Summer 2013 Project Update

Hello everyone!

First off, we'd like to apologize for taking so long before posting this update. But, we have a wonderful reason for being away from the computer recently. We just welcomed the newest member of our family into the world on August 11, 2013. If you would like to hear more about baby Nkoni, please have a look here.

This summer's project has gone very well indeed. We have received many photos from Peguy, and we share those with you below. The last time we heard from Peguy, the finishing touches on the school were on hold until the rain stopped, so we expect some final photos of the finished work any day now. The upgrades this summer rehabilitated the remaining school buildings for the main school site. We're really impressed with the quality of work! They were able to accomplish a lot thanks to your generous support!

Also, later this month we will be talking with the school about getting their small business started. We had a very successful Indiegogo Campaign, and although we didn't raise the full amount, together we raised enough to give the small business a great start.

You'll hear more from us later this month. Until then...

Njacko and Val

Funds are being dispatched this week! 5 more days for Indiegogo Campaign

Hello again everyone!

Wow, what an amazing week we've had with the Indiegogo campaign! When we checked this evening, we have received $2,125 in donations from 31 different people! Not only that, we're told that the campaign has been viewed 397 times so far. Amazing! Thank you to everyone who is donating, and everyone who is helping us spread the word. We're getting closer and closer to our goal of $6,915 - there are still 5 days remaining in the campaign, please continue to help us spread the word!

We also just heard from another school - Our Lady of Providence - that they have completed a fundraiser and are getting ready to send in their donation. This will add to the $2,800 collected so far from the May 11th fundraiser!

We have been in touch with St. Albert Le Grand, and will be sending the school the first 750,000 CFA (about $1,575 CDN) to get this year's project under way. The focus this year will be to continue (and hopefully complete) the rehabilitation of the school buildings on the main school site (some photos of the buildings that are going to be rehabilitated are provided below).

We look forward to providing you updates this summer as the project progresses! We'll also be providing an update for you in July to report out on how the Indiegogo campaign finished.

We hope that you are all having an enjoyable summer!

Blessings,
Njacko and Val

Thank you for your incredible support on May 11th & beyond!

Wow, we had a wonderful time with everyone who came out on May 11th to the Gladstone Hotel to support Ecole St. Albert Le Grand! We collected an amazing $2,000 from advance tickets and donations at the door from both events, and have about another $1,000 pledged which we hope to collect by the end of June! We would like to give a special thank you to the staff and students at Upper Canada College and Glenn Street School who have continued to support this project through their own fundraisers!

Here is a video from May 11th with some highlights from the incredible performances by Soli and Rob, Naomi Tyrrell, Njacko Backo, The Reel Bulgars, Eh?!, and Mother Tongue.

We will be in touch with Ecole St. Albert Le Grand later in June to finalize the plans for the project that will take place this summer. We will be working to rehabilitate more of the school buildings (hopefully we will complete the rehabilitation for the rest on the main school site!). We'll be sure to post photos of the progress.

In addition to the fundraiser that we held on May 11th, we are also running an online fundraising campaign through Indiegogo - together so far we have raised $855 of our $6,915 goal! We have 23 days left to continue raising funds, and would really appreciate your support - either financially or by helping us to spread the word. If you visit our Indiegogo campaign page (igg.me/at/BazouSchool), you will find all of the information about how this money will be used to assist Ecole St. Albert Le Grand with starting a new small business. You can choose to donate any amount that you wish, or select one of the donation levels that have exciting perks like...

• a thank you card from students at Ecole St. Albert Le Grand, 
• a video of the students singing you a personalized thank you song, 
• an invitation to a thank you dinner party at our place in Toronto, 
• or a private performance by the one and only Njacko Backo!

We appreciate your support and encourage you to share the Indiegogo campaign with your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours. There are sharing tools provided on the Indiegogo page which make it easy to forward using email or using social media tools. The short link for the website is igg.me/at/BazouSchool

Together, we are making a huge difference for the children in Bazou! Our vision is to assist the school to be come financially independent by the end of our 5 year partnership so that they can continue to maintain the school infrastructure without increasing school fees.

We are now LIVE on Indiegogo!

Hello everyone!

We have exciting news. Not only are we just one week away from our annual fundraiser at the Gladstone Hotel (the two shows are going to be AMAZING! All the details are included in our last post), but we just launched our first ever Indiegogo campaign!

Indiegogo is an online crowd funding site that allows us to share our project at Ecole St. Albert Le Grand with the whole wide world and provides an easy way for folks to contribute online.

We have set a goal of $6,915 for our Indiegogo campaign, which is how much we estimate is needed to help the school start their own small business. Interested in finding out more? Please visit our Indiegogo site at igg.me/at/BazouSchool - the video below will also introduce you to the campaign.

We would really appreciate it if you could help us spread the news by sharing this news with your family, friends, colleagues, neighbours...the more the merrier! Every bit helps!

 

May 11 Fundraiser Details

Hello everyone!

We have finalized the lineup for the fundraiser on May 11th, and are excited to share it with you. The Gladstone Hotel has graciously offered to host the fundraiser again this year - thank you Gladstone!

