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Rug Aid's aim is to provide opportunities for women and children in some of the poorest communities in Africa 
No. 37 March 2016
 
Hello!

It's been a busy few months since we last wrote to you. Some of you may be aware that Heather is President of TIGHR* for the term 2016-2018. That will keep her and the Rug Aid secretary and newsletter editor Lesley busy, but Heather will never be too busy for Rug Aid!

Heather visited the Rug Aid workshop in The Gambia in February 2016, and this is her report.


This trip, Chrissie and I decided to take her partner Dave with us. An extra luggage carrier was required as we had a collection of white canes which were desperately needed, a stock of leaflets to go into the hotels, a stack of baby clothes donated by Pamela Bolam and her friends, loads of football shirts and, last but not least, a batch of special hooks. My husband Les makes hooks with holes which he threads with laces so that blind rugmakers can hang their hooks round their necks and not lose them. We also planned on Dave painting the outside of the workshop. It was a short trip this time, just ten days, so we had a great deal of work to accomplish and I was not really sure that we would manage.
Below, back left to front right: Chrissie, Ansiman, Cherno, workshop co-ordinator Ernest, Heather, Dave, volunteer and tuk-tuk driver Bob

On the first day, we went straight to the workshop. It is always a thrill to see everyone and it was a full house, a wonderful welcome. It had been a whole year since our last visit as we had not had the funds previously. On this trip we needed to pay the last installment of the lease on the Rug Aid workshop building. Our thanks go to the Friends of the Children of GOVI for their very welcome donation towards the rent. [A note from David Pointon and Pip Land of the Friends of the Children of GOVI appears below.] We also needed supplies for the decorating and we had the year’s bills to pay for electricity and water.
We brought with us a special gold long cane for Isatu as she had fallen and knocked out her front teeth. She refuses to use a white cane as she is very proud and doesn’t want anyone to know she is blind. She promised Chrissie she would use her new glitzy cane from now on. We are all hoping it will save her from having any more accidents. A very kind Rug Aid supporter had read about Isatu’s situation, about her not being able to afford to go to the dentist. He sent a message saying he would pay the bill if we got her there. We were all so thrilled and grateful and an appointment was made immediately. What a great start to our trip!

Dave, who was working with Ansiman, a visually impaired helper, started work on the building, scraping off the old paint and filling in the holes.

The next day Chrissie and Dave went off to the market to buy fabrics with money donated by Margaret Hayden and her sister Liz Cook and I spent a few hours in my hotel room cutting it up for the rugs so it could be shared out.
Below; A wonderful array of African cotton fabrics and one very happy Heather! Thank you, Margaret and Liz.
We had also been given some football shirts by Acklam Children’s Day Nursery in Middlesbrough. We had a lot of fun handing them out to the children. They had never had a proper football strip before and they were thrilled, even if the kit didn’t have The GOVI School printed on it. The blind students play a version of football called goalball and they listen to the ball which has a bell inside. We had enough shirts to give some to our rugmaking students as well.

Dave had to take another trip out to buy the paint as the preparatory work on the building was now complete. Rug Aid’s wonderful volunteer Bob arrived in the tuk-tuk to do the shopping with Dave. Before they set off, we decided on a colour scheme of bright orange and purple. Those are the colours used on the Rug Aid brochure but, more importantly, they are also colours that people with a little vision might be able to see. It was all getting very exciting.
Below: doesn't the new colour scheme look fantastic?

We had a meeting with the Govi board at which we signed the lease document. The next day I drew patterns, hemmed hessian backing and checked all the rugs in stock. I also started a new blind student, Mikey. I was really struggling to get the message across so I passed the job on to Babacou who is totally blind. It’s wonderful to know that blind people can now teach other blind people to make rugs!
Below: Babacou (left) teaches Mikey (right) the basics of rugmaking

I blew lots of balloons up and tied them all over the tree outside the workshop. It looked beautiful, letting everyone know we were in residence and working. Well, thirty minutes later I went outside and not one balloon was left – the children had run off with them all! 
One of the highlights of this trip – and there were many – was a visitor to the school, a music teacher from Canada called Justin. The children call him Justice and he is a teacher of the deaf, working in St Joseph’s school, just down the road. He had come to give the blind children a music lesson. When we heard him singing we realized he had a wonderful voice so we had to investigate! We always love hearing the children sing. Justin told us he was a volunteer, giving up his teaching job in Canada to help the children in Gambia for two years. He was thrilled to meet up and have a conversation with us Europeans. He and Chrissie had a great time comparing notes and ideas about the differences between teaching deaf and blind students. He was putting together a concert, shortly after we left, in which the deaf children would sign and the blind children would sing. We were sorry to miss it and we really were not ready to come home after this trip. [Editor's note: Justin has generously said we can use his words and photos in Rug Aid newsletters. You'll find some below.]

