Came on stream early in 2011 and was fully implemented by the summer of that year. The scheme brought improved facilities to highly impoverished children in an area which was devastated by an earthquake. It will teach them to preserve the environment, will provide clean water and latrines and at the same time will adopt, maintain and replant the small grove of the threatened Huarango trees. The children’s play centre was constructed of recycled plastic bottles covered in adobe and whitewash as an ecological and highly efficient thermal solution. Information about the Hurango is obtainable on the Foundation’s website under the date 30th April 2011 by clicking the PDF link. The scope of the project was also outlined in a PDF put online the same day. On the 5th May 2011 an update report was placed online showing details of the new freshwater and ground tank, visible in the PDF attachment. A further PDF update was posted on the 6th August 2011 while the fully operative scheme reported on the 24th December 2011 when the children of Santa Cruz sent the Foundation Christmas greetings and a letter signed by each and every child thanking for their “magic forest, fresh water and the plants and tress that had been included in the project”. The smiles of the children said it all….
On the 30th June 2011 posted on the website I uploaded a message from the new project manager for the Chambomontera micro-hydroelectric scheme. The letter stated,
“Dear Patrick,
To communicate with great joy that after four months of uninterrupted operation of the micro-hydro scheme of Chambomontera this ceremony has been organised with the people and authorities of the Municipality of Jaen, hoping it will be an important moment for the community and evidence that things are going well.”
It is also necessary to say that after the ceremony we will sign the transfer documents of the operation management of the micro-hydro scheme to the company formed in the community and to the supervision of local authorities which began in the period in which Practical Action only support in a specific way, as we consider important to be exercising their autonomy in the management of micro-hydro scheme.
I share the press release prepared for the dissemination at regional newspapers and TV and I will report on events.
Rafael”
We have therefore completed our involvement with Chambomontera which is now up and running without any hitches, finally, after several years and the Foundation made good its promise that if the scheme was completely rebuilt from the ground upwards and was made three phase, rather than single phase, we would make a small further contribution of monies to this scheme in the order of approximately $3500.
The Children’s Lands/ Forest/ Mountain Instruction Manuals– to be placed for open access online.
On the 21st December 2011 we announced that, as set out in October 2010, it was out intention to place the instruction manuals in three languages in open format online for anyone to upload so as to disseminate the thinking behind the Children’s Lands Concept. At this date the manuals had been perfected and illustrated with cartoons using the ANIA cartoon personality to promote “greenness”. The manuals themselves (three of them) are too large to put online on the Foundation site so direct links were posted so that anyone worldwide can download the “open” manuals for this UNESCO approved project now adopted also in five further countries; more countries are considering it. As I stated online I would like to record here my thanks to Joaquin Leguia of ANIA who has been the driving force for this project and many others we have sponsored over the past eleven years. The manuals are available online in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The Foundation funded the creation of these open access online manuals. On the 25th February 2011 we announced online that such had been the popularity for the printed Spanish edition of the three instruction manuals on forming a Children’s Lands project that the first edition had sold out. The Foundation therefore funded the reprinting of five hundred copies of each of these three paper instruction manuals in March 2012.
Sponsorship of the Arts
On the 24th May 2011 William Hutton, senior curator of European and American painting and sculpture before 1900 at the Toledo Museum of Art, wrote to me stating that he was in the final stages of producing the catalogue raisonné on Goltzius’s paintings to be published in Holland and that he was raising funds for this project. He was asking for individual contributions of $3000. Subsequently it turned out that he had been promised a substantial sum from a private fund investor but that the sum varied according to whether it was eligible for gift aid or not, which was not the case as he was an American citizen. The Foundation therefore agreed to take the donation from this anonymous individual into the Foundation, which had charitable status, and to claim gift aid on the sponsors behalf which monies were then, once received after many months from HMRC, to be passed onto the publishers, increasing the amount of the gift. This proved more complicated than expected and, of course, has resulted in cost to the Foundation in as much as we now have to file full accounts however, the operation was successfully negotiated with HMRC and the monies passed to Davico, the publishers in Holland. The monies transferred to Davico were £17,450, covered under gift aid, plus a contribution of $10,000 by the Foundation.
Music Sponsorship
Late in 2011 the reverend Aiden Platten of St. Marks Hamilton Terrace, which the Foundation has sponsored before, asked for funds to buy a refurbished Bechstein model B grand piano. The piano was appraised by two pianists and was offered at an attractive price of £6000. The Foundation granted £1000 towards this project, the balance being made up by another charitable institution. The piano has since been used to hold concerts at St. Marks.
Further Music Sponsorship
The Foundation made a grant of £1000 towards the studies of a violinist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama who was unable to pay her term fees.
Sculpture Gift
In May 2011, under rather unusual circumstances, the Foundation acquired a head of Buddha circa. 3rd Century/4th Century AD 33 x 14.4 x 13.3cm overall, executed in the city of Hadda in Afghanistan, from A. Gates. The circumstances behind this acquisition are known to some of the Trustees. The sculpture, of very fine quality, was acquired with a view to giving it to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in August 2011 to commemorate the very long directorship of Edmund Capon. The head is now on display in the art gallery under acquisition number: 321.2011.