharity.com/abenekarantaafundraisers

Or show your support for one of our fundraisers at www.bmycharity.com/abenekarantaafundraisers.

Thank you!

Celebrating National Potery Day - 9 Oct

We'll be celebrating National Poetry Day in our own way. Here's a poignant poem I'd like to share with you on poverty in Africa by Ian McCrae:

Poverty In Africa

Ian McCrae, Sydney, Australia, 2005

Help Africa again and again
How? Give them advice.
I wonder: Should we give food
Or simply, let them rise.

Give a man a bag of rice
That will feed his family for one day,
Give the same man an education
And he will feed his family forever and a day.

Why should eight men have to decide?
What is good for Africa?
Give the people of Africa dignity
Let them decide what is good for Africa.

Help them, yes, point them in the right direction
Freedom and dignity is the way,
They have the right to walk tall
Their dignity: their say.

From http://www.poetryofscotland.co.uk/Other/povertyinafrica.php

Excited! We're a crowd on Facebook! And got first online donation!

I've spent the last two days crunching numbers in anticipation of the meeting of Abene Karantaa trustees tomorrow evening. My head has almost exploded with numbers not matching up. That's all sorted now, and my mind has wondered onto our Facebook and Bmycharity page.

We've hit 20 on our Facebook cause. Thanks to Anthony we have broken into the twenties! And we've just received our first online donation at our Bmycharity page!

Why not join the growing trend and show your support for Abene Karantaa. Help us provide opportunity and a way out of poverty in West Africa. Your support really is vital in making a difference. Thank you! Click here to give today.

We're over the moon!

We're overjoyed that we now get 100% of all our online donations. All of your donation through bmycharity.com/abenekarantaa is fee-free.

To make a donation online now with your credit/debit card click here.

Your support is vital in providing opportunity and a way out of poverty for three rural village communities in West Africa.

Become a Friend of Abene Karantaa and reap the benefits by giving regularly... you'll get exclusive access to the Friends Updates section of our website for regular progress updates, photos and case studies.

Thank you for your support!

We've made it easier to donate!

We joined up with Bmycharity.com to make it even easier for you to donate. Show your support for our projects making a difference to people living in poverty in West Africa by donating online now.

It's easy to do and safe. You'll also benefit from exclusive access to the Friends of Abene Karantaa section of our website, getting regular progress updates, photos and case studies.

Donate now and feel good about being part of making a real difference where it really counts.

It's International Literacy Day!

Why is literacy important?

Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all, and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.*

You can help us provide projects that will change lives.

There are many, many adults in the rural villages we operate in that haven't had the opportunity to learn to read and write. Indeed most of the adult population is illiterate. Many children don't go to school regularly, and they all need extra learning support due to lack of resources in schools.

How can I help?
Support our Adult Literacy and English for Children projects this year in West Africa.

Just £10 will help provide two dictionaries for use in rural villages.
£25 will help provide notebooks and pencils for children.
£150 will help us provide teachers and ensure the projects last.

Our supporters receive regular updates on their progress learning to read and write, and exclusive access to the Friends' section of our website.

Please give your support today by sending a cheque payable to 'Abene Karantaa' to Abene Karantaa, 43 St Peters Road, South Croydon, CRO 1HP.

Abene Karantaa - community development in West Africa - www.abenekarantaa.org


*UNESCO

New logo launched!

We're delighted to have a new logo.
We give many thanks to Orb marketing communications' support in making the logo a reality.

IT help needed

We've had a donation of old computer equipment today.

We need someone experienced in IT to check over the 9 hard drives, and 5 flat screen monitors, check they are fully functioning and get the best out of them before we take them over to Senegal.

These computers will make a huge difference to the internet and library centre we want to create and hopefully also provide computers in schools.

Can you help? Please get in touch through the Contact Us page on our website at www.abenekarantaa.org/contact-us. Thank you!

Online auction launched today - all proceeds to Abene Karantaa

Place a bid in our online auction on Ebay.co.uk for our fabulous framed Robert Doisneau prints, including the iconic image 'the kiss'.

See our page for links to all the items in our sale here.

Why support Abene Karantaa?
If you can afford to buy anything on Ebay you have better life chances than the people we are helping in Senegal. Please give your support.

Other ways to get involved...
Go to our website... Sponsor a child or a project... Join our cause on Facebook... Follow us on Twitter...

New logo chosen!

We've adopted a new logo. Our pro bono marketing man Holrick Rodgers is putting it together for us - it's an amalgamation of Abene Karantaa trustee Rachel Coleshill's design and Holrick's designer's. I'll show it here as soon as I can, in the next few days.

We're very proud to have a logo soon. Another step in the right direction. But we're not losing sight of what we're doing this for. In fact coming up with a brief and designs has helped us focus our minds further on what we're all about. And coinciding with putting a 2-year plan together we're clearer about where we are going and how we can achieve our objectives of community development in Senegal.

