The Office is Finished!!

It took several years - interrupted by malaria, Ebola, a PhD, rising material costs, and a family being started - but we've finished it. So now we can start the real work! 

The next year will mostly be planning, administration, and getting funding and materials. So we've leased it to another organization for the next year, to help us cover our costs while before start implementing our projects. But by next October we will have computers and space for the community, and be able to offer computer training, public internet access, and meeting space. We will also have office space to run our other projects from here as well. We of course have a lot of work to do to get the funding and materials, but it is an exciting moment for us... A long journey to get here, but one that is only just beginning!  

Desperation

Will this be as high as we get?

 As we speak an epidemic is surging through west Africa.  it is spreading incredibly quickly and has no cure.  Ebola is leaving a trail of dead bodies in its wake and is only a matter of time before it spreads beyond "the dark continent" and into our living rooms.  As most people that read this blog know, I spent some time there and helped to set up a community based organization called "aibia".  The name for this came from playing with the Chinese words (bo ai) for "universal love", a concept espoused by Mozi nearly 2500 years ago in ancient China.  It would seem like a simple concept, to create a political and economic system based on a universal caring and respect for all human beings, a system based on us viewing all others as if they were our brother or sister, mother or father, husband or wife.  Would we let our sister go hungry?  Would we let our mother die of Ebola?  No we would not.

I want to see this building that we started be completed...    

We are building an office and community center for our organization.  A structure intended to be a place for us to have meetings, voice grievances, create and incubate businesses, teach both marketable and enjoyable skills, arts, computers, etc.  A place for people to go engage with others and build community.  

But this will never happen if everyone working on it, or that could use it, dies.  And that is where we are headed right now.  An entire population of people is at risk of death.  Ebola carries with it a 90% fatality rate and is transferred simply through human to human contact.

Basically, we need to pay attention.  We need to realize that we can make a difference both with Ebola and in helping marginalized people gain a voice in their own lives and for their communities. Please help by donating even the smallest amount.  Just click on the donate button on the right hand side of this website and we will transfer the money in bulk amounts so we can save money on transfer fees.  Please help.

Funding an Office

I know that this project has been slow going.  Similar to most of you, I have been trying to juggle day jobs/responsibilities and the desire to see this project through.  This project means the world to me, as most of you know.  However, I have been asked by my academic advisers (I am now in a PhD program in Anthropology at Rutgers University) to step back from this work as they see it as a possible conflict of interest with my academic work.  As a result, I am not planning to spend any extended time on the ground in Sierra Leone working on this project.  This does not however mean that we will not be moving forward with our work, just that I won’t be moving to Sierra Leone!  

Our current goals are to provide a computer to send to Yapo, our country manager, and to help fund an office building there in Makeni.  That office will provide the tools to allow our team there to make things happen as per their own efforts. Our assessment is that with this office building (which will double as a community space) we will be able to launch our other programs and send volunteers to work there with our local team to see our projects through.  Yapo, has said the legitimacy of an office has been tremendously holding them back.  We are still in line for our brick making project, skills training programs, and most pressingly our women's cooperative network.  I have been actively recruiting volunteers to spend time there to help facilitate these processes, and I have some positive leads.  

For the office/community space we had looked at leasing space, but prices have risen sharply and the price of a three year lease (required) is more than if we build from scratch.  Our local team has found suitable land that garners a 25 year lease and made plans for a small office space.  They estimate that this space will cost $4600, $1000 of which they can obtain themselves for exchange in kind with the community.  This means that we need to send $3600 to them.  I already have purchased the computer.  A small notebook for $460 and will be sending it shortly.  We have garnered commitments of $2020, thus far towards our goals.  That means we need $1580, or to get as close as possible to that figure.  Please consider donating.  You can find a donation link on this website to the right, or contact us at walkinglion.org@gmail.com. Obviously, we do not have a large list of people to ask, but this is also not a large sum of money.  Any level of donation would be greatly appreciated, we have received pledges/donations from $20 to $500.  

All of this donated money will be used to build this office. An office and community space does is allow our local team to get to work.  It is not a hand out, simply a tool to allow both them and the community to make things happen for themselves. I have bought the computer on my own, and will not take anything from these donations.  Every cent goes to the Sierra Leone project or the cost of wiring the money there.  If we receive anything extra, it will go directly to our next project there.  So don't worry about giving too much!  ;)