By Ina & Esu | Co-Founders
Greetings Dear Supporters and Stakeholders of The BARKA Foundation,
Things are moving forward quickly. We finished 2010 with a great deal of positive momentum, having signed MOUs (partnerships agreements) with Project WET Foundation and H2O For Life. Project WET focuses on hygiene education and will be helping BARKA to specifically tailor hygiene education materials to the language, culture and region of the Gour'mache people, the beneficiaries of this project. H2O For Life will be pairing schools in the US to help raise funds for certain aspects of this project, such as the drilling of the well, the fixing of a well, and so on. The really exciting part is that we're in discussion with both organizations about extending hygiene education to all 58 schools of the Gourma Province in Burkina Faso (this is the province where Tantiaka, or La Petite, is located). Then each of those schools will be paired with 58 schools in the US. In BARKA's next trip to Burkina we'll be exploring details and laying groundwork for this to happen.
In other exciting news, as readers of our newsletter already know, "Team BARKA" raised over $20,000 in the NYC Marathon, $14,000 of which will be added to the funds you've already contributed for this project. Team BARKA consisted of 3 Canadian marathoners, all from Quebec. This has opened the door for opportunities to engage with new communities, particularly Quebec City and Montreal.
In US-based community news, we recently spoke with the Rotary Club in Bridgton, Maine which expressed a deep desire to work with BARKA on this project. Our outreach to Rotaries, schools, faith-based and civic organizations, youth and women's groups is ongoing... if you know of anyone who might be interested in getting involved, please let us know! Feel free to call us directly at 413-446-7466 or email us at inaandesu@barkafoundation.org.
December's campaign to increase the number of monthly online donors was a success as that number increased 150%. Please let us know if you'd like to become a monthly donor to The BARKA Foundation. Thank you all for your continued support.
Lastly, we ask you all to keep us in your prayers and positive thoughts as a proposal is going out this week to a major donor organization which may help us return to Burkina as early as February or March for a period of 3-4 months to implement this project that you're all a part of... when we go, we'll be taking you with us every step of the way through project reports, blog entries, photo and video uploads, tweets and more.
With love & light,
ina & esu
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By Ina & Esu | Co-Founders
By Alexis Nadin | In-the-Field Traveler
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