It's a very exciting time to be involved with the planned start of year 1 projects just around the corner. We're still looking for funding to ensure we can deliver. Please take a look at the website to see how you can give your support.

Time to choose a logo and work with the US Peace Corps

It was great to see the designs for the Abene Karantaa logo that Holrick Rodgers put forward yesterday. One good one based on African textile designs. But the best in my opinion you'll hopefully get to see soon! I'll keeping you waiting till we make a decision on it. It's a teaser!

I'm going to email the trustees later with the final shortlist of logos for their opinion.

It's all coming together. I had a call yesterday from Margaret from the US Peace Corps in Senegal, giving me further information on one of their volunteers coming to work with us on the projects from January. We're all really excited about collaboration with the Peace Corps. They run two programmes in the area - the Urban Agricultural Program and the Small Enterprise Development Program.

We're hoping to have volunteers from both programmes working with us on a Business Skills training project and in the Community Co-operatives that will be producing fruit and vegetables for sale.

Garage sale over - virtual sale continues...

A steady stream of people and lots of generous donations characterised our day yesterday as the day of the Garage Sale came around.
Rachel and I staffed the sale, with the items looking very nicely presented. She kept people entertained - that's her juggling!


Thank you to everyone who cam along and showed their support. We raised £170 for community development in West Africa.


The sales continues in our virtual garage sale fundraiser - see the slide show of pics to the right for items on sale. All proceeds go to Abene Karantaa. Reserve your item, get in touch to send a cheque, and pick it up when you're next in West Dulwich, or we can discuss collection.
Thank you for your support.

Got a great garage sale ahead!

All sorted for tomorrow's garage sale - got everything prepared. Just hoping to have hordes of people who'll buy everything and we'll raise lots of money for Abene Karantaa projects. Fingers crossed it'll be a success. I hope I've done enough marketing.

Meanwhile, I've had good feedback on the funding bid I've spent hours on. More than just my fingers crossed now.

Thanks to Olwyn for putting together lots of logos to choose from. Now that we've got the company number, as soon as we decide on a logo we can go ahead with printing business cards and get the logo on the website.

WooOOOOopeeee! We're official!

We're so excited to be official. Rachel phoned me yesterday with fantastic news. She saw an officious looking letter from Companies House on her doormat. At last we have our number! We're now registered as a company limited by guarantee.

That golden number we've been waiting for is none other than 6987264. A lovely number isn't it?! We're over the moon to be on the path to becoming a registered charity too!

Logo on the way and funding bid coming along

Holrick Rodgers, our pro bono marketing man and Olwyn Rutter (joining us from across the pond in Canada) are getting to work on a new logo for Abene Karantaa. Working on the brief from Holrick has really focused me mind as to where we are going and the image we should portray; as well as who we should target. A good experience. It's an exciting project and I can't wait to see what both teams come up with.

A rap on the knuckles for me this morning for not cc-ing Rachel in to the emails that have put Holrick and Olwyn in touch. Three heads will hopefully be even better than two!

Rachel is putting up an advert of our imminent fundraiser garage sale (on Sunday 16th - see www.abenekarantaa.org/garagesale on Facebook as we speak. And on Gumtree too. She'll be helping me manage the swathes of supporters eager to support us in exchange for a silk cushion or coffee table book.

I'm working hard this morning on putting together a funding bid for a trust that I hope will be supporting us in the future and playing a key part in the success of the projects. Following my meeting with the Chief Executive of Beatbullying on Tuesday, I am incorporating lots of good points she raised.

Wish us luck!

Action Planning, painting and marketing

So many meetings yesterday- all very useful. Started the day with Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying, who shared her experiences of starting up a charity from scratch. BB have since won lots of charity awards and are getting bigger and bigger. She gave me the benefit of her wisdom with 3 golden pearls of advice - what she wish she had known before. 1. The benefit of getting a fundraiser on board early on - even a fundraiser on commission. 2. Get a good mentor from the start. And 3. Create a 3-year plan.

In the second meeting of the day I secured pro-bono marketing work from Holrick Rodgers. Many thanks to him for his collaboration with us. Although he will take a global look at the organisation and put together a full marketing plan, the priorities are to make the most of our imminently getting our company registration number by preparing a logo, business cards and letterheads. Watch this space to see what comes next.

The rest of the I spent gloss painting my mum's windows, until 11pm no less. She wanted me to 'prioritise' the painting, so I had to squeeze it all in. Now we're working on choosing colours for the walls. It's never ending, but at least is a diversion from the phone and laptop.

It's full steam ahead for the garage sale we're having this Sunday in West Dulwich, SE21. All proceeds going to Abene Karantaa. I've been out delivering a flyer on it this morning in Dulwich village and got good feedback from the people I spoke to in the street. I hope to get a good turn out on the day. We'll see what the weather is like - fingers crossed.