Another thrill was when Chrissie met her namesake, Ernest and Jainaba’s little girl who they named Chrissie after her. Dave worked outside all week in soaring temperatures: unusually for the winter months, it was in the 40s. He finished work the day before we came home. We understand Isatu has her new teeth now and she is smiling for the first time since her fall, one happy girl.

*TIGHR is The International Guild of Handhooking Rugmakers: visit their website at tighr.net for more information. The 2018 Triennial meeting will be based in Heather's home town of Reeth, North Yorkshire.


Workshop co-ordinator Ernest Faal's report 2015 to 2016

This is the first time we have received a report of the activities undertaken at and on behalf of the workshop while Heather is not in The Gambia, and it makes very encouraging reading. It has always been our goal that, as well as using the workshop, many of the Rug Aid-trained rugmakers would work in their own homes/time and sell their work independently. We hope that this is starting to happen but it is beyond Ernest's ability, in his role as the visually impaired co-ordinator of the workshop, to record such activities.
Throughout the period Ernest is reporting on, providing breakfast, lunch and transport to fairs for Rug Aid participants cost one hundred Dalasi (D100) a day for each rugmaker, about £1.65 or $US2.35.


2015
March: Attended Trade Fair for 14 days. 27 Rug Aid students attended. Sold 37 rugs. Met Indian High Commissioner and other dignitaries that raised the profile of Rug Aid. Because of the success of the Trade Fair, it was extended for another week. Met Amana who wanted training for sighted people but I said this is not possible.
April: D1200 donation received from the Tuesday Club, a club of 24 white women. Colours Auction attended. Met many Europeans. Sold 12 rugs.
May: Two one-day workshops for 15 students
June: No activities this month
July: Went to Senegambia Craft Market to sell rugs. Funding the transport was a problem and selling was poor as it was off tourist season. Sold 5 rugs.
August: Annual holidays and rainy season.
September: Repairs to the roof, windows and doors of the workshop. Fitted new curtains.
October: Two one-day workshops with 20 students. 15 rugs made. Sold 5 at School Art Gallery.
November: Heather sent out donated second-hand clothes, shoes, two Braille watches and white canes, which arrived this month.
December: Met Paul and Anne [who paid for the container which included the previous month's donations]. They donated the second-hand clothes which were distributed to the needy, along with the white canes. On 19th December, started attending the Trade Fair for three weeks, sponsored by GCCI. This time the event was poorly attended and businesses was slow. Sold 17 rugs.
2016
January: Trade Fair finished on 10th January. Started a workshop.
February: Planning and workshop. Planning to attend Colours Auction (17th February) and Senegambia Craft Market to sell rugs. Made 20 rugs in the workshop.

Total rugs sold 2014-15: 45
Total rugs sold 2015-16: 76, an increase of 31.

Signed: Ernest Faal, Workshop Co-ordinator
 

Edited extracts from Justin's blog about his experiences in The Gambia

Justin wrote about starting work at St Joseph's School for the Deaf and about visiting the GOVI School. He was shown around by 'the principal, a man in his 30s named Ali who is not visually impaired.' His first visit to the Rug Aid workshop was very brief.
Ali took me to a small building, which is used as a place for blind men and women to make and sell specially sewn bags and rugs. The materials and expertise had been donated by a woman from the UK who runs an organization called Rug Aid. The bags and rugs were very beautiful and colorful and I ended up buying one of the bags for only $5.
Below: Ernest in the Rug Aid workshop. Photo by Justin Anantawan.

