Committee Assist, News - June

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NEWS - JUNE - NOVEMBER 09

Hi all. Hope you have made it through this tough year in an okay state.

Its been a little longer than our usual quarterly update as some of our crew have been busy not only building villages in Africa but saving them back home.

If you sent us an email over the last 2 months and you did not get a reply that is because we had a couple of IT problems and your email disappeared in cyberspace. Please try again.

We’ve got some great news to share with you as building works in Africa and our sustainability projects are really blossoming. All buildings in our first stage have reached roof level. See below and our photo gallery - Kili Kids Building Update - November 2009.

Thanks to our donors, fundraiser volunteers, supporters and guests at our Coogee and Canberra fundraisers, Sydney Annual Gala and our Gold Coast & Canadian Golf Days - we have kept our head above water through this tough year which is great.

Piccies and stories from our volunteers in Africa will bring smiles to your faces.

If you have not bought Chrissie Prezzies or just want to sponsor our 6 CA Kili Climbers in Jan or buy a gift with a difference, then jump on our Gift Shop and check out your options.

CA Girls Climb KILI - Let’s Get Behind Them!!!!

6 BRAVE AUSSIE ADVENTURE GIRLS ARE CLIMBING KILI IN JAN 2010 TO FUNDRAISE FOR KILI KIDS!!

LET’S SUPPORT THEM - All donations by way of sponsor are tax deductible!!!

The group is heading off on the challenge of a lifetime. They depart Moshi on the 28th December 2009 and will spend 7 days on the Rongai Route to the summit. They will experience a full moon, meet the challenges of altitude and bring in the new year. Their exhilirating journey will be rewarded with a celebration and opening of the Kili Kids Village on the 4th of January 2010. All the climbers would love your support in the form of sponsorship with all money raised to be used by Committee Assist to house, feed and educate the children in their care.

Any sponsorship over $2.00 is fully tax deductible, so please click on our GIFT SHOP for more.

Please contact if you are interested in supporting the girls or have any queries.

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Report on Sydney "Hand in Hand Gala"  - also Gold Coast & Canadian Golf Days

Many thanks to our CA volunteer teams that assisted with both Sydney Annual Gala and Gold Coast and Canadian Golf Days.

Together, all events raised over $35,000 which really ensured operations were stable and building works could continue this year. The progress of our projects are a testimony to the great effort from all.

For the Sydney event, we want to pay a special thanks to Lee, Janelle, Jenny, Liz, Mary & Garry L, Cath, Morrisey lads and gals, Jim, Paul Murray and Clatyon Utz volunteers. And food from Bel of Sanders Restaurant was exceptional. Thx Bel.

For the Gold Coast, we want to pay special thanks to Vince (right photo) & Julie Dyck and fam, Mark Smith, Marty O’R and the great team from APEX Burleigh & Gold Coast.

Committee Assist Canada has taken off now with the great effort of Peter Yates and team. Thx for their contribution from their Golf Day - Great Stuff.

2010 - Fundraiser Events - Sydney Golf (May), Sydney Gala (June), Melbourne Gala (June). Details coming soon.

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African Work/News

In our last newsletter, we shared with you our great views to Mt Kili from the windows of 4 partially completed homes (right).

Since then, we have got all buildings - including Claytons Community Hall (left) - up to their roof lines and quite a number of sustainability projects are nearing completion.

Why not get your company’s charity programme involved and see it’s name over the front door - we need you. Click here to check out recent photos of the building project. More coming.

Many thanks to Johnny Searl who just spent 3 months over in Africa assisting with the building project. Johnny has a great flare for design and designed our new Rainbow Ridge/Kili Kids gates (right below) which will be such a wonderful entrance with stone pillars. Johnny directed traffic to ensure we can celebrate our opening of Stage 1 in January 2010 - maybe not occupation stage, but roofs and major buildings and projects complete. Check out volunteer blurb below.

Working under Johnny’s guidance was our tenatious & reliable Melbourneon volunteer - Luther Ellis - who has been working with us now for near a year.

Luther has been instrumental in getting some of our sustainability projects started, including our methane gas plant, support cow shed, fish farm/chook pen. Check photos below. Our major water tanks are currently under construction.