An Evening For Bazou will start at 8:30pm, will be hosted by our talented MC's Luther Hansraj and Jacques Yams and will include the following fabulous performers:

Mother Tongue - Musical influences from around the globe are fused into the inspired sounds of the band Mother Tongue, the recipients of "Music Africa" awards as "Best Pan African Band" in 1994 and "Best African Band" in 1995 and nominated for a Juno Award in 1994 for their album Enat.  Get ready to dance to the infectious rhythms of Mother Tongue! The band is represented by Celina Carroll, Carlo Cesta, Rachel Melas, Conny Nowe, Yared Tesfaye, Maryem Hassan-Tollar and Chip Yarwood.

Eh?! - A new collaborative fiddle-based trio of Emilyn Stam, Anne Lederman and James Stephens. Eh?! combines an unparalleled depth of knowledge of traditional Canadian music from throughout the country with innovative original expression. Dedicated to exploring the myriad pathways between the old and the new, EH?! brings together veteran and young musicians in creative exploration. All three core members of Eh?! sing and play several instruments: voices, piano, mandolin, guitar, feet, percussion and accordion all weave their way through an Eh?! experience. 

The Reel Bulgars - The Reel Bulgars started in 2011 as the brain child of a small group of parents with musical kids who wanted to provide a musical outlet outside of school ensembles and education programs. The group meets weekly and all the musicians are encouraged to contribute repertoire. Arrangements are created sometimes as written out pieces and sometimes as a group effort in rehearsal. The current repertoire includes traditional Irish, French and Klezmer tunes. 

Afternoon Family Fun will take place between 3-5pm and will feature children's performances by the following talented artists:

Soli & Rob - Touted by Amy Verner in TORONTO LIFE magazine as one of the “biggest names in pint-sized entertainment,” Soli & Rob have written & performed 4 Alistair Ant shows, each one a captivating blend of puppetry, acting, dancing & original music. “Bigger the Better, said Alistair Ant!”, in which Alistair laments his smallness, broke KidsVenue audience attendance records at the 2002 TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL. Soli & Rob’s entry in the 2004 Fringe Fest, “Double Trouble for Alistair Ant” was selected as a critic’s pick by the TORONTO STAR.

Naomi Tyrrell - Naomi Tyrrell has performed in very cool places like China, Japan, Yugoslavia and off Broadway New York.
She plans to help Njacko teach story telling through Mime, Mask and Music to folks in his home town in Africa.
 For this special fundraiser Naomi is bringing her most favourite wild and wonderful characters. Get ready to sing, sign and laugh your way through a world of fun.
Howl with Gramps, yodel with Gretchen and wrap it all up with Red Dog Rapper.

Njacko Backo - Story and music time with the energetic and engaging Njacko Backo!

Below you will find the posters (French and English) - please share with your friends and family!

 

New video! Mini-documentary for the project

Hello everyone!

We are really excited to share with you a new mini-documentary about the project for St. Albert Le Grade. Our friend Kelly O'Dette made it for us, and we are really grateful for her skills! We also thank Ngasseu Kamga and Jacques Yamdjie for volunteering to be interviewed for the video - their support over the years has been solid and very valuable!

Please have a look:



We also have other videos that have arrived from Peguy in Cameroon that we will share with you soon. He was able to create DVDs and give them to our friend Jacques Yamdjie, so the quality of these videos is much nicer than the ones we have posted before. Thank you Peguy!!

Blessings to you all,
Njacko and Val

2012 Project Update - Remarkable Progress!

Wow, we have had our socks knocked off with the latest photos that Peguy has sent us from Bazou. There has been incredible progress made this year, and the 2012 project is almost finished! And we have more good news - the school and the parent council have worked together to come up with an initiative that will help the school generate more income without raising school fees. More on that below, first here are the photos.

These first photos show the portions of the school before this summer's rehabilitation work.

There has been a lot of work done already this summer, and everything should be ready in time for the new school year. Here are some photos of the work being done. The first photos show the building rehabilitation.

Those of you who have been following the projects know that last year we constructed new latrines for the school. We also connected a water supply (which you can see in the 8th photo above, counting up), and this year they are constructing the handwashing station!

One last finishing touch to the latrines - a grab bar is being installed to make the latrine accessible.

As mentioned above, the school and parent council have come up with a way that we can help them become more financially secure. They have asked us to help them buy a tent, generator, sound system, and chairs so that they can rent this equipment to folks in the community for different funerals and celebrations. We know from first hand experience when we were in Bazou in 2009 for Njacko's parents' funeral that it can be quite challenging to find all of these things when you are planning your event. It can take a lot of work and time to pull all of this equipment together. Almost every weekend in Bazou there will be a different funeral or celebration, and we are really impressed with the school's idea. For our fundraiser this year (May 11, 2013), some of the funds we raise will be going towards this initiative as well as further improvements to the school. Our goal is to have all of the equipment purchased by the end of the five years and to work with the school to help them develop their business plan.

 All of this work and progress wouldn't be possible without all of your support, the support of various schools here in Ontario who have been doing their own fundraising, the support of all of the artists who have been generously giving their time and talents at our fundraisers, and the Gladstone Hotel. On behalf of the students and school in Bazou, we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

Blessings,
Njacko and Val