Why do i like this project.
I like this project because it gives me energy. In Africa there is a lot of energy. The energy is not always employed that well, and in many cases there is a lot of corruption, barbaric and primitive violence, and many things are done in a different way…. but there is energy, there is strength, there is will power, and determination.
In the West people know about Nelson Mandela, a superior being, whom, with just his own will power and determination and the sacrifice of his own life, has been able to change the face of a country. He is a very big name and thank God, he is now like a big Aura for the world. But there are many Nelson Mandela in Africa, there are many people capable of resisting for so long…….. to try to get to a better life… There are people like Sarah from Nigeria, who managed to survive to the crossing of the desert of Niger (by foot!), Algeria, part of Libia, to be taken then to Algeria and Morocco, having been fooled by those mafias who make them believe that the New World is just a couple of days away from them, and then crossing the ocean on those boats of death, ending up landing in Canary Islands, having gone through hell for 6 years, and still be noble, honest and determined. And you can find people like Mummy ¨Florence, an incredible woman in a Ugandan village, who has the strength to set up a cooperative, taking the head of a group of women who have been left by their husbands, abandoned with their kids, with no money, no food, no studies, no work, and yet she has the idea of creating small businesses and making them create like a solidarity fund, where they meet up every Sunday and commit themselves to bring 2000 shillings, approximately l dollar a week. They started 18. Now they are 27. And on Sundays, each one brings her own 2000 shillings, then they divide the final amount into 2 parts. One half is given to the one who needs it most and the other half is lent for one week, or 2 to another one, and the one who has borrowed the small credit must repay it with 10% increase the following week. And do be able to carry this in the middle of such poverty, is something exceptional. But Mummy Florence, the soul of this cooperative is exceptional. She must be about 50, I don’t know, 40, 45… difficult to say. But she inherits of all the kids who have no parents, of all the kids of her far away cousins who dye of malaria, or of those horrible accidents which kill half the inhabitants there, of the mothers who dye next to her, of the kids who suddenly do not know where to go in that area. And bit by bit, having only 5 children of her own, she ends up with 18! So, in Música para Salvar Vidas we ry to help her in our capacities.
As a matter of fact we have already taken 5 kids out of that small community, and we help as much as possible with little amounts of money. This is why we built a pig sty there, a chicken business, a little shop corner for fruits, vegetables and charcoal, we are trying to build a little bar (it is almost totally set up), still a few things missing. There are also various children here in Las Rozas, who are going to help with the schooling of many of those children. Primary school is, in theory, free in Uganda… National Primary School. In the end, it is not totally free, because the children still need uniform,
And the schools charge money for food at lunch time, plus a few books. The teachers are often missing and they make those kids dig the lands of the school often, or fetch water… or whatever… but, at least there is a minimum teaching. This costs little money, an average of 6 euros a month. I showed the picture of those kids to some children here, in Las Rozas, and it was their initiative to involve themselves to give this money out of their own pocket money.
