By Tim Rosche | English Language Correspondent
The group’s founder, Sadio Diatta Rosché, is on her way back to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau after several months in the United States where she worked promoting the group and collecting donations. Currently she is in Mozambique where she has begun teaching dance to a group of 20 teenage Mozambicans. In February she will be in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau distributing the 20 duffle bags of clothing, shoes and school supplies generously contributed by the group’s supporters. Also donated was a desktop computer that will be used to train the children in basic computing skills.
Adult literacy classes continue in Bissau, but with difficulty due to the lack of funds to provide a transportation stipend to the volunteer teachers. The group would like to establish child care facilities as many of the students are young mothers who are forced to bring their small children with them to class, but this has been put on hold until a locale can be constructed.
Construction began on a 4-room building – an office, a waiting room and 2 storage areas, with a restroom and a veranda – which could serve as an area to conduct sewing classes, computer classes and to provide child care as well as to secure the groups 5 sewing machines and computer, but lack of funding has caused the construction to be halted. Nor are funds available to contract sewing and computer instructors who would require $200 per month.
Though some of Ussoforal’s children have been fortunate enough to find sponsors through Sadio’s efforts among friends and family in the United States, many remain unable to attend school for lack of school fees or to buy the required uniforms. It is planned that when the construction is completed and a sewing instructor contracted, as well as learning sewing the children could make their own uniforms. But again, the group relies on your generosity to make this dream of the children’s come true.
Sadio has been holding the group together through her efforts teaching dance and catering to generate some capital. But the economic situation in Guinea-Bissau is still on the decline, employment opportunities are few, and there is little that the community can contribute monetarily. Many of the children suffer from malaria and ringworm, and basic medicines are beyond the financial reach of their parents. So now more than ever, your generosity is
needed.
More than reading reports on the group’s activities, seeing their work first hand is the best way to appreciate the positive impact that the group has in spite of the difficulties faced. Anyone who is willing and available to volunteer their services – to teach art or dance or computer or sewing or cooking or any other life skill to enhance the children’s lives – would be enormously appreciated. Though lodging would not be luxurious, we can guarantee your security, and we are sure that it would be an experience never forgotten. For more information regarding visa requirements, what to bring, etc., contact Tim Rosché at trosche@mz.pfscm.org.
And please, continue to help us to make the children’s dreams come true!
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