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Cambridge, 9th January 2012
Cremated remains were found in a collection of donated items given to a Cambridge charity.
Sally Nott, a trustee and fundraising director of Menelik Education, was sorting out donations in a storage room when she found two small wooden caskets containing ashes.
She said: "We launched an appeal in October last year. The charity itself works in the Congo.
"We have a number of partnership schools, an orphanage and a support and advice centre as well as two clinics.
"The children in the schools are very poor and probably only have the clothes they stand in so we made an appeal for clothes, cooking equipment, books, toys and other things.
"We had had an influx of donations and so I was sorting them out for shipping when I found these boxes.
"I knew what they were straight away because I have seen something similar before. One says Oliver on the top and I think it could be a baby or a child's remains and the other is smaller so I think it could be a pet."
She explained that due to the volume of donations she is not able to identify where they have come from but is confident they have come from Cambridgeshire with both schools and local communities taking part in the appeal.
Mrs Nott, of Cambridge, said: "I was really taken aback when I found them and thought 'oh my goodness me, someone has given us a lot of things' and we were really concerned they were missing these caskets which will be quite precious to them.
"I brought them home with me straight away because I didn't want to leave them in a storage centre."
Theodore Menelik-Mfuni, charity director and founder, said: "It could easily have ended up going to the Congo and if nobody comes forward by the summer we are considering holding a ceremony in the Congo and spreading the ashes in the Congo River."
If you know who the ashes belong to or are the family in question call Mrs Nott on 077580 78910, Mr Menelik-Mfuni on 07842 177344 or the charity office on (01223) 769300.
Rachel Allen (Cambridge News)
Cambridge 9/01/2012
Transport in the DRC is a big issue for many including the disadvantaged and our own members of staff. For the last 3 years, we have been struggling, with staff finding it difficult getting to work. Our staff and customers were being increasingly isolated and excluded from social inclusion and having no access to services and amenities was becoming a serious issue. Those with any type of mobility problem were worst at risk as there is no decent bus/taxi service in the DRC and more often than not they are not safe to use. We recently (December 2011) acquired a fully accessible LDV Convoy minibus which will be shipped to the Congo in the coming days and which will provide essential door-to-door transport and will be a life-line to those who work for or use our services.
From our staff point of view, the minibus will provide door-to-door transport, it will enable staff to attend meetings, visit clients and more. This gives local solutions to local problems. We promote the service as - 'accessible to all regardless of where they are'. This is supported by a large force of trained volunteers.
Whilst we are so happy to have purchased this minibus, one bus is not enough and we would welcome any donations to help us raise enough money to buy a second one. A decent second hand minibus costs around £6000 and shipping it to the DRC will cost us an additional £2000.
We aim to continue to address these problems and expand our transport further to combat the increasing reduction in public services.
Theodore Menelik-Mfuni
5th July 2011
Jenny Nott gives her wheelchair to a little boy in the DRC
Jenny Nott is the daughter of one of the Trustees and Fundraiser of our Charity. An extremely premature birth 19 years ago caused multiple disabilities including cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and visual impairment. Following multiple operations on her hips and spine, Jenny has been totally reliant on a wheelchair for the past nine years. Despite facing many health and medical difficulties Jenny and her family have been extremely fortunate in benefitting from the best healthcare provided by the NHS in Cambridge as well as an education that has also worked with the limitations of her disabilities. If Jenny had been born in the DRC she simply would not be alive today. Even if she had survived her quality of life and opportunities for the future would be non-existent.
Jenny has never wanted for appropriate physical therapy or a wheelchair. Realising her fortune in this respect and being aware of the work of Menelik Education, particularly with young people with disabilities, Jenny felt moved to offer something that she knew would be of benefit to someone with similar problems. A shining red wheelchair that had barely been used as it was no longer suitable for her changing physical needs was languishing in a store room. She decided to donate this, along with her old laptop computer to the charity in recognition of how fortunate she has been in receiving the best care and therapy throughout her life - a complete contrast to what she would have received had she lived in the DRC.
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An effective partnership with MenelikPartnership
Summer 2011 saw the Cambridge Univeristy Lawyers Without Borders ('LWOB') take an unprecedented and ambitious step forward, sending two teams overseas and into the field' to carry out work promoting the rule of law, and the results have been a resounding success.
The locations chosen, Panama and the Democratic Republic of Congo, put our members very much on the frontline of the fight to promote the rule of law. Giving member of the University the opportunity to work on contentious, real‐life cases has long been the core of our work -these trips raised the stakes though. They moved well beyond paralegal and research support from within the University, and brought us straight into legal systems well beyond any experience we had had before, challenging both the volunteers and our assumptions in an extreme and often relentless way.
