Achievements in 2009
Africa
The Kenya summer team of volunteers (pictured below) have built five sand dams from start to finish and extended another with 55 members of the Munathi community self help group. They also helped extend a food store in the village that is currently being used for Excellent Development's food for work programme.
The summer team of volunteers in Malawi have built a classroom in Chitakale village which will be used as classrooms for years 3 and 4 who currently have no classroom. Working with Mary's Meals two volunteers a day helped out at a local feeding centre, where orphaned and underprivileged children can go to get a decent meal and basic education. The feeding centre also leaves elder siblings free to attend school or work. The team also helped create lesson plans for the new school term and organized a sports day in the children's summer holiday.
Congratulations to the Malawi Gap team who worked incredibly hard to complete a clinic house, providing accommodation which will attract good quality doctors and nurses to this rural area providing essential health care for locals. They also worked in orphan feeding centre (two volunteers were there every day) and as teaching assistants in the local school helping with the special needs class. The worked with a local youth group on their play and they helped train the local sports teams and put on both football and netball tournaments.
The team in Tanzania built a Tilapia pond which now contains 200-300 fish and will generate more than £500 a year for the school, as well as building a new classroom and attached office. Waang'waray now has 7 classrooms, one for each year group. The team worked hard on the school farm, organised a sports day and worked in the local Kindergarten as teaching assistants in conversational language lessons.
See their video here
South America
The volunteers of Villa Maria raised an incredible £5,500 for Ana Mariela, a young Peruvian girl with a life threatening tumor. They also built five homes and entertained 100s of children from this, the largest shanty town in South America during their summer holidays.
The team at Ambue Ari, Bolivia worked tirelessly building two cages in the Mosquito ridden rainforest which now house Simba and Lishou, two pumas who have been rescued by our project partners Inti Wara Yassi. They also spent hundred of hours caring for other rescued animals, feeding them, walking them and rehabilitating them.
In Rio the team worked tirelessly in their preparations for carnival and came an incredible 6th - fantastic work. They also put their hard efforts into caring for and improving the lives of the 17 physically and mentally disabled boys of Casa Lar. The plight of the boys this year has been desperate, with funding from the government failing to materialize the team set up a fundraising page in their name and have nearly reached their target of £4000 - awe inspiring.
The last ever team of volunteers to work at Yachana in the Ecuadorian Amazon spent every morning working on maintaining many of the projects that Quest begun here, from agricultural work to artisan craft and tourismo, then in the afternoons they were working to build a greenhouse to protect crops from flood and insect damage. They were also involved in teaching English lessons at the local school twice a week, developing lesson plans and games.
And our fundraisers have been on top form:
An incredible £6,500 was raised in memory of Katie Ashbridge at a salsa night held in her memory in May. A sizzling salsa lesson, an exciting auction and some incredible food made it a night to remember. Katie was a volunteer on our Villa Maria project in 2000, the funds raised will be used to build homes for some of the poorest families this shanty town in Peru.
Andy's first ever Chicken Week campaign raised over £1,000 for a Chicken coop project in Tanzania which will provide children and their school with a sustainable source of food and income, enabling them to get an education. Andy, who spent an entire week dressed as a Chicken can be seen on YouTube doing some eggcellent fundraising.
Ted Waite raised an incredible £345 by agreeing to do get involved in the Fourth Annual World Naked Bike Ride in Brighton. The money will be used to support our Casa Lar project and will go towards new wheelchairs for Daniel (who is blind) and Junior, two of the physically and mentally disabled boys at the home - Good on you Ted!
Watch the Villa Maria Volunteers entertaining the kids