For all our Melbourne supporters who helped pack, store and handle our container as noted in last news, we can happily report that it left Melbourne safely some time ago and should arrive in Tanzania shortly. Thx ALL!!

We have currently obtained another 40 ft container in Sydney at discount from Maesk Shipping Line (thanks Maersk for your support) which is currently being filled at Macathur Shipping terminal - kind assistance of the Heraghty brothers at Minto (thx Boys).

Special thx to Scotty and Darryl at Austin Customs for their ongoing clearance work for all our containers.

We are now doing a second round "tools collect" campaign - 40ft for Sydney for futher supplies for our administation centre which will house central office, computer room, library, sewing and craft rooms and our vocational centre - carpentry workshop, mechanics, agriculture and metal work. We are collecting all sorts of stuff. So any suppliers that can help fill our containers - please contact Garry at mary@committeeassist.org (his other half) - Garry is not also a Mary. We are looking for roof sheeting, glass windows, doors, tools, steel, wiring, piping (including Ag piping) and any odds and bits and pieces you feel might assist. Just contact Garry with any queries.

We have left our building plans here for you to check out our building stages, so please click for BIG NICE BUILDING PLANS courtesy of our great architect Mari at Beachworth Studios. We hope to have Stage 1 complete by January for our opening and occupation by April 2010.

Time to dig to start our bio gas plant - methane

Our Methane Bio-Gas Plant will be fueled by Cow Dung

So of course we must build our Dairy Shed for our cows

Our Dairy Shed to supply fuel for the methane plant & milk for the kids. Luther/Stephen proudly show it off!!!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE GREAT BUILDING SHOTS - SEE OUR FISH POND/CHOOK PEN PROJECT - AT OUR PHOTO GALLERY

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Volunteering & Our Kids

How time flies!! Kili Kids opened for receiving kids two years ago now. Over a period of 6 months, we took on 25 gorgeous kids ranging from less than 1 yr to 12 years old.

These kids through your assistance and the great work of our wondeful volunteers and workers in Africa are growing with us into fine young people. They are now receiving the love, affection and care that they lost years ago. They are connecting as a bigger family and with a family care approach, we hope to give them as close a family as possible.

Those who visit regularly can see the changes in the kids each time they go. Those who volunteer longer term get the joy of experiencing that transition. Look at Parsley now (right) - through some tough times in hospital after his arrival, he is now fighting fit at 2 nearly 3 and cool as ever. Whose sunnies you got on Parsley???

We are still in need of a full time nurse volunteer, but are happy to report that early next year we are receiving 3 full-time yearly volunteers to work with the kids and with our sustainability programmes. They will be progressing what volunteers Johnny Searle (builder)(left and below blurb) and 19 yr old Luther Ellis (right) have started.

Both Luther and Johnny have been an amazing part of our sustainability programmes. Luther was able to gain assistance through raised funds from Melbourne Grammar School - where he was Vice Captain last year.

We have quite a number of volunteers lined up to support us with quarterly stints. We look forward to you all experiencing a life changing time and working with us in creating something really special at Rainbow Ridge.

One of our biggest dreams not yet realised is a volunteer music teacher. The kids just love to sing and dance.

If you are interested in volunteering with Committee Assist, then why not contact our volunteering coordinator Mary at mary@committeeassist.org to learn more.

We now have short and long stay programmes. Accountant Gerry from Canada visited us for a short stay and assisted Joel (accountant) and Margaret (manager) with some accounting and admin practices.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE GREAT SHOTS OF THE KIDS AT OUR PHOTO GALLERY
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Some messages from some of our volunteers

JOHHNY SEARLE:

"Arriving in Moshi for the first time is quite the experience. So much to do to get up to speed and settle in to the lifestyle there.

Meeting the children is of course the highlight...such beautiful happy souls and all so welcoming..makes you realise why we all do this.

Rainbow Ridge is progressing along nicely, in the 3 months I stayed we managed to finish all masonary work on the claytons hall, prep and landscape the grounds for the arrival of the next container from Australia which once in position with the existing one will form the substructure for the Kili laundry building.

We also completed all the external verandah structures on the the 1st stage of kids accomodation and started the landscaping around these areas with beautiful hand crafted stone walls...very impressive work by our
stone masons (above right).

