Today we packed a pallet of sewing machines and computers bound for Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The pallet contained 8 new Elna 2000 sewing machines and 2 new Janome overlockers, plus a qty of S/H computers and screens.

The sewing machines are for Solidarite Bonne Volonte SBV in Goma, which is a project of Ms Penny Vos a member of our Rotary E-club; and for St Ambrose School, Bulimbo, Kenya- a school supported by Doug Vincent also a member of our E-club.

The computers were organised by Penny, who  brought them all the way from Cooma where she lives, and the unusual shape of the pallet wrapping is the computer monitors which were a challenge to pack on top of the computers and sewing machines. But we got there. The pallet was then taken to Sonic Healthcare in Macquarie Park who kindly allowed us some room in a container they were shipping to the Heal Africa Hospital in Goma. The shipment to Goma will take approximately 3 months !!

Next year, we are planning a sewing  teacher training program to be held at the “School for Life” in Katuuso Uganda, and two teachers will travel up from Goma and two from Bulimbo Kenya to attend this two week course.

SewAid donated the sewing machines and will also take care of the accommodation, food and all costs for the training program in Uganda.

Many thanks to Penny for all the help with this shipment and to Sonic Healthcare for allowing us some room in their container. Thanks also to Hobbysew who assisted us to prepare the pallet and take it over to Sonic in Macquarie Park.

Congo
We have an early planning meeting for DRC Congo this week. Lucy Hobwood-Brown from our Rotary club has just returned with much of the detail that we need to consider a Sewaid project in the Congo.
Please stand by to hear more about this soon. Potentially it would be around October 2019. Again any of our volunteer teachers who are particularly interested in this project, please contact us anytime.

Tony: 0414801888 tonyc@sewgroup.com

Photo: This young girl and her father were very happy about the gift we gave them, which is one of Deidra’s ( DFG North Gosford ) Sewing Kits. This girl and her mother are dressmakers on the oldest most dilapidated treadle you have every seen. We were happy to also delivery to them a new electric Janome donated by Epping Rotary. While the home and living appeared to be at the very bottom of rung, this girl quickly showed us how to transfer photos from our phone to hers by bluetooth. Amazing!

Congo DRC
We have for some time been discussing the possibility of a Sewaid teacher team visiting the Congo to help Lucy set up a sewing workshop. This is starting to progress a little more now that Ebola has been contained in the area, however there is still quite of number of hurdles to jump before this trip can advertised.

Ba Fiji
Alacoque Welsh, one of our Sewaid managers, and Gay Grillmeier from the Gosford North DFG group. will be going back to BA, Fiji again in September to give some further training to one of our sewing groups there.

REECH Cambodia
Deidra from DFG Gosford North also advised that their Mooney Mooney satellite group, also donated 100 sewing kits and 25 Hygiene kits to Jenny Knight of REECH Cambodia. Sewgroup had previously helped Jenny with sewing machines and equipment for her Cambodia project.

Photos: Lucy Hopwood Brown from “Hands Up Congo ” centre, Days for Girls group leaders, Dee and Deidra, left and right, with the colourful bags containing 350 DFG hygiene kits and 100 sewing kits.
Jenny Knight (red) and the Mooney Mooney DFG salellite group.
Header photo : One of the DFG Gosford North ladies busy overlocking the liners on one of their Triumph high speed over-lockers .

Other new projects we are investigating.
East Timor:
Judith Charnaud who is a member of my Rotary club, has lived in East Timor for the past 14 years, in a very remote area called Oecusse . This is a small part of East Timor which is not actually attached to East Timor but rather it is situated in Indonesian West Timor ! . It is an very poor area, but also a very pretty area in parts. For some time now we have been talking to Judy and John Corney from the Epping Rotary Club, about a SewAID project in Oecusse, and planning is progressing for this to be in April/May 2019. This project will be teaching a variety of sewing skills, including school uniforms, dressmaking, school curriculums, and perhaps some Days for Girls. Suitable basic accommodation and working rooms are available and everything will be arranged for this project. This will be a very interesting trip, and I have great memories of our visit there a few years ago. We will need 4 to 6 volunteer teachers , and so we invite volunteers from our data base to register their interest now.

Solomons
The small group of women that we taught in March are very anxious for us to go back with a larger team of teachers in March next year. This trip is to be at the time of the International Women’s Day as they are planning to have a big celebration there at that time. Vera taught Days for Girls sewing last time, but this time they want to learn dressmaking and other items which they would like to sell. Similar to what we have taught in Cambodia. The project is on Noro , and there is good accommodation and support provided by Soltuna , the large tuna factory there, which is supporting our project. So again we are interested to hear from our volunteers who would like to go on this trip
Photo is from Vera’s classroom in Noro in March.

