Congratulations to Azafady

Congratulations to Mark Jacob and the Azafady team on this news!

Dear Friend of Azafady,
We wanted to give you a short update on everything going on with Azafady this October. We have some exciting developments with Pictet & Cie, a leading private Swiss Bank, who have chosen to support Azafady as part of their commitment to the Pictet photography prize and global sustainability. The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs which communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under the theme, this year, of 'Earth'. And, for 2009, Pictet & Cie will support Azafady's Voly Hazo project that aims to preserve the earth from degradation and the eventual desertification that is seen so widely in Madagascar, with a programme of tree planting and conservation of the natural forest.

Mark and his team

One of the short listed photographers for the Prix Pictet, Ed Kashi, has been commissioned to visit Madagascar with the Azafady team in order to produce a series of photographs that will highlight many of the issues that we are focusing on in this unique and endangered environment. Ed Kashi will visit Madagascar in January with an exhibition of his work following in the Spring. Please see the press release below for more information on the Prix Pictet.

This is really exciting news for everyone at Azafady, so we hope you will share in our excitement and keep in touch with everything going in Madagascar and with Azafady. We have recently launched a new blog at: www.azafady.us/blog and, if you are not already, please do become a facebook fan of Azafady at: www.facebook.com/AzafadyMadagascar - where there are lots of updates, pictures and news from our projects in Madagascar.

Finally, thank you all for your continued support of Azafady and our work in Madagascar.

Best wishes,

Mark

Mark Jacobs
Managing Director

Azafady Studio 7 1a Beethoven Street London, W10 4LG Telephone +44 (0) 20 8960 6629 Fax +44 (0) 20 8962 0126 Email mark@azafady.org Internet www.madagascar.co.uk
Skype Azafadyoffice

Become a fan of Azafady on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AzafadyMadagascar

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/azafady

Mark and his team are working really hard to improve the quality of life for the peoples of Madagascar. To find out more about their volunteering options do hit:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=MadagascarOverview

Emma reports from Kenya

Emma has just reported back from Nakuru in Kenya. She sounds like she is very busy. Emma and the others left the UK in mid September. Emma writes:
Hi David!
Just thought i would give you a quick email to let you know how things are going in Kenya!

Everything is going well, so far i have been working at the local hospital in Nakuru (PGH). So far we have visited the abandoned baby ward, pediatrics, maternity, new born baby ward, psychiatric and even theater! I feel it has given me a good insight into medical work and has helped me a lot with medical experiance when i train to be a nurse in 2010.

I have also been working at Workers primary school. I teach Standard 3 Zambia and they are all very nice! My class has 65 students in it and i was very scared when i first went in the classroom and saw loads of little faces looking at me but its going well. I have set up a penpal routine with my local school in England. My class have just sent their letters of so we should recieve letters back from England soon which is very exciting!

ALso since we have been here we have started to paint bedrooms in an orphanage. By ofchance we met a nun called Felistas who is running a childrens orphanage on the outskirts of Nakuru, she has just built and refurbished the orphanage but has run out of money to paint. So we decided to buy it for her and then go and paint it. So far we have completed one room and are yet to complete the other! Its a very bright yellow, the children loved it!

Also Helen, Abbie and myself met an American lady called Sherry. She married a Kenyan man and is know living in Nakuru and has been on and of for 16 years. At her home she has taken in eleven orphans, 6 babies aged from about 0-3 years and 5 teenage girls aged 10-15 one of which being HIV positive. I have been visiting the orphange about 2-3 times a week just giving her a hand and helping her out when she needs it! as you can imagine its quite a hand full to look after eleven children!