I'm dashing out the house now for a friend's leaving do.

Really good meeting last night

We had a great trustees meetings last night. Thank you to the Indigo Hotel, Paddington for giving us a nice table in their brasserie. Indeed it was a nice and quiet space for us.

We had so much to catch up on at the meeting and covered all the latest fundraising and operational plans, taking decisions and having good discussions. The trustees got to meet Hawa Touray my new colleague in Senegal on the ground. Hawa will be facilitating the English for Children and Adult Literacy in English projects with me. It was a great opportunity for them to meet each other for the first time.

I'm on my way out the house now to catch a bus up to Crystal Palace and meet Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of children's charity Beatbullying, for her advice on starting out. I've got lots of questions for her and hope to get the benefit of her experience founding Beatbullying.

More later.

Brushing up on business skills and chatting with the Doc

I had a really useful training session on Monday (thanks to my borough council funding it) in book-keeping. Sounds really dry, but I learnt a lot, apart from when my head was almost popping off. Hopefully I will now be able to put together accounts that won't scare our pro-bono accountant Abdul. I wasn't doing too badly before, having been self-employed for some years in Spain, but I've learnt some good tips.

Why was I putting myself through it you may be thinking? I've actually signed up for a few of these training sessions, the next being on sales on Monday next week. I want to arm myself with as much info as possible on how to run a successful business before I head back to Senegal so that I can pass it on to members of the local communities in Abene, Albadar & Diannah.

We're planning on investing in local community co-operative initiatives. The profit of which will provide long-term sustainable funding for the projects we're setting up. Local people will take greater ownership of the projects, they won't be there one day and gone the next and the initiatives will provide employment and skills in an area of poverty and high unemployment.

I've been painting my mum's house today, but the morning was spent on medical stuff - getting anti-malarials from my GP for 9 months away, phoning up a zillion travel insurers for quotes and also researching aspects of a more intimate side of our health, that I won't go in to here, suffice to say it's worth being prepared and planning ahead. It's quite tricky to get insurance cover for 9 months teaching abroad. I never had to think about insurance when I was living and working in Spain, as an EU country.

The bit of West Africa I'm going to spend the best part of the year in has the deadliest form of malaria - P. Falciparum. Not nice. I learnt today from my Doc that once you've had it it can reoccur throughout your life (or words to that effect). So it's best to avoid it completely. I was lucky to be given Malarone -arguably the best -for my last trip, but this time I'm switching to Larium - more suitable for long stays and taking it year after year.

I've also been to the optician and the dentist, though not all this week! I'm planning ahead so I'll have everything covered for a good while.

Tomorrow is Rachel's birthday - one of our trustees. She's celebrating it playing in the band 6 Day Riot. Happy Birthday to her! It's been a busy week for birthdays amongst our trustees - it was Shirley's birthday on Sunday. Happy birthday Shirley (again!). I hope you're having a good time away at camp.

Finally! Just been to the post box...

I'm relieved to have finally sent off the papers for registering as a company limited by guarantee (a charitable company), which is the first step to being a registered charity.

I had the papers almost ready months ago, when I handed them over to Shirley, one of our trustees as I was leaving the country to go to Senegal for the three-month assessment in March. But form-filling is no easy task, necessitating many phone calls to Companies House, so they hung around for a while.

After meeting each of the trustees this week, each on a different day, I have got all the signatures needed. I spent this afternoon checking through the Memorandum & Articles and printed them out.

Fingers crossed I haven't made any mistakes and we should have our registered company number in ten days. The next stage after that will be to post the papers to the Co-operative to open a bank account with them in the name of Abene Karantaa. For that I need the company registration number. I've got a few cheques to put in when we get the bank account.

I've also made some updates to the website - have you seen the new gallery of photos and the slightly revised new look? Check out www.abenekarantaa.org.

I'm also working on putting together a book of the blog from my 3-month trip to Abene, including lots of photos, an introduction from trustee Rachel Coleshill and Foreword from trustee and journalist Desmond Davies. Desmond is also very kindly editing it for me. Hopefully he'll have time this weekend as I know he is quite busy during the week.

A complimentary copy of the book will be given to donors who give £500 or more. I hope to have it published within the next few weeks.

Back blogging

So much has happened since I've been back from Senegal - see the three month blog at http://www.abenekarantaa.blogspot.com/ - that I've decided to come back to blogging to keep a record of the experience of setting up and running a charity.

I'll try to do a catch up now of the last few weeks and from now on blog regularly.

We're fundraising to reach our target budget for our first 12 months, from October 09 to August 2010. And we're getting organised in preparation for the year ahead.

I'm in London for the summer - what summer those of you reading from the UK will ask! And I'm going back to Senegal to implement the programme and facilitate to projects in 2 months time - the end of September. In the meantime there's lots to do...