Tribewanted: Vorovoro

It is undeniable that the tribewanted project has been a very positive influence on the whole of Mali and surrounding communities. Hundreds of jobs created, investments made into the local economy through the lease, wages and other payments made, not to mention the knowledge exchange that occurs on a daily basis between the fijian and non-fijian team members working side by side in unison.

We are sometimes presented with a difficult dilemma though: to donate or not to donate?
Having worked the last few months on the Green Club activities with Julia and Anna by my side, it was obvious that the school was very ill-equipped to manage the growing gardens we have been setting up with the children.
Rather than open the wallet or take out the cash card on this occasion, we opted for a less conventional means of getting them the tools they required.

Over the last weeks, we started making our very own recycled paper, which the children thoroughly enjoyed getting involved with. Alongside this, we were also regularly harvesting a
variety of leaves, flowers and other vegetation from around the blossoming school grounds, and drying and pressing them in a flower press built from some scrap wood and cardboard.

Several weeks on, we had finished cards made by each of the Green Club children for tribe members to post home to their loved ones and were able to raise enough money from the sale of the cards to purchase a garden fork, shovel, hoe, machete and several hand tools. These were presented to the Green Club children during rather an emotional address which I made thanking them for all their hard work and belief in the sometimes quite whacky (but educational) activities we all got involved in over the last few months.

We were delighted to have ended what has been a truly fantastic experience for all involved in the Green Club sessions over the last few months with the presentation of the tools, which the children will take pride in using over the years to come.