As for travelling we have also done quite alot since we have been here. We've visited the giraffe sancutary in Nairobi, elephant orphanage in Nairobi, Carnivore!, Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru, Climbed Menengai Crater (second biggest crater in the world!), been to the Maasai Mara!, Hells Gate, Thomson Falls, we visited Karanja's parents in Kinangob recently which was beautiful as its up in the mountains and we have evem been horse riding! But we have so much more to do. My favortie place to visit so far was most probably Thomson falls it was so beautiful! Me, Abbie and Helen are staying with Karanja, Mary and Vanessa! We love it!

Everybody here in Kenya is so lovely and I am having an Amazing time!

Thankyou so much for all your help in planning this for us!

Many thanks
Emma Price
I love the pen pal idea with her local school.

Adam wants to encourage you to come to Queenstown in New Zealand

Adam, who went out to Queenstown in New Zealand in September of this year writes to say he is having the time of his life. He writes:
Hello David Again!
Just another update for you!!Sorry its been a while but using the internet is the last thing i want to do here! haha!

I'm still loving it here, its such a cool place and i feel very at home! Living with Debbie is still going well too, it has its bad points sharing room ect but i expected this when i came so I'm not letting it get in my way of enjoying NZ!

Works going really well too! Its Work for Skyline Gondola which you know of course, in their Photographic Department, its a new department for skyline as they always contracted a company in to take the photos and sell them, before aug this year so its all very much still work in progress, but its interesting to be in a development of a new department!

Basicly my job role is Being a photographer, developer,sales person and customer service rep roled into on big job!We basic are the first person the customers meet as they board the gondola, we make a bit of chitchat anwser questions and then offer to take their photo, sounds easy but we have to do this before the gondola doors close ad whilst the gondola is still moving!

We rotate as well into developing photos then selling the photos as guest leave again!I really enjoy it as i love talking to people and you know i love the tourist industry so fits me perfect!!!

I do appricate the hard work changing worlds does and was sad to hear some of the other boys had reservastions! I'm still glad i came with changing worlds as it gave me the confidence i needed to come here!

Just obvously the job situation cocerned us all! But we are all sorted now and life goes on!I do have photos on my facebook profile if u can access it via the changing worlds group? The car is also still going great and a great way of saving money compared to busses!If anyoe looking at coming to NZ has any questions send them my way!

I'm happy to helpp too!Thanks david!
adam dobinson

Adam would be delighted to tell you more. Contact him via his e-mail at:
adam.dobinson@hotmail.co.uk. Do check out his Facebook entries too!

A big thanks to all those who completed the photo competition

Our first photo competition has been a big success.

We have been overwhelmed with the number of entries.

The winner of the competition is to be announced on Friday 23 October 2009. We will inform the winner via e-mail.

A very big thank you to all entries.

We will be creating a new competition in the not too distant future. Watch this space!

Helen reports back from Nakuru, Kenya on her medical placement

I asked Helen to send me a report of her medical placement in Nakuru in Central Kenya. She writes:

The Medical Placement

The medical placement out here in Kenya has been enjoyable whilst very educational and eye-opening!
Every day we go into the local public hospital and first go to ward six, which is for children aged less than two years old. Here we spend an hour or so washing, weighing, dressing and feeding the abandoned babies. The work we do here is so appreciated as the nurses on this ward are so busy that often the babies go 24hours without being changed or fed.

Unfortunately this work can be tough though as these abandoned babies are mostly neglected of their medical needs, and consequently we have already had two babies die in the last six weeks. However this has not been a deterrent for working in this ward- instead this has motivated us to get up early every morning just so we can care for them!
Then after ward six we have been rotating to different parts of the hospital. The first week we spent in the nursery where there are about 30 babies crammed into a tiny (and really hot) room. These babies all need to be washed, weighed and fed which can be very time-consuming! One of these babies is the son of a woman on the psychiatric ward so this placement also gave us the opportunity to visit there; an experience that is like nothing ever experienced before!

