education saves lives - it's simple
October News
Make a Difference Day 2008
As in the past couple of years TME took part in Warwick University’s ‘Make a Difference Day’ - where students come together on a set day to work on a project to really try and make a difference.
Last year we were very pleased to end up with 7 Chinese Mandarin translations of our lesson scripts from the day - a target we were hoping to beat this year.
So at 10am on Saturday 25th October, while most of the campus was still looking decidedly sleepy, we were met by some enthusiastic faces, ready and willing to help us make a success of the day. And a success it most certainly was! We surpassed all our expectations by gathering 10 Mandarin translations, 1 French translation and 4 Mandarin recordings (the scripts for 2 of these recorded lessons having been translated earlier in the day) - a fantastic result!
Many thanks to all the students who took part - and especially to Samantha, our student representative on campus, who organised the day.
Students working in groups to translate lesson scripts.
Richard Golding reports back from Uganda Lodge
A new supporter introduced to us by Emma (Office Manager) has flown to Uganda for three months, at his own expense, with the intention of working for one of our partners, Uganda Lodge, and recording lessons for TME.
Our latest update suggests he has already recorded a sizable amount of lessons in Runyankole; Keep up the good work Richard!
Richard Golding
Bev recently attended a meeting of Global Links Initiative (GLI) Networkers in London, regarding development in China!
New links in Nigeria
Steve visited Nigeria along with TME trustee Olu Olasode in connection with Olu's business TL First. Of course whilst there Steve forged new links with community groups with a view to creating new partnerships to use TME lessons. He attended an evening reception hosted by the German Ambassador where he was able to meet representatives of various groups including one dedicated to helping vulnerable women. We aim to have our four HIV lessons translated and recorded in the three major Nigerian languages of Ibo, Hausa and Yoruba by the end of the year.
Libby and the meeting with people from Lady Doak College
Steve and Bev were able to meet with Professor Dr Christopher Daniel and his wife Mrs Kalaneethy Christopher both from Madurai in Southern India. Kala is the deputy principle of Lady Doak College in Madurai which has translated 20 of our English scripts into the local language of Tamil. Lady Doak students are also using the DVDs in an outreach programme to nearby villages. Professor Christopher is an academic turned practitioner who works with a number of social enterprises and is keen to scale up the use of our discs through the "Goodwill Social Work Centre" which he founded. The meeting was arranged and brokered by Libby Brayshaw of Global Links Initiative who are becoming increasingly important partners.
Clive of India
By a strange co-incidence, Associate Clive Dove-Dixon was visiting Lady Doak college for us at the very same time Professor Christopher and his wife were here. Clive had taken advantage of his brother being an international airline pilot to fly with him to view the projects. He reports great excitement at the possibilities with our growing set of Tamil discs.
Nick Middleton
Associate Nick Middleton from Leamington Spa has had several meetings with us to look at the use of the internet in developing our work. We are keen to use the power of this international resource to access the language skills of people around the world.
Panasonic support
As reported before, Panasonic have seconded two "High Flyers" from their staff to work with us for 12 days in the period leading up to Christmas. Rafal is from Poland and is working on a programme to market and distribute our discs in South Africa. Kerstin is working in Spain and is doing the same thing for India. Both have started to segment the market (ie divide it up into manageable chunks) and identify ways in which each segment can be accessed. Kirsten visited our Leamington office briefly on her way to meetings with Panasonic in Bracknell and Rafal is in touch via telephone conference calls. By December we hope to have identified ways to progress our plans in both countries.