Mother Maryam Foundation News
Updated May 14, 2009
It’s spring fundraising campaign time at the Mother Maryam Foundation. Here is a copy of the flyer that we mailed to 300 of our supporters. We are grateful to Austin Rotarian Con Levenduski of Ultimate Print and Mail Solutions for contributing the printing, to Kat Williams for donating her time to stuff and address envelopes, and to MMF Secretary Steven Hake for personally paying for the labels and postage. (And kudos to Steven for creating such an attractive and eloquent flyer.)
At the time of the mailout, we had already received donations of $119,000 to build the clinic. Our original estimated cost of construction was $130,000. But due to changes in exchange rates and cost increases, the total needed for construction is now $155,000. So we are in need of $36,000. Fortunately, the campaign is already bringing in new donations!
St. George’s Episcopal Church of Austin is also holding a spring fundraising campaign for Mother Maryam Foundation. We are grateful to Stephanie Savage and Sarah Campbell for spearheading the St. George’s church campaign.
Updated February 2009
In late February, we received digital images from Dr. Omda (Dr. Mohammed Osman) showing us the ambulance purchased for the Clinic and the great progress on the Clinic building. Khartoum Rotarian Soheib al-Badawi selected the new Nissan ambulance, equipped with emergency and transport equipment, in Dubai. It was shipped to Port Sudan and arrived in Zawrat in February 2009. The ambulance has Kolomiseed Health Centre Ambulance painted in Arabic and English (Kolomiseed is the name of the part of Zawrat village where the Clinic is located) as well as the Rotary International symbol.
Dr. Omda also sent pictures of the progress on the building construction. The walls have been raised to roof level and the roof was being installed when Dr. Omda visited and photographed. The care with which the work is being done is very impressive.
See the February 2009 photos of the clinic construction progress.
Updated January 2009
We had a great visit to the village in December 2008.
We had a chance to meet individually and speak with some of the members of the Khartoum Rotary Club. Unfortunately we were not able to attend a meeting of this great club which has helped us so much in our projects.
We participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Clinic Project in the village of Zawrat on December 13. The day before the ceremony we took the dedicatory plaque up to the site and met the supervising engineer. He pointed out the boundaries of the clinic site and the orientation of the courtyard, entrance gate, and buildings. The clinic site is adjacent to the Kolomiseed School, and both buildings will open onto a large public square. We saw the new water tower for the clinic and the clinic generator, which is stored in the courtyard of the school.
The day of the ceremony, in the late afternoon a crowd of men and women and children from the village gathered to celebrate the beginning of construction. The young men from the sports club served refreshments to the crowd and to the visiting dignitaries - which included the Dongola District Governor, Bushra M. Salih, and representatives of the Northern Province Department of Health and Department of Finance. Dr. Abdelaziz Osman, Dr. Mohammed Osman, Awad Abdelgadir, and Linda Boxberger attended on behalf of the Mother Maryam Foundation. Dr. Mohammed Osman, known as Dr. Omda, will be as the medical supervisor of the clinic and serves as liaison with the Mother Maryam Foundation, the Khartoum Rotary Club, the Northern Province Health Department, and the village community.
The village council leaders, Dr. Abdelaziz, Awad, and the Governor made speeches, and then the Governor unveiled the dedicatory plaque in the memory of Osman Abdelaziz and Abdelrahim Abdelgadir, late community leaders.
Governor Bushra gave special thanks to the ladies for attending and encouraged the crowd to continue to be active in community projects. He committed himself and his office to assist the health clinic in every way.
In the following days, the construction crew made impressive progress laying the foundations of the clinic buildings and construction has continued at a good pace. The crew is from Dongola, the provincial capital, and are living near the work site in the house of a village family currently away from home. The headmaster and assistant headmaster of the school volunteered to organize the community members to rotate in providing the crew with fresh hot home cooked meals.
In other news, the community held an election to choose the new committee responsible for the water project. Also, we visited the school to see some of the improvement projects implemented by the teachers, staff, and students. We delivered to the headmaster and assistant headmaster $1400 of school improvement funds, raised by Leah Goetzel and Nile Valley Herbs. Most of the money was divided equally among all school employees - administrators, teachers, volunteer teachers and custodians. The rest will be spent on school improvement projects organized by the teachers.
See the December 2008 photos of the ground breaking ceremony and beginning of construction.
Updated December 6, 2008
Please remember the Mother Maryam Foundation as you plan your year-end charitable donations for 2008!
In mid-December 2008, we will be holding a ground breaking ceremony for the health clinic in Zawrat. We will share photos of the ceremony and a report on the clinic project with the Khartoum Rotary Club at their end of December meeting. We’ll share the photos and an account of the ceremony with you on this site after we return to Texas in January 2009.
We are making progress. The generator for the clinic has been delivered to the village, the water tank has been ordered, and the ambulance is on its way from Abu Dhabi to Port Sudan. The agreement with the construction company is being negotiated and will soon be signed.
In early November, the Mother Maryam Foundation received a generous grant of $15,000 from the Campbell Foundation of Abilene, Texas (Sarah Campbell, President).
Since receiving the grant from the Campbell Foundation, we have $209,009.89 available for the clinic project. To reach our goal of $230,000, we need to raise an additional $21,000. Please remember the Mother Maryam Foundation as you do your end of year charitable giving for 2008!
Updated February 23, 2008
In addition to the many individual donors who contributed to our 2007 year-end Health Clinic Project fundraising appeal, the following organizations donated:
Downtown Austin Rotary Club Foundation
Westlake Rotary Club
Rockport Rotary Club
Plano West Rotary Club
Austin Community Foundation
Grant Family Foundation
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas
St. George’s Episcopal Church
We thank everyone who donated, and we thank Steve Hake’s family, Michele Vinet Hake, Margot Hake, and Claire Berger, for their help with correspondence. We also owe thanks to Cat William’s team of Whole Foods employee volunteers, who did the mail-out of fundraising letters.
We recognize and thank Stephanie Savage for writing and submitting the grant proposals that brought in organizational donations. She’s currently sending out another round of proposals.
The Mosaic Foundation has just donated $10,000 to the Health Clinic Project. (That grant proposal was written by Kelsey Ehlert, Melissa Netecke and Sarah Walker as a project for Professor Alice Batt’s “Writing for Non-Profits” course at The University of Texas at Austin.)
The American Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) at St. Edwards’ University held a fundraising event for the Mother Maryam Foundation, “The Benevolence Ball,’ on February 8, 2008.
UT-Austin students in the International Business Seminar led by Professor Michael Dodds are making business plans and grant proposals for two micro-financing projects. Marina Zolezzi and Mai-anh Epperly are spearheading the effort.
On January 2, 2008, we attended the meeting of the Khartoum Rotary Club, where we reported on the status of our ongoing projects, and on the progress of fundraising for the Health Clinic Project. The Khartoum Rotarians thanked us for our involvement in the Wheelchair Project, and told us how rewarding it was to participate in the wheelchair distribution. They will work with Cheshire Homes to facilitate transportation and distribution of future wheelchair donations.
With Dr. Omda, the physician in charge of the Health Clinic project, we met with the Khartoum Rotary Club representatives to the project, Isam Qasim, Sohaib el-Badawi, and Zuheir Saeed to share progress reports.