May 12th fundraiser a success!!

Hello everyone! We are still floating on air since the two fundraising events held on May 12th at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto! We raised $4500 at the fundraiser, including a donation of $200 from Glenn Street PS from a bake sale that they held for the project! We would like to thank everyone for their generous support - and thank those of you who are still sending in donations.

We would also like to thank Upper Canada College who has contacted us to let us that they have raised an additional $420 from their casual day held last week! Thank you UCC!

If you would like to contribute, we have a couple of options for you:

- you may mail a cheque made payable to Valery Woloshyn to PO Box 632, 31 Adelaide St. E, Toronto, ON  M5C 2J8
- you may send us an email transfer to Love@NjackoBacko.com. Please use the question: Where is the school? And the answer: Bazou

We had a wonderful audience for the afternoon family show. The children (and parents!) were singing, dancing, and playing along for all three performances! Here are a few photos:

Soli & Rob - alistairant.com

Charlie Kert - www.littlefingersmusic.com
You can catch Charlie and the ROCKgarden Party at Fringe!

Njacko Backo presenting African Voyages

Later the same day, we welcomed a full house for the evening concert. There were people who came from near and far...some all the way from Kingston, Maynooth, Brampton, Chatham, Prince Edward County, Montreal, Georgina, Bolton, Mississauga, Oshawa...

The energy for the whole concert was incredible. The audience was dancing right off the bat thanks to the grooves put down by Kome Manu (and Fojeba). When Sahara Sloan took the stage with Justin, she had us all captivated with her angelic voice. Finally, when Afroteque took the stage, the energy shot through the roof and the dancers took to the floor. We will have video footage of the performance in the next few weeks to share, however in the mean time, we hope that you enjoy these few photos:

Val and Njacko welcoming the room full of beautiful supporters

The beautiful supporters!  

Kome Manu - his new CD is available online at CD Baby

Sahara Sloan with Justin

Afroteque with Jane Bunnett

Ngasseu Kamga Sylvie - a HUGE supporter of the project
(she sold $880 of advance tickets for the fundraiser!)

June 15 @ 7pm Celina Carroll will be performing for a music meditation with Shakuhachi (bamboo flute) Master Debbie Danbrook at The Inner Garden at 401 Richmond St. W. Celina will be playing Berimbau and Kalimba. Website

The one and only Jane Bunnett! www.JaneBunnett.com

We will be in touch with the school in the next couple of weeks to finalize plans for this summer's work. We will be constructing and handwashing station and rehabilitating another portion of the school which is shown in the photos below.

Wow! We just heard amazing news from Peguy in Cameroon. The work that we have done here in Canada to raise money to support the improvements at Ecole St. Albert le Grand has inspired others to start contributing to the school! The school now has electricity and two computers! It is beautiful news for us to hear that the generosity that started here in our communities is spreading. And all of it is for the benefit of the children in Bazou. Thank you to everyone for their support, we're really looking forward to coming together with all of you on May 12th at the Gladstone Hotel!


3-5 PM Afternoon Family Fun!
* City Parent Magazine’s 2008 “Toronto’s #1 Children’s Entertainers” SOLI & ROB with ALISTAIR ANT (alistairant.com)
* Ontario Arts Council sponsored educator CHARLIE KERT who will perform interactive songs from his LITTLE FINGERS MUSIC catalog (www.littlefingersmusic.com)* African tales with NJACKO BACKO (English and French)

Tickets are $10/child (adult included)

8:30PM An Evening for Bazou
* Multiple Juno Award winner JANE BUNNETT

* Toronto’s newest Afro fusion band AFROTEQUE - Music from the Sun (featuring Njacko Backo, Altaf Bwana Moto Vellani, Celina Carroll, Maryem Hassam, Rick Lazar, Paul Neufeld, Paco Luviano)
* Up-and-coming opera star SAHARA SLOAN with COLIN DOROSCHUK of Men Without Hats fame, 
* Cameroonian KOME MANU who just released a new album
Tickets are $20 (or pay what you can at the door)

Tickets can be purchased in advance at African Drums & Art Crafts, 618 Dundas St. W
Questions and interview requests can be directed to Love@NjackoBacko.com, 416.836.8951
With thanks to the Gladstone Hotel for their ongoing support!

Welcome aboard students of UCC!

We have just learned that the students of Upper Canada College have decided to donate the funds raised at the Casual Dress Day on May 18th to our project. Thank you so much UCC!!

It is absolutely incredible to have the young people of Toronto working to support the young people in Bazou. Last year the money raised by schools in Ontario was a significant portion of what was invested at St. Albert Le Grand.

Schools that have helped in the past include Albert College, Annunciation Catholic School, Michael Powers Secondary School, Glen St. Public School.

If you or your school would like to get involved to help this year, please get in touch!

Announcing our lineup for May 12th!

Greetings everyone,

We just sent out our first press release this morning, and are really excited to share our line up for our annual fundraiser with you! As was done last year, we are going to have two events on May 12th - there will be an afternoon event with children's entertainment, and an evening concert for all ages. Please check out our poster for our exciting lineup, and stay tuned for more info coming your way in the next month!

Best,
Val and Njacko

Latrines are finished, soccer uniforms delivered & photos are in!

Hello everyone,

We are really happy to share with you some photos to show the finished latrines that were built as part of the 2nd year of the project at École St. Albert Le Grand. The latrines were finished in time for the start of the school year, and include a paved pathway for improved accessibility. A grab bar to improve the accessibility of one of the latrines is planned (it was left out of the original construction). The school also now has a connection to the piped water supply for the village, and the hand washing station can now be constructed.

We're also very excited to share with you that Jules (our project coordinator in Cameroon) has helped to start a parent council at the school who are now becoming more involved in the school community and in our project. We're really happy that this group has formed and look forward to working with them for the rest of the project.

We were fortunate this year that the exchange rate worked in our favour and we were able to realize this phase of the project under budget. Because of that, we were able to purchase soccer uniforms for the school and are thankful that our friend Jacques Yams was able to visit the school on a recent trip to see his family in Cameroon. The uniforms and soccer ball were really well received by the children!

Here are some photos taken by Jules during construction and when Jacques went to visit the school a couple of weeks ago (October 2011).

Please remember that our third annual fundraiser will be taking place on May 12, 2012. Don't forget to mark your calendars!

Construction has started on the new latrines

Hello everyone,

We are very happy to announce that the first donation for this year's main project has reached Bazou, and work on the new latrines has begun. Below is a glimpse of the work that is already in progress. You can see from the video that this is not easy work! Thank you again to everyone for your ongoing support. We will be in touch soon with another update.

Blessings,
Njacko and Valery

A pleasant surprise!

We would like to sincerely thank the staff and students at Albert College in Belleville and Annunciation Catholic School in Toronto who have done their own fundraising to contribute to the projects at St. Albert Le Grand! Between these two schools, they have raised about another $1500! This will allow St. Albert Le Grand to expand the project for this year. We are still in the planning stages, and will post again when we have heard from the school about their project plan.

Peguy has sent us the photo below to show the current condition of the latrines at the school. As you can see, there is a lot of room for improvement to have safe and clean latrines for the staff and students. We were performing at a fundraiser recently for the U of T Cameroon Working Group of the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation, and had a discussion with Dr. Lynn Cockburn about the importance of making the new latrines accessible. We will work with the school to ensure that there is an accessible latrine for any staff or students who have special needs.

Thank you for your continued support and generosity. We are really excited about the work that is to be done this summer in Bazou!