More than one year after hurricane Maria in Dominica, there are still schools not re-opened and kids waiting to get back to learn for their future. Joanna and Andy Bamba on sailing vessel BAMBA MARU have done a lot of desaster relief work in Haiti, Puerto Rico and just started now the school project for Dominica - Sailing for a smile! The idea is, to get help from the sailing and cruiser community directly to the schools in need. BAMBA MARU will assist and guide 3 schools at the time to get them back to work functionaly.
We got lists from schools and talked to several school principles about their needs. There are as well kids from families, that lost everything, including house and jobs, so every kind of help or donation will be appreciated.
Already organised from the SSCA Seven Seas Cruisers Association, working together with their host Jefferson Smith from SSCA station Smithy`s in Portsmouth, there will be a project of rebuilding a playground for the St.John`s Primary school, march 2nd 2019.
This is the school we start working on, to get them back to a functional status. Therefore we hope to get enough helping hands together in the next few month, as well as the funds for paint and painting materials. The first project will hopefully be in January to get the paint job for the St. John`s Primary school done. Therefor we need to get the money donated to the school, to buy the paint and paint brushes. They are also in need of a feeding program and all the kitchen utensils to serve lunch for about 140 kids.
These two projects can be realised with an estimated 10`000,-$ US.
After the paint project is finished in St. John`s Primary school and the feeding program is running, we will organise projects for the Savanne Paille Primary School, that needs help rebuild the school garden and the kitchen and as well a safe playground for their kids.
Next projects will take place in the CALLS Center in Portsmouth. After getting more informations about their needs from the several school principles on the island. We hope to realize a project with cruisers and friends every two weeks. That includes having the funds for the neccesarry materials ready and volunteers on the ground to get their hands dirty for a day or two.
The supplies needed, vary in some schools, as some of them are not even reopened. Others started with the basics, but are still in need of lots of materials, like you will see in the list below. Most schools need to get a feeding program running for the kids, as lots of them even come without breakfast. So there is also the need to rebuild the school gardens and kitchens. We found a few schools, that already got concentrated help and are very good on things, other still lack. For that purpose we have the SSCA host Jefferson Smith in contact with the different principles, to see, what kind of donation is most needed in what school. The list goes from small things, to more expensive items, a few people might be able to finance together.
Every cruiser can bring a few items of the list from another island or even better buy things localy on Dominica, what also helps the local businesses to survive. Please hand those items to the SSCA host Jefferson Smith at Smithy`s Restaurant and Wholesale in the yellow three story building on the main road in Portsmouth or to Faustin Alexis from the PAYS Yacht Service in Portsmouth. Both are availible on VHF 16 Please let them know which school you wanna support. They will make sure your goods arrive at the right place or you can join them to have a look at the projects.
Declare your goods to customs as gifts for the Sailing for a smile - BAMBA MARU School Project. For money donations, we will provide the bank account details directly of the schools in need within the next days.
This is what is needed in almost every school:
• stove, big refrigerator, cups, plates, bowls & cutleries for all the kids, cooking utensils (pressure cooker, big pots & pans, storage containers, baking dishes, blender, food processor...) to serve a hot daily lunch
• garden tools kids and adults size, like shovels, hoes & hand rakes, also gardening gloves and watering cans
• copy / computer paper, construction paper
• Manila paper, white and colored
• white board markers
• portable radio with CD player
• computers
• world globes
• encyclopedias
• 3'x3' or larger dry eraser white boards
• school books, kids books for the libraries
• white chalk & assorted color chalk
• scissors
• glue sticks
• pens & pencils
• pencil sharpeners
• crayons
• vegetable seeds
• potting soil
• used sails to cover walk-ways and playgrounds from sun and rain
• TV & DVD player
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