We demanded two key outcomes from these trips -the learning that our members could get of the operation of law in an extreme system; and what our members were able to contribute to the communities that they worked in -and in both cases they exceeded expectations. This was both a exceptional experience for all who were involved, but also a unique opportunity to take the training and skills that we have received and pass them on in places where there is simply no opportunity to get them otherwise.
These expeditions were undertaken as pilots -test cases for a new area of work that presents a wealth of challenges for LWOB, but also an opportunity previously unheard of within the University for students to use what they have learnt in an area of real need, and tangibly improve the protection and sense of security that others can feel as a result. I hope you will agree with me that the results make the commanding case for continuing this line of work within the University division, at least within the confines of these two existing trips -and hopefully the ongoing friendships with the people that we worked with in the DRC and Panama, and the continuing relationships with our partner NGOs, are further testament to this.
Sam Littlejohns
President ( Lawyers Without Borders/Student Division/University of Cambridge)
Development, education and .....fun
Summer 2011 marked the second year of Menelik Education Ltd Summer School programme in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Summer School programme works with children from the Charity's partnership schools in areas of extreme poverty and deprivation in the city of Kinshasa and nearby areas. The Summer School activities are open to all children who attend the schools and those who wish to join in who may not receive any formal education during the rest of the year. The Summer School is informal and includes a mixture of teaching English; creative work; play and sporting activities.
The age range of children attending is 3 years to 18 years of age. Many street children who do not attend school during the academic year are also welcome to attend. Menelik Education Ltd has recently established a partnership with a new school located on the outskirts of Kinshasa, St Rita School, and this was the venue for the Summer School 2011. The Summer School Programme for 2011 was devised by Menelik Education Trustee and Fundraiser, Sally Nott assisted by volunteer support from the UK and in particular volunteer support from Congolese students some of whom are training to become teachers.
The Summer School took place over a period of two weeks in July 2011. Some British volunteers who had been due to work on the programme had withdrawn for a variety of reasons (mainly obtaining employment shortly after graduation), the activities therefore were reduced to a period of 6 days, partly due to lack of volunteer support and sufficient resources. Two grants given for the project had not been received in the UK by the time the programme commenced so the charity was unable to purchase as many tools as it would have wished had the grants been received in advance of the project. All teaching materials, including those for sport were purchased in the UK and transported in volunteer luggage. In addition items such as paper and drawing materials came from the Charity's own supply which has been donated over a period of three years and brought out to the DRC for each partnership school on an annual basis.
The Summer School is advertised at the school two months in advance of the event. Staff and students are made aware of the timing of the school and are requested to give ideas on any particular activities they wish their students to experience. It is not possible to know in advance the total number of students likely to attend or the age range or activities requested so the programme is devised in general terms with an outline for classes and activities and resources required, but on the basis that the plan would be reviewed each day and adjusted according to the numbers and ages attending.
The Summer School at St Rita's was a resounding success. Numbers of children participating increased from 40 on Day One to approximately 110 by the end of the programme. In the first two days the percentage of older students (i.e.15 years +) was greater than younger children. By the final two days of the school over 60% of the children attending were in the 7-14 year bracket. A percentage of those attending were children from the streets who do not normally attend school (not possible to accurately quantify). Those participating were predominately male, approximately 75%. The head of the school was pleased with the turnout of students and the range of activities undertaken. He would have wished for the summer school to continue for a further two weeks but this was not possible this year due to volunteer numbers and sufficient resources.
We are already looking forward to next summer and hope to address some of the issues raised by the head of the school.
If you would like to get involved in our Summer School Programe, please get in touch at:
Sally Nott, Trustee/Fundraiser
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Foreign Secretary visits Cambridge
The achievements of local organisations in their attempt to reduce the impact of global poverty were showcased on Thursday 1st April when the UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband visited Cambridge. He met with academics at the forefront of internationally relevant research as well as Theodore Menelik-Mfuni the director and founder of Menelikeducation.
Kinshasa 8th March 2010
WOMEN FIRST
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The entire world commemorated International Women's Day on the 8th March 2010 to recognise and appreciate the achievements that women have made economically, politically and socially. The day first celebrated in 1910 in Copenhagen has marked a centenary and women must be proud that their struggle for recognition as equal partners in development has not been in vain. MenelikEducation is fully supporting women in all its projects in the DRC.
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