 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
  |
Diary - Monday, September 6, 2004Well, greetings once again everyone. Both Pat and I hope that you are all well and if you are in Victoria, like we are, that you are enjoying these beautiful autumn days we have been having lately. Pat and I have been extremely busy since our return in mid July and other than a few days of R and R up near Port Alberni, it seems that most every day has been scheduled with some sort of activity. We are planning two major fund raising events. On the 18th of this month we are hosting an evening of music at the Six Mile Pub in Colwood. David Wong and his business associate Ed Ng have, once again, offered their premises to us to use as a venue for this evening. We can't say enough about these two men. They have huge compassionate hearts and we appreciate their generosity so much. Thank you David and Ed!! The event promises to be a memorable one. Not only do we have some great door prizes but we are fortunate to have a couple of fabulous bands that will be playing throughout the night. Bryden Street House Party is a new band out of Victoria who have promised to keep everyone up and on the dance floor. Our man Kent, at emotionmediagroup.com is the saxophone player in this group and he tells me they play R and B and lot's of old classic numbers like Black Magic Woman etc. The other group is called Jambanja, another high-energy band from Victoria, playing African style music with marimbas and lots of percussion. Two of the band members are from Zimbabwe so much of their music will have been influenced by their traditional roots from that part of Africa. We are really looking forward to hearing them. The music will start at 9:00pm but everyone is invited to come out earlier to sample some of the 6 Mile's fabulous food, have a drink and catch up with old friends and family. The other event will be on October 6th at Ginger 62, 1219 Granville Street in Vancouver. Fawn Seeton has almost single handedly put this show together with a couple of her friends in Vancouver. Fawn is like our daughter. We have known her since she was just a babe and we are so grateful for all that she has done to help out HABS. Simply an amazing young woman!! Thank you Fawn!!!! This evening will be a mixed bag of music, fashion show, door prizes etc. The gathering will run from 7-10pm. We hope as many of you as possible will come out to enjoy what we think will be two wonderful nights of positive energy and heartfelt connections and all for such a good cause. So what's in store for the next year? Well, Pat and I are planning to be back in Jambiani by the middle of October and at this point, it looks like we will be staying on for 12 months this time. We've got a busy year lined up and we want to be there to keep the momentum going. We will be visiting St. Aubyn's school again in the UK on our way to Zanzibar. They have raised some funds to help with the school in Jambiani so we will give a small presentation to the student body updating them on what has transpired since our last visit. Our next volunteer will arrive in November. Dr Lezlee Drezler is a Chiropractor from Ontario and we are really looking forward to welcoming her. One of our former volunteers, Dr Stan Marcus knows Lezlee well and he tells us that she is a very successful practitioner, highly energetic and with lots of wonderful skills to offer our patients. Thank you Dr Drezler for your commitment to helping people in need. We still have a couple of openings for volunteers in June/July 2005 and September 2005 but otherwise we are completely booked out for 2005 and up to April 2006. On the funding front, we are in the process of attempting to get charitable status designation so that we can issue receipts for tax purposes. We are confident that we will achieve this, however it is a slow and tedious process and can take from 8 to 18 months to complete. We will keep you posted as things progress there. Our dear friends Ocke and Norma Shuttevaer and especially Ocke have been very busy canvassing friends and businesses in Europe and have raised enough funds to enable us to complete some badly needed capital expenditures. This will include putting screens on the clinic windows and tiling the floors, finishing work in the clinic bathroom, completing work on the perimeter gates and walls, renovating the clinic to make room for the establishment of a medical treatment facility and also carrying out some badly needed maintenance on our water tower. We also hope to install a wireless internet connection soon after we return. This will make such a difference to us and the patients we look after as not only will we be able to reply to inquiries regularly but we will also be able to access information with respect to treatment protocols for various types of problems that we see in the clinic. What a wonderful gift. Both Pat and I are really looking forward to this next year. It will be a challenging one we are certain but hopefully rewarding none the less. On a more serious note, you may remember that I mentioned previously we have a dear friend Mustafa, who is in desperate need of open-heart surgery to repair two septal defects that he has had since birth. His condition continues to deteriorate and it is certain that he will die if he does not get this procedure. It seems the government is unable to help him so Pat and I will be ensuring that he gets to India for this procedure as soon as possible after we return. Quite frankly, we do not have the $9000US that will be required to take him there, so we will make a public appeal for help while we are here and if necessary, we will borrow the money to pay for this. Any help would be much appreciated and we will keep you up to date on this as events unfold. I will try to get back into a more regular routine with these updates now. Thank you everyone for your interest, love and support. We continue to remain positive and focused on the upcoming work at hand and we are certain this next year will see tremendous advancements in our potential to help the people of Jambiani and of Zanzibar. Hope to see many of you at one or both of our fundraisers and
until the next time, much love to all of you from Pat and I here
in beautiful Victoria.  |