Other Countries
We have also been asked to teach in Kirabati and Tavalu , which are both small Pacific island countries. Tavalu is north of Fiji, and Kirabati is North from Vanuatu – and near to the Somomons.
We are just gathering details on these projects and more information will be available soon

Then we have also been invited to do teaching project in The Congo in Africa. This is a more challenging project due to the high costs of getting there. We are working with Lucy Hobgood-Brown who is also in my Rotary Club and Lucy has several active projects in the Congo which she visits every year; and for more details of Lucy’s projects please visit her website www.handupcongo.org

So lots of interesting projects in the melting pot. Do keep checking our website from time to time for updated information.
regards Tony
tonyc@sewgroup.com
Ph. 0414 801 888

This map shows where East Timor lies just Northwest of Australia and the insert shows East Timor in purple and you can see the little enclave of Oecusse situated in what is Indonesian West Timor and separated from the main East Timor.

Santo Vanuatu

Due to the devastation cause by the recent hurricane, our proposed new Sewaid programme for Vanuatu has been postponed for the time being.

Fiji

Our main programme that we are working on now is for a new sewing workshop at Koroipita Model Village, Lautoka Fiji. In fact Glenda our head teacher is in Fiji this week making the final arrangements. The program is likely to be in mid August (school holidays). All the details will be in the New Programmes section of this website shortly.

We recently prepared two beautiful Janome sewing machines along with some accessories for Cathy Dearie (daughter of Anna who works at Hobbysew Erina) who has along with others taken them to the small Island off Pacific Harbour in Fiji where they are setting them up in a school and teaching the teachers how to start a sewing program for the students. We will get a report and photos when Cathy gets back.

South Africa

Gosford North Rotary – still bubbling along but no new news to report.

East Africa

Some of us will be going back to East Africa probably in September. We will be visiting potential new programmes in Uganda and Kenya. We also have a commitment to do a new program at the school of St Jude Tanzania in 2016.

Gingoog Philippines

Due to unrest in Gingoog and Mindanao, it is not entirely safe to visit there now. We will have to wait for the position to change before we can plan a new visit. But the sewing workshop, so brilliantly managed by Maggie, is still very busy. They have just completed an order to make 500 Days for Girls kits and likely to get repeat orders consistently now. Also they are very busy making school uniforms and Government employee’s uniforms.

Sad news from Gingoog

Many of you will remember Joan who was one of our students back in 2012 who was 23 at the time and expecting her fourth child. The baby which was born in April 2013 was a little boy whom they named Anthony – after me and he became my adopted grandson! Well on Sunday March 22nd , Anthony died in hospital from Typhoid. Along with Maggies help we tried to get him the very best care but unfortunately they couldn’t save him. A very very sad time for Joan and everyone concerned. Below is a photo of Joan and Anthony the last time we were there. He was a lovely child. It is so sad to think that had he been in Australia he would not have died – we certainly live in the lucky country.

Joan with baby Anthony

New RAWCS number: 22-2006-07 Worldwide

We are pleased to advise that we have been given a special “Worldwide” status for our RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) number. This now means we do not have to apply for a new number for each project. Donations or costs for equipment etc can be sent thru RAWCS and receive an Australian Tax deduction. However unfortunately, the Government rules have changed recently and RAWCS can no longer give a deductible receipt for money for airfares or accommodation etc. Only donations and money spent on materials for the project can have a tax deductible receipt.

Regards
Tony Castley

There is some good news in that we are working on some new SewAid team trips which are starting to look hopeful. The ones we are having discussions with are:

Vanuatu: Back to Santo, Luganville again. Same Rotary club and area that we did in 2008, but this time to set up a workshop of the type we have in Uganda and Philippines. They are getting regular visits from cruise ships now, and so they have a ready made market for some good garments etc.

Fiji: We are having some discussions with a Rotary club in Fiji to set up a workshop in a community centre they already have in place.

South Africa: We have two inquirers from South Africa and one from Mozambique. Plus we are talking with School of St Jude, Tanzania again. One of the South African inquiries is from an organisation called Operation Uplift of South Africa. You can watch their video on YouTube – and is a project well supported by the Rotary Club of Gosford North
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OQV38OfJDg

News from SewAid Gingoog, Mindanao Philippines

Maggie and our SewAid workshop in Mindanao continues to get lots of work and they are often interesting and challenging orders.

They once again made the most of all the garments for the local annual community variety show – see photos below , and now they also have the contract for all the school uniforms in the school zone. Additionally they also have been contracted to make 500 Days for Girls Kits for the DFG program in Mindanao. If you are not familiar with the Days for Girls program, take a look at their website or Facebook page.
http://www.daysforgirls.org/
https://www.facebook.com/DaysForGirlsAustralia

Regards
Tony Castley