FRIENDSHIP LINKS

S. I. APAPA NIGERIA FRIENDSHIP  LINK

S.I. St Helens President 2010/2011 Sue Black, Alison Tickle S.I. St Helens Programme Action representative are pictured with Bernadette Orefo ex APAPA now London Central and Tina Akerke past Federation President and Federation Treasurer of S.I. Apapa

PHOTO TAKEN AT FEDERATION CONFERENCE MANCHESTER 22/23 OCTOBER 2010

Our Friendship Link with Apapa has been running for about 16/17 years as a result of several members meeting up with them at a previous Conference. A link was formed by Kathleen Cook and June Wilson and through visits by Alison Jones and Alison Marsden to Apapa Nigeria.

By our paying their Annual Fees to SIGBI it enables them to utilize the same amount of money on one of their own projects, often connected to water. They have recently finished a ‘Bore Hole Project’ enabling fresh water for all.

KASONGOMULEFU  in 2009

Martin Rossiter wrote to SI St Helens Treasurer Jan Spottiswood saying  ’We managed just recently to complete some new wells in the Masonde area of Luapula, inland from Lubwe, and the cost per person for clean water for life was just 94 pence! I attach a copy of an article from our Parish magazine.
This has been achieved by a new method of hand boring which no longer necessitates digging a four foot wide hole and lining it with concrete rings. Instead we have learnt how to bore a six inch wide hole just as deep (usually 20 meters or so), and line it with a 4 inch pipe! We can build a well now in a third of the time.
Following an outbreak of Cholera in Kasaba, further north, we have now been asked if we can make safe some of the old dirty open holes they are using for water, as well as build some new ones by the new method, and we are racing to find the money to get started. We need to raise well over £5000 and this is a real challenge, so any help you can give would be wonderful. SI St Helens will be sponsoring another well in 2011.
Pictured below is the ‘Well’ that SI St Helens sponsored in 2009, and one with the plaque affixed.

Midday Meal Project

St Helens Club members collected 20 pence pieces over a number of months on club nights. These funds were then donated to SI Kandy to aid the Midday Meal Project (children pictured enjoying their meal)

S.I. St Helens sponsored Student Nurse Nilanthi who has now qualified.