Meal for Mozambique

Meal for Mozambique
Organised by the Bristol Link with Beira, the Meal will include entertainmet from Celso Paco, Mozambican musician and storyteller. Proceeds will go to projects in Beira working with women, disabled people, and people with HIV/AIDS and in facilitating school linking. Friday 10th October 2008, 7.30 pm Colston Primary School Cotham Grove Cotham, Bristol

Bristol Link with Beira Top
NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2008 This newsletter reports on the work of the Bristol Link with Beira (BLB) during the first half of 2008. PROJECTS Learning Disability: following a successful exploratory visit to Mozambique in February, the Brandon Trust has agreed to fund a project to support people with a learning disability in Beira. The Trust will work in partnership with local NGO Acrideme to build capacity in the city. Brandon has agreed to provide £5k per year for the next five years which will build a centre in Beira and provide ongoing support. Mobility: a small group of potential trainees have been identified in Beira to undergo training where they will learn to build and maintain wheelchairs. They are currently improving their English and technical skills before 2 are selected for a year’s training in Tanzania. Small Grants: we are currently reviewing the process by which we give small grants to organisations and projects in Beira. The discussion is between continuing this funding stream and giving larger grants for a longer period to fewer organisations. We will let you know the outcome of this review. SCHOOLS LINKING Visit to Beira: in February 9 teachers from 4 link schools (Colstons Primary School, Henbury School, Luckwell Primary School, and St Bernadette’s Primary & Junior School) visited their sister schools in Beira. The aim was to: strengthen the Bristol – Beira link; embed the Bristol – Beira link for individual schools in the partnership; enhance the professional development of teachers in order to underpin their own pedagogy; enable children in Bristol schools to develop their own understanding of and empathy with children in Mozambican schools, via high quality dissemination from the participating teachers. The visit was both successful and something of a shock. Key lessons from the visit are being taken forward and a report completed. The next stage will be to be bid for further funding for reciprocal visits back from Beira. 4 teachers from Clifton High School are visiting the 1st of May Nursery this summer with each paying their own way. Connecting Classrooms: teachers from Brislington Enterprise College and Whitefield Fishponds Community School visited South Africa in March as part of a Connecting Classrooms project linking these 2 schools with schools in South Africa and Beira. This is a virtual link. International Development: reorganisation within the Education Department of Bristol City Council has resulted in the deletion of the post of International Development. BLB and other twinning organisations see this as a retrograde step and have made representations to the Council. This will mean the loss of Jill Ritchie who has been a strong advocate for international development and schools’ linking. She has been an ally of BLB providing much needed support, advice and encouragement. We wish her well. AMAI MUSSANHANI Funding: our friends in Bristol ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) have donated £1,000 to Amai raised through their annual ‘Walk for Southern Africa’ held in June. As well as being used to help fund Amai’s work with children orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS, we are looking at ways to secure the land the project uses. Bottle Cutting: Bristol ACTSA are also funding a bottle cutting project being developed by Amai. This will allow them to turn old glass bottles into crafts which they can sell to raise revenue for the project. A small grant from BLB paid for training for the women and ACTSA have now purchased 2 bottle cutting kits and will support the women for 2 months until they build up a sufficient quantity of craft goods. PLACEMENTS Matt Catchpole: Matt is the second University of Bristol language student to have completed a placement in Beira. He worked mainly with the 1st of May Nursery although visited other schools and projects. Leila Bright: Leila will be visiting Beira for 6 weeks from the beginning of August courtesy of a Cambridge University travel grant. She will be working with Amai Mussanhani and other projects. Clare Bertaud: Clare is another University of Bristol language student and hopes to complete a placement in Beira in 2009. She is currently fundraising for her trip. Among other projects she is likely to work on a re-forestation idea currently being developed by Kevin Seeley who was in Beira last year. BRISTOL WORKER We are considering the recruitment of a part-time worker in Bristol to take forward our work and build capacity within the organisation. To this end we are piloting a short-term appointment to see what might be possible and what a potential job description and person specification might look like. MOZAMBIQUE FILM ARCHIVE During a visit to Bristol last year by Gabrial Modlane, a Mozambican film director, the idea of establishing a new Mozambique film archive was mooted. We have been have discussions with partners in Mozambique, the British Museum, and Bristol City Council which, we hope, will lead to a funding proposal to take the project forward. BITA We continue to support the work of the Bristol International Twinnings Association (BITA) and work closely with its Co-ordinator, Alix Hughes. Paul Dunn, BLB Chair, has also been elected as Chair of BITA.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS Celso Paco: we are bringing the Mozambican musician (traditional and jazz) and storyteller (traditional), Celso Paco, back to Bristol in October (6th – 17th inclusive). This will be Celso’s 4th visit to Bristol and he will be working with schools, choirs and other groups. The cost to a school for a day is £150;the price for other organisations is negotiable. If you would like to take advantage of Celso’s visit please contact davespurgeon@blueyonder.co.uk Meal for Mozambique: we will be holding our annual Meal for Mozambique on Friday 10th October at 7.30 pm at Colston’s Primary School, Cotham Grove, Bristol. This is our annual fundraising event and helps supports the work of BLB and projects in Mozambique. There will be a choice of food, and entertainment from Celso Paco. Tickets are £15 from davespurgeon@blueyonder.co.uk Brandon Drumming Weekend: the Brandon Trust is holding a sponsored non-stop marathon drumming weekend to raise funds for people with a learning disability in Beira. The event will be started at 7.00 pm on Friday 17th October by Celso Paco. If you would like to take part, contact Steve Day at Brandon Trust (steve.day@brandontrust.org). Calendar: following the enthusiastic response to this year’s calendar we will be producing a 2009 calendar featuring photos from Beira. We will let you know when these become available. Mozambique: the right not to be poor: the Mozambican High Commission is organising a Europe-wide conference in London on Sunday 2nd November entitled, ‘Mozambique: the right not to be poor’. We will let you have more details when we know them. Virtual Gifts: we are hoping to be able to offer a range of virtual gifts that you can purchase for friends and relatives at Xmas, birthdays and on other occasions. These will include ideas such as goats, school uniforms, mosquito nets, condoms, sewing machines and kits, market stalls etc. for people in Beira provided through our link worker there. We will send you details when we have finalised this initiative.

YOUR HELP Website: we are considering developing a website to promote the work of the BLB. If you have experience of website design and would like to volunteer to help out please contact davespurgeon@blueyonder.co.uk Trustees: we would like to increase the number and experience of our Trustees. If you are interested in our work and think that you could contribute please contact Paul Dunn, Chair (pauldunn@phonecoop.coop) for an informal chat. We would particularly welcome enquiries from women, people from a Black and Minority Ethnic background, people with a disability, plus young people and gay people. Donations: if you would like to make a donation (however small or large; one-off or a standing order) please contact Steve Strong, Treasurer (stevemstrong@hotmail.com) for details.