Oh! What a Night!

What an amazing night it was!

The students and staff at Glenmore Elementary put on two absolutely wonderful shows filled with incredibly talented young performers,





beautiful costumes and props,








and inspirational speakers!



Both shows were well attended and very well received by the audiences.

In total, Raise Your Voice raised over $11,000! All this money will go directly towards the purchase of a mobile bookmobile to benefit students in Uganda.

Thank you so much to all who participated and attended this wonderful event!

"Kids Stuff Swap" Yields Items for Ugandan Children

Elizabeth Devries, pictured left, organized a "Kid's Stuff" swap meet in Kamloops, B.C. on April 5th, 2009. People who had used clothing and toys for kids were able to exchange and/or buy things with other people. This is the third time she's organized a meeting; she plans one about every six months.

The meet attracted over 300 people and had 50 rented tables. People went home with much needed items at greatly reduced prices. In addition, people were given the option of donating items they no longer needed (or were unable to swap/sell) to Niteo Kids and another charity.

In all, Devries collected over 10 large boxes of clothing, shoes and other baby needs directly for Niteo. She also set up a donation box for cash donations and collected an additional $80 in cash.

We honour the generosity of Elizabeth. The items she collected were so plentiful, and of such high quality, that we currently do not have a need for more babies clothing.

Thank you, Elizabeth!

miracles

miracles...

this weekend, my friend and colleague described last summer and the work of the Niteo team as a "miracle."  It was.  Then, the way the children and their teachers responded to the books, resources, life they found at the ERRC...it was again miraculous!

I agree all of Niteo's projects are touched by the wondrous, the mysterious, the miraculous...

Then I dig deeper, mine further, try to touch the soul of it...

Look at the picture attached...

There is something about human connection, touch, tenderness, heartfelt reciprocity and mutual generosity...

The things that songs are written about and poems capture...

Look...

A woman and a child, two hearts, two people, two lives co-creating a world of light and life...

Please join me in the deepest of all mysteries: participation in our global dance of love.  Be involved, present, and connected.  If you are already...you know its strength...keep on keepin' on!

Blessings,

Karine

Madi's Song

Visit our homepage, www.niteoafrica.org, and click on the multimedia tab to listen to an amazing song.

"In My Dream" is a wonderful song written for Niteo Kids by Madi Kloss, a 1o-year old grade 5 student. She wrote and performed it over spring break. It will be a featured part of the Raise Your Voice concert on April 14th.

Please spread the word about this incredible song and the incredible young artist who wrote it. Madi and her parents have decided that all proceeds from the sales of the song (which is available as a download or as a CD) will go directly towards the purchase of the mobile bookmobile for Uganda.

Please take the time to listen and consider donating.

If you are interested in receiving a digital copy of the song, please comment and we will contact you from there.

And if you happen to live in the Okanagan, remember to save April 14th! There are some tickets still available for what promises to be the most joyful show of the season!

Supporting Education

These twins visit the centre everyday and are seen engaged in early literacy reading and activities! HURRAY!

ERRC Update - May the Work Continue!!

Meet Grace and her four beauties
by Betty

Grace Ampumuza is a mother of three and a guardian of four children. She is 29 yrs old and a survivor of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Her husband died from cholera in Nakivale refugee camp in western Uganda where they lived for five years after the genocide. She talks about her perils with tears welling up in her eyes.

Grace with the four kids she looks after, three of her own and her big sister’s son Geoffrey (12 yrs). Geoffrey’s mother Beatrice got a mental problem after the genocide, so Grace had to take up her son. Grace has no formal school qualifications, so she has no specified job. She does domestic work and runs other errands for people and gets money to survive and pay school dues for her children. She first came to the center four months ago because she thought that Niteo could help her sponsor her kids in school. I told her that we’re not doing that right now. However she was pleased about all the books we have and from then on, she started bringing her kids to the center to read.

We gave her a casual job for cleaning the center after we sent away Vincent who was the care taker. Grace is working so well in keeping the center neat. She works three days in a week and we pay her 60.000 shilling a month. Of course this is not enough for her considering all her responsibilities of her family, but that’s what we could get for her, and we thought it was better than nothing. This center is here for the kids and any thing that I can do to help one kid means so much to ERRC, and Niteo as a whole. After talking to Grace and knowing her story, I on behalf of ERRC gave her some stationery for her kids to use in school as our contribution to her kids’ education. These included pens, pencils, crayons, reams of paper, erasers and exercise books. Grace received them as a miracle with so much appreciation and she showed me her gratitude in one sentence: God gives us the things we need just on time