The second week we spent in the maternity watching live births! We then spent a week in theatre where we saw a range of operations such as a gall bladder removal, hip replacements, caesarian sections, bone reconstructions, appendix removals etc… The surgeons were all very accommodating and even let us assist with minor things such as cleaning the area to be operated on.
Other weeks we have spent in orthopaedics, paediatrics (for children over two years old) and the voluntary counseling centre for people with HIV and AIDS. For the remainder of our placement we will be continuing our rotations to other wards such as ICU, gynaecology, the laboratory, the pharmacy, female/male wards and so on…

The medical placement so far has been a truly pleasurable experience that has taught us all about a life in the caring profession. There has been a good mix of practical work and observation time, whilst still allowing us the option to do other placements such as teaching and orphanage work. I speak for the three of us here doing the medical placement when I say that it is a rewarding and challenging experience here in the hospital and definitely not one to be missed!!

By Helen Thomson
Changing Worlds September 2009-January 2010

Thanks Helen. I hope this will inspire more medics to jump on board!

Claire has success with her fundraising

Claire is off to Kenya in January 2010. She has been busy raising money for her trip.

Claire writes:
Hi David, I just thought i would send you a little email to keep you updated on my fundraising. Yesterday morning i held a coffee morning at my church with a raffle and cake sale and raised over £500!!

So thankyou very much for the promotional material you sent me a few weeks ago.

Hope all is well, see you on the 26th/27th!

Many Thanks,
Claire Stevens'
Well done Claire....fund raising in these difficult economic times is never easy so your news is very exciting. I know Claire worked hard to put together this event.

Changing Worlds is happy to help where we can. We have a fund raising pack that includes a letter template, background information and relevant websites that we know are successful. Do contact me at: david@changingworlds.co.uk for more details. Equally do contact Claire via clairestevens_577@hotmail.com for her thoughts.

Do be aware that Changing Worlds does offer bursaries to people who need financial assistance - we take each applicaion on its own merits so there is no harm in finding out more.

Do look at http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=bursaries

Adam reports back from New Zealand

Adam, who is in Queenstown in South Island reports back to say:

'Just Adam D, I gather you forgot to add me into the e-mail you sent the other lads? haha its ok, I had a read!

Everything is going well over here,i feel right at home and Debbie is AMAZING, shes like a second mother to me, and i've enjoyedstaying with her family, herself and Joe and Mike!

I was a bit suprised about the job situation, i knew nothing was confirmed bu didnt expect it to take as long as it did!Debbie has been working her socks of though, she deserves alot of credit for what she does over here!!!!

I've manged to buy a decent car..all four wheels inclueded, so much cheaper to get around, and to work too!

Skyline is amazing and glad i got the job there! I'm working with a few other gap year people, so its nice to socialisewith them! it feels like a real team!

I am think of extending my ticket and staying for the year, its such a kool place i dont want to miss anything, and of course joe is here for the year so i wont be alone!

many thanks

adam'

Cannot wait to see a photo of the car!

David's monthly newsletter update

Do have a read of my monthly newsletter...to bring you up to speed on what's going on at Changing Worlds.

The link to my latest newsletter is found at:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Home.aspx?vurl=%2f%2fRoot%2fContent%2fNewsletterSeptember2009

I hope you enjoy it!

David

Jack in China asks for more volunteer help

Jack Lui, the Changing Worlds representative in China, writes in an e-mail:

Dear David,
How are you? Hoping all is well with you.

Seasonal greetings to you for a wonderful Chinese mid-autumn (Moon) festival!

Wish you could send a few more volunteer teachers for the spring semester of 2010.

Tell your students and volunteers that Yantai is the most desirable place for human settlement and living in China due to its nice weather condition, abundant food and fruits resources, rich cultural and relics as well as the mostly friendly people and their hospitality.

Regards.
Jack Liu

China is a fascinating country - quite like no other. If you feel you would like to make a genuine difference then do let us know. You do need to be willing to learn some Chinese Mandarin.

Do contact me at david@changingworlds.co.uk if you feel you would like to help.