Introduction

This document is a progress report in relation to the work done and proposed in relation to the malaria control project at Don Bosco School (DBS) Didia.

BACKGROUND

There are four key strands to the control of malaria at DBS. These are:

Education
Spraying and treating key areas
The proper use of nets and netting
Malaria treatment

This report considers these four areas both in terms of work done to date and also future work. Read the rest of this entry »

The day starts with a blast of Ghanaian Hip life, bounced off two radios. The sound goes right through my hammock and I know it’s soon time to wake up. The rhythmic “shush, shush” or the broom, dragged over the sandy floor lets me know that one of the small boys is up. I open my eyes and it’s still dark outside, the moon clearly visible. Two dark faces appear at the edge of my mosquito net “Sir, fishing!” They exclaim with excitement, clearly looking forward to taking a visitor on the boats. I swing my legs out of my hammock, throw on a shirt and we’re off walking towards the beach. I have with me a bottle of water, some flip flops and that’s all for the next few hours. Read the rest of this entry »

Note: Regretfully the photos are a little small – we are trying to acquire some larger sizes

Imagine, this is Kismayo Football stadium in late 1992. The ground was cleared and cleaned by Sean and myself with our own hands just days before this event. People passing by were loughing at us and were saying “are these guys carzy? people… are starving and they are clearing play-ground. while in the stadum, a fight broke out in two clans and we were shawered with bullets all around. A big blast exploded near us and seen ourselfes lying on ground. Luckily, we wer saved. This didn’t deject us and the fight of the two clans ended within the day.

Next day, we continued our work and completed our cleaning campaign of the statdium. Just imagine, within few days, the seen was this; full of people and fun. Four teams (under 15) from nearst displaced camps competed Foot-ball and 100M runs in both boys and girls. Gifts were given for encouregement even those beaten. The moryans (gunmen) were part of the spectators and funs with no shootings.

Environment changed so swiftly and unexpectedly. We, the organizers (Sean & myself) even couldn’t beleive the dramatic changes that was going! Look how Sean was giving out gifts and people were sourounding with no problem or chaos, and I was enjoiying taking pictures for documentation and history. Look with me now after 20 years. History reads itself. by Abdi Farah Nur.

Very many thanks to Abdi-Farah Nur for this excellent report – and photos of course

As the year 2011 coming to its end we would like to record our appreciation and gratitude to all our benefactors.

This year we had increased the school fees very minimal but the price of food items more than doubled. The Sean Devereux Children’s Fund came to our aid through Mr. and Mrs. Lion and sponsored food for us. Sean Devereux Children’s Fund has also sponsored the extension work on the Notre Dame Hostel, additional staff house, solar equipment for the administration block and many other things.

A big thank you to the Trustees especially to Mr. Alan Lion and Mrs. Nicki Lion who are working tirelessly to see that our students receive those things which will help them to be better equipped. We also express our gratitude to the Salesian College of Farnborough (England) which raised the fund for the purchase of food.

Dear Sean Devereux Children’s Trust,

I know that you have a special interest in the plight of children in Africa and have been very generous in the past to Mary’s Meals which feeds more than half a million children each school day in Africa.

I thought you might like to know about our work in East Africa and in particular what we are managing to achieve in Somalia where very few agencies are able to work. Read the rest of this entry »