As you may have heard I am cutting my lovely hair for charity, I am not brave enough to have it shaved but I guarantee you that it will be really short! This is not a joke; I am doing it for Lynking the Worlds Together; project Mali an important cause supported by the charity, Lynk Reach.

Project Mali directly supports Tagouft, a village across the Niger from Timbuktu, north of Mali, on the southern edge of the Sahara. Tagouft is an area badly affected by droughts. Lynking the Worlds Together, was founded in Tony Finch’s memory and the phrase Lynking the Worlds Together was coined by him to support deprived communities abroad. Initially Tony’s family and friends, with Peter and Raymonde at the heart of this, collected £6500 upon is sudden and untimely death in February 2007. The funds were spent on a Friendship Well built in his name in partnership with the twin Town of Hay on Wye.

Every penny was spent on the project with Lynk Reach volunteering admin costs free of charge. The plaque was paid for separately by Fahro Malik. The villagers also contributed by making wonderful hand crafted silver jewellery and they provided their labour free of charge. This was a true partnership with the village of Tagouft. The £2000 left over plus a cash contribution of £5000 by Fahro Malik provided the funds for a school to be built a school was built and opened in October 2007. This school is attended by a hundred children and is now recognised by the government of Mali who provide and pay for the teacher.

This work by Lynking the Worlds Together is close to my heart and having met and spoken to Mohamed Alher ag Almihidi, the Touareg chief, after the digging of the well and the erection of the school, I have been told first hand of the benefits to all of the villagers and seen the footage. The villagers are now trying to purchase a vacuum water pump for their well and the entire money will be used towards funding the water pump. Any extra donations will go towards the health centre, which is the next project so I would really appreciate your sponsorship however large or small the amount it as it is all going to a great cause.

The support from Lynking the Worlds Together for the village of Tagouft is used wisely with the villagers contributing in many ways to ensure that the money goes as far as possible. The villagers create their own jewellery and crafts, which they sell to help fund the development of their village and they also contribute labour wherever possible. It is for this reason and with the direct contribution from Lynking the Worlds Together by Lynk Reach ensuring that there are no costs for administration involved, that Tagouft has been able to see such great changes in a matter of just a few years.

With your support, we can help to continue improving the lives of the Tagouft villagers. To sponsor me please give me the money in cash (in an envelope if you'd like) or contact me on 078 8884 9690 so that I can give you my account number (use reference MALI when you transfer money). You might ask why cash or money in my account? Having researched lots of different organisations that provide a service to gather sponsorship money I realised that they charge the charity (Lynk Reach) a registration fee and they take a reasonable cut of the money. We want to avoid this in order to ensure that the maximum amount of money (i.e. the entire amount of sponsorship) goes directly to the cause.

For peace of mind, I will be publishing a list of names and amounts donated so that you can see how much has been raised and to feel confident that your money has gone directly to the cause, however if you want your name to be anonymised, this can be arranged and you will be given an unidentifiable number.

To keep up to date with the progress of my hair-cutting venture please visit my dedicated page www.tuitiontree.co.uk/roo.

In this project Lynk Reach, Tuition Tree and KCLES are supporting Roo.

To find out more information about the project, please click here or feel free to contact me by email or phone.

Fahro,

Thought I’d drop you a quick line to say hello and report on the week with the Brits. I’ve, as usual, had a wonderful time. Kellyann, Aisha, and Grace have been staying with me. All three are lovely, but I haven’t had enough time to really get to know the girls because of their busy schedule. When they get home they are exhausted and need their sleep. However, today is a free day for the kids and the going away party is tonight so it will be a bit more relaxing and we should have time to catch up. I have them all tomorrow morning too, so I’m hoping for some quality conversation time.

The performances from all of the kids last night were outstanding. The British kids did just great and their pieces were well received. They seemed to be proud of their performances as they should be. They were really terrific yesterday during the OPRF library performances and question/answer sessions. They had to field some deep and interesting questions and did so like pros.

You, of course, will be hearing all the details from the group when they return, but from my point of view, this has been a really successful trip. I have a few suggestions for next year , including some home cooked meals at my house so they don’t have to eat out all of the time, and since I’ll be retired, I can help with some of the planning so Pete doesn’t have to do it all. He does an incredible job, but I know it is exhausting and I’d really like to be more involved. I just think this exchange is changing and enriching the lives of so many people. I’m proud to be a small part of it.

I’ll be in London this coming August. My daughter-in-law’s sister is getting married so I’m coming over for the wedding. I hope we can spend a day together. My last London Day with you was most extraordinary. I think about it often. I’m also hoping to see Kelly and meet some of her family. We’ve shared so many teaching experiences and I’ve learned quite a lot from her.

Hope all is well with you.

Pat Staszak

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