A few days later Ernest took Justin to visit some of the Rug Aid trainees and other GOVI workers at home. It is interesting to hear an outsider's view of blindness in The Gambia.
I met with Ernest at the Rug Aid building at 2:00. Wearing his trademark sunglasses and smiling with his slightly blackened teeth (it is hard for most Gambians to afford dental work), he welcomed me warmly. He told me the plan for the afternoon, to visit three compounds, and said that Isatu, the other rug maker who had gotten her teeth knocked out because she was not using a cane and another partially sighted man, would be coming with us.  We would be travelling in the school bus with the students. I was excited to go.
We left the GOVI school around 2:30. I do not know why but bus rides always make me sleepy and I have a terrible habit of dozing off. I fell asleep during the journey and almost missed the stop where Ernest got off because he did not see that I was asleep.
Holding hands, we navigated our way from the main road to one of the side roads to visit the first compound. The whole way there locals were watching us, wondering what a Chinese guy was doing walking around with a bunch of blind people.
At the first compound I met three blind people, Fanna, Musa and Afamsa. Fanna, who is in her 50s, and Musa, who is in his 60s, have been married for about 30 years.  Some years ago, they adopted Afamsa, a young blind woman who, when she was a little girl, had been left by her parents to live with dogs. They were sitting quietly at the front of their house when I arrived.
I talked to Fanna first. She explained that she became blind when she was 17 following an illness. She told me that, although she is blind, she is grateful for at least being independent. She is more or less able to take care of herself, though the lack of work for blind people has forced her to beg for money during the day.
I then talked to Musa, who is a spokesperson for GOVI, the Gambian Organization for the Visually Impaired. He told me that he was born with congenital glaucoma and was abandoned by his parents to live with relatives because they could not accept that he was blind. In the Gambia men are allowed to have more than one wife and Musa introduced me to his second wife, a younger woman who is sighted. I asked her why she was not afraid to marry him, considering that blindness is stigmatized here in the Gambia. She explained that her parents were also blind so she was not afraid of the condition.
I asked Musa what he believed needed to change in the Gambia in order for life for blind people to improve. He answered that more people need to become aware of what it really means to be blind, to learn to respect blind people and to provide more work opportunities for them.
It felt good to see that Musa, who had been abandoned by his parents, now had a family who loved him. The grandchildren seemed very happy to be around him, to hold his hand and cuddle him.
Below: Musa with three of his grandchildren. Photo by Justin Anantawan.

After this visit, Ernest took me to a compound belonging to Mamut, a blind man in his 60s.  Mamut is the basket weaving teacher at GOVI school. He is married to a blind woman, also named Fanna, who is in her 60s and he has a second younger wife who is sighted. I asked the second wife why she chose to marry him and she explained, quite simply, that despite his blindness he was still a good man. They actually held hands and cuddled a little, displaying affection that I rarely see in the Gambia. It was nice.
Mamut was not as affectionate with Fanna, but he still seemed to respect her. Like the other Fanna, she also begs.
I was curious about how blind people fall in love since they cannot see each other so I asked them how they did. They laughed and shyly answered that they asked their sighted family members how each other looked.
 
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Donations received and other news

The photo above shows Ernest with Isatu (before her teeth were fixed) and Musa
 

Message from the charity Friends of Visually Impaired Children in The Gambia

The charity, Friends of Visually Impaired Children in the Gambia, is now in the process of closing down because the job is done and the Gambian Government has taken over looking after the school for the blind at GOVI Resource Centre.
We are pleased to see how Rug Aid has progressed since we introduced Heather to the Gambia and GOVI (the Gambian Organisation for the Visually Impaired). It is especially pleasing to see the great progress that visually impaired and blind women have made since Rug Aid has given them the opportunity to become self-sufficient, with all the major implications that has for their sense of self confidence and dignity, and also the way that handicapped people are regarded in general.
We were pleased to be able to transfer some funds from the Friends of Visually Impaired Children in the Gambia to Rug Aid to complete the payments on the lease on the building at the GOVI Resource Centre and so help to provide a good centre of Rug Aid’s work there.
David Pointon and Pip Land

The board of Rug Aid would like to say a very big Thank you  to David, Pip and the other members of the Friends for their support and for this marvellous donation. The connection between Rug Aid and Friends of GOVI started before 2007 when the workshop was established. For more information about the charity's closure, visit their website, www.friendsofgovi.org.uk
 

Clayport Matters

The Clayport Matters rugmaking group, which meets in Durham City's fine Clayport library every Monday, have a sales table every week. Members bring items they no longer require and another member will make a donation to Rug Aid for it. This small-but-often approach meant that they sent us a cheque for £250 in January, for which we are very grateful.
Thank you, everyone!
The photo above shows Heather modelling a dress which the Toure family (represented here by Jainaba) gave to Chrissie. Isn't it beautiful?

International Women's Day 2016

We are grateful to the SI Richmond and Dales branch of Soroptomists International who invited Heather to talk to them on International Women's Day 2016. She has spoken to the group before and they are very interested in the work Rug Aid is doing.
 

Pass it on!

Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to someone else if you think they would find it interesting. They can subscribe, if they choose to do so, by clicking the link 'update subscription preferences' at the foot of the page and entering their details. And remember that you can change the email address that your copy is sent to - just click on that same link. Thank you!
 

And, finally...

You can make a donation to Rug Aid in any currency through our website www.rug-aid.org where you'll find a lot more information about Heather and rug making.

You can send a cheque (Sterling only, please, payable to Rug Aid) to Rug Aid's registered office, Greencroft, Reeth, North Yorkshire DL11 6QT

You can ring Rug Aid on +44 (0)1748 884435 or send an email to heather@rug-aid.org

Copyright © 2016 Rug-Aid cic, All rights reserved.