Working to initiate some of our future permaculture projects and with the kind donation from(Luther Ellis/Melbourne Grammar) we built the fish pond with adjoining chook pens, the biogas tank system to run our kitchens, and a large dairy shed which will supply fuel for our Gas system and of course milk for the children.

Designing the front gates and getting them manufactured locally by Moshi steel mongers was one of the many enjoyable experiences whilst on the project.. We managed to get them installed ..again with beautiful stone pillars to create an inspiring entrance to the property with the infamous Mt Kilimanjaro looming up over them on your approach.

All in all a wonderful experience for me and am now keen to watch and help where possible as the build continues!!!!!

Canadian volunteer, Alesia, gets the interesting experience of helping out with our chiken project with our team and the kids.

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Committee Assist Canada

Peter Yates and team have now formally registered Committee Assist in Canada.

The organisation has been registered as Committee Assist Relief Program

If you are from that neck of the woods - please check out our new Canadian website.

Peter is joining us in January for our opening on behalf of his Canadian contingent and it will be great to catch up.

Peter’s son is a wonderful musician - singer/songwriter - let’s see if we can convince him to do us one of his beautiful songs.

If you are from the land of the Maple Leaf get a hold of peter and crew and join us. Any enquiries, should be sent to peter@committeeassist.org

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The "PERMACULTURE CHALLENGE" - Come on Corporates we need some Sponsors to create a really sustainable Rainbow Ridge!!!

We have started our permaculture/sustainability project with biogas (methane) plant, supporting cow shed, fishfarm/chook pen and water tanks. (see pics below)

We have left the Permaculture Challenge up on site as we are still hoping for a corporate sponsor and generous person will come along to support this programme which we hope to run in finalising our village structure.

CA is putting the Permaculture Challenge out there to corporates/individuals to support a $15,000 Professional Course (diploma for attendees) run by Australian Permaculture Expert - Greg Knibbs and his team next year if we can get a donor (or combination). See Greg Knibb’s organisation - www.internationalpermaculture.com. Greg Knibbs has run numerous Accredited Permaculture Courses internationally and regularly conducts courses domestically with permaculture founder, Bill Mollison.

Greg was instrumental in setting up the Philippines Permaculture Institute and played a central role in the development of the Permaculture Network Ghana. Greg has worked with Rotary International in Asia and for a period of six years, he was the primary Permaculture Educator‚ running courses at the Environmental Technology Centre for Sustainable Development at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.

Permaculture is about integrating the natural ecological processes of plants, animals, water, weather and nutrient cycles with human needs to produce sustainble systems for the production of food, energy, shelter and infrastructure.

Permaculture is very much suited to 3rd world subsistence societies and so lends itself perfectly to CA’s objective of sustainability for Rainbow Ridge.

Put simply, with Permaculture, the elements of the system work in tandem such that the outputs of one element become the inputs for others, avoiding waste and maximising resource use. Of course, designing a system to involve all elements working in effective association to create a fully sustainable system involves significant expert knowledge and experience. This is what Greg Knibbs’ team brings to this project.

If we gain your support to fund this project, Greg and his team will spend a month at Rainbow Ridge including the provision of a full two week accredited course to design, work, teach and apply the principles of permaculture with our local team and local village representatives in the initial stage of our village’s construction. In conjunction with advice from our Kenyan sustainability experts, this hands on project/course will design the framework for Rainbow Ridge to work as a truly sustainable village on the principles of Permaculture.

Our longer term objective is to then use this course and further courses as a vocational programme at Rainbow Ridge for our kids and the local poor so that we can share this knowledge and these practices with those that most need them.

JUMP ON BOARD "Be the Building Blocks to create a truly Sustainable Village with CA - Share the Joy" - SPONSOR NOW!!! Please contact john@committeeassist.org if you would like to be part of the Permaculture Challenge.

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As Always, Special Thank You to All from the Kids

To all those that have donated time, money, goods and services - Many thx - "Thanks ALL!!"

Previous News

Jan-May 2009

July-Sept 2008

March-June 2008

Nov-Feb 2008

Aug-Oct 2007

April-July 2007

Jan-March 2007

Oct-Dec 2006

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