GHANA -AFRICA
Greetings and Love Family!
It has been some time since I last sent out an email and I want to let you all know I am in good health and feeling strong after nearly 6 wonderful challenging months in West Africa.
Today is my last day here. I am now in Accra with my sister Sofia. This past Sunday she and I went together to a shelter for children freed from slavery. We carried with us a sack full of beautiful quilts from More than Warmth, and a drum.
The Quilts had drawings of Love and peace created by school children, in the US. The Children at this shelter are rescued from fishing villages in around Akasombvo, a huge lake in Ghana, where they are made to work as captives of fishermen. The Organization locates them, secures their release, identifies them, and after six weeks in the shelter they are reunited with there families. They and their parents are also educated on how to protect the children from slavery in the future. It is an incredibly difficult and complex process.
After we arrived and met the staff, the children were gathered in a classroom where the social workers explained about who we were and where the Quilts came from. Following that Sofia and I each spoke briefly and then formally presented the Quilts to the organization Free the Slaves
(http://www.freetheslaves.net). We were able to give a quilt to each of the 31 children there.
They will keep and use the quilts they received as long as they are in the shelter and then will leave them behind for the next group of children that comes. After they each got a quilt (wrapping themselves in a variety of fashions) we went outside to take pictures and finally had a nice outdoor dance party with the djembe drum. All the children danced and sang. I especially liked it when theywould do the funky chicken dance.
With good byes, thank yous, and a promise to stay connected, Sofia and I left. I can feel you each as I share these experiences, and I am thankful to have this outlet. I Love you all.
Stay Strong
Biko
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Kevin Bales, Free the Slaves founder and president, will be featured in
Prime Time Live on Tuesday, July 31, at 8:30 pm on ABC.
Ending Slavery, coming out in
September, is Kevin's latest book.
FTS is working on getting a bill passed to establish a Congressional Commission on the Abolition of Modern-Day
Slavery (H.R. 2522) http://www.freetheslaves.net
Amman-Iraq-Syria
Hi Judy,
Hope
all is well with you. I am heading back to Iraq on Tuesday...I know
this
is very very last minute notice - and I would love to take some quilts
with me. I will be seeing Iraqi refugees in both Amman and Syria.
You
would have to over night them. My flight does not leave until close to
midnight Tuesday so if they came by 4pm or thereabouts I'd take them
along. Love!
Lorna
We had a miracle.
They - the folks at the PO - told me the blankets were up in Albany
(check
out a map fopr a good laugh) and would not be in New Paltz until Wed. I
explained to them the situation - I was leaving for Iraq Tuesday - and
asked
them to "return to sender." I was about to leave at 4:30PM and they
called me to say the blankets would be in NP by 5. I went to the NP PO
and waited
until 5:20 and FINALLY the truck arrived! They handed me the boxes
directly from the truck with a big cheer and I am in Amman right now with
blankets in hand.
This world works in mysterious ways - and anything can be accomplished if more than one is willing!
Big
kisses and many many hugs.
Will send you pics when I get them.
Love,
Lorna
Lorna Tychostup
www.LornaTychostup.com
More than Warmth is
an educational project
for students of all ages to learn about word cultures. It fosters
understanding, knowledge and compassion among cultures through
nonviolent,
nonpolitical, and nonreligious means.
Quilts have been made and sent as gifts since 2001
to:
Afghanistan
Iraq
Iran
India
Pakistan
Israel
Jordan
Burkino Faso
Zambia
Swaziland
South Africa
Mauritania
Ghana
Uganda
China,
Tibetans
Nepal
Vietnam
Thailand
USA-Katrina Victims in Louisiana, Mississippi, and
New Orleans
Genocide Victims in
Sudan and Chad
Rwanda, and
Indian Country-USA
Haiti
Cuba
Mexico
El Salvador
Guatemala
Nicaragua
Belize
Bolivia
Columbia
Venezuela
Ireland
Romania
North Korea
Togo
http://www.morethanwarmth.org/
Associations:
http://www.afghans4tomorrow.com/
http://www.damanga.org/
http://www.freetheslaves.net/
http://www.onehearttibet.net
http://www.inamay.com/
http://www.peaceroots.org/
http://www.plenty.org/
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CHINA
Hi, Judy- I thought that you might enjoy these photos. Each of the
children has some sort of disability- some as simple to repair as a
cleft pallet, so they were given up for adoption. The woman (Laura) has
adopted 11 Chinese children and also takes care of many street
children. I hope to go to an orphanage on Friday. We are having
quite
an experience. Trina
Our Chinese friends have overwhelmed us with their
kindness and
generosity. If we say we like something, they go out of
their way to get us
more of whatever it is. The school visits are very
interesting with lots
of
emphasis on outdoor group exercises despite the heat. I had
wanted
to visit an orphanage to take the quilts and yesterday, I got
my wish.
Almost all of the 100 orphans had some sort of abnormality-
Down Syndrome,
albino, blindness, etc. On Monday we leave for
Tibet. Hope you are all
well. We miss
you all. Trina
PS Judy- The visit to the orphanage was sad, but I am glad that
I
went.
Spring, 2007, Trina made quilts with her class, and many other classes in her school, -150
students at Julia Green Elementary, in Nashville.
This
summer, Trina delivered 8 quilts to children in homes and orphanages,
as a gift in
Southern China. Two more of Julia Green quilts went with a Peace Corps
worker, Susanne Bennett, to Togo, a new country for More than
Warmth.
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