news

I really like to keep you informed about the operation of Oumar:
the little boy is very happy and does not seem to suffer from the obstacles
of a totally packed leg.
Well there are infections detected.He likes to play with the
extremely interesting little legand iscurious about what’s under the bandage.
We are thusvery happy he can stay at the guesthouse, because
there it is clean,he has good care and henche leavesevery two days by cab to the
hospital for an intensive check.

Wiljo Woodi Oosterom

W E R E L D B I B L I O T H E E K
Wereldbibliotheek Publishing BV, Spuistraat 283 • 1012 VR Amsterdam, phone 020.638.1899

An enchanting tale about Africa

On November 23 a new novel will be presented by publishing Wereldbibliotheek Wiljo Woodi Oosterom, A Veil of Sand.

A self-conscious white, western woman falls in love with a TRADITIONAL African man. She decides to marry him and moves to Africa to join his life. This means she has to live together with his other wife and conform herself to the strict precepts of the community . Sokhna, the African name of the protagonist, gets great respect for the African culture, but is also hrown back at herself, because so much is contrary to the achievements and assumptions of her own culture. Thus, A Veil of Sand, is next to a love story in Africa, most of all a sketch of the struggle inflicted by the transition to African life for a liberated, independent woman. At the same time the novel introduces us to an Africa, where westerners have no idea about. The descriptions of everyday life, cultural practices, but also of the subordinate position that many tribes in Africa still have, provide a detailed picture of life there.

Wiljo Woodi Oosterom

A Veil of Sand

Paperback with flaps 320 pages * * * approx € 17.90 ISBN 978 90 284 2344 2

Wiljo Woodi Oosterom (Chairwoman of Silent Work) lives and works most of the year in Africa. In 2005 Wereldbibliotheek published her novel Confess Colour about her introduction to this continent. She is available for lectures and interviews.

Sincerely,
Kirsten Krooman, publiciteit@wereldbibliotheek.nl

Products designed by Woodi made from wood by deaf boys and artists in training at Maison des Sourds in Nouakchott are now professional for sale. We are proud because different products were already sold out. See the site: http://galeriesinaa.blogspot.com This gallery is run and fits the rich of Mauritanie. Other objects such as trays, baskets, round stools, tables and chairs and other furnishings are to be made in the near future

Just a message from ‘hot’ Africa. Make the birth cake ready: in Holland a biscuit with pink (girl) or blue (boy) sweet anise grains called mice…. So: blue mice.
The cow the family received about 6 months ago, has a calf now. Mother and child are doing well. It’s been a while, but we arrived on the spot later.
Everyone is happy, they fit well in the herd, the rainy season is starting soon (about half May). Not that it rains a lot but the air is moist and thus the grasses grow.
So, mother and child can fill their stomachs full of food.

In Mauritania, a fourth major water project has been realized. At least 100,000 liters daily drinking water is pumped by solar energy. In such a well-built water tower. An expensive project, but so very important for the health- and community development.
An adjacent smaller village is now equipped with this water. We have built pipes and fountains. The amount and strength of the water is more than sufficient to provide both villages with clean drinking water.

In February 2011, an important Conference for the Deaf from across Africa has been held in Swaziland.
A report can be read in the travel letters.
The travel letters are all in Dutch, but in this case also translated into English and French.
See the site: how > travel stories

You are invited to the European premiere screening of the Award-winning Music
documentary, TIMBUKTOUBAB,

filmed in TIMBUKTU, Mali, West Africa,
featuring Blues traveler Markus James and three masters of traditional Malian music:
Hamma Sankare (Ali Farka Toure), Hassi Sare, and Solo Sidibe.
The film will be followed by an intimate concert by Markus James
and Pape Thiam (Senegal) in the ‘Melkweg, Amsterdam’, December 12, 20:00 hrs,
in benefit of Silent Work!

Timbuktoubab flyer | poster markus

Sales Exhibition Art and Creativity, for a Good Cause
Reformed Church,
Achterweg 2,
Nieuwkoop

Friday, November 26 from 10.00-16.00 hours
Saturday, November 27 from 10.00-15.00 hours

Last time support for the karate training, this time: training women to become tailors in Dabbé, Mauritania. All exhibitors donate 15% of their proceeds to a project of Silent Work.
Wilde Ganzen will yield double the amount!

What to see and buy:
- Flower arrangements
- Various jewelry
- Paper art, watercolors
- Embroidery and patchwork
- Painted silk and textile
- Toys of tissue
- Ceramic and mosaic
- Statues and cement figures
- Different types of cards
- Etchings and ink drawings
- Tiffany
- Jams and honey
- Screens and Boxes
- Reborn dolls
- Soap
- Candles

More information: 0172-571307 / 0172-571604
Thanks to all who are ready for us again!

In cooperation with the Wilde Ganzen Foundation, a project of SilentWork will be brought to attention by radio and TV. It concerns the School for the Deaf founded by SilentWork in Mauritania. On Sunday, December 5, 2010 will be at 10.58 and 17.58 on Nederland 2 this campaign of SilentWork will be brought to the attention. This is great news as the Wilde Ganzen Foundation has managed since 53 years to support numerous people and institutions by an announcement on radio and TV. This gives the Dutch population, a growing confidence in organizations like SilentWork.

Foundation Wilde Ganzen (Wild Geese) supports as well our action on the recruitment of finance for our projects.

Africa Sport has already helped SilentWork before with a donation for deaf children in Senegal. This time again with two sports bags full of tracksuits, soccer pants, shirts and socks from VV. Reiger Boys of Heerhugowaard, for the deaf youngsters of Maison des Sourds ( House of the Deaf ).
In their spare time these guys, who formerly lived on the streets, love to play soccer and preferably in real soccer gear.

Wiljo Woodi Oosterom, together with her husband Abou Demba Ba have picked up the bags.

Sorry, this entry is only available in nederlands.

A Mauritanian newspaper published an article about some of our projects. Watch: how/travel stories (this time translated in english)!
In this article Silent Work is really ‘Silent’: it is not mentionned once. They experience the projects as theirs, the village owns it.
And finally is  this our goal: to develop and stimulate the projects, we initiate and create, by the villagers themselves. They own them. They achieve what is important for them. Demba – and me being his spouse- is a member of the community, someone who feels responsible and stands for for the development of his people and region. Other Mauritanians look at him with astonishment. Of course everyone knows that donors from the Netherlands finance the projects. However, this is experienced as a tool one receives to realize a wonderful, good and solid project. There is no direct expression of gratitude, but there is a tremendous effort and investment of activity, despite all problems, to make it work and succesfull. Isn’t that far more important than “with gratitude to”….projected on projects, who will defeat after a few years…?

I could not decide to leave, to clear the small house and pack the luggage and reflect on the past few days and events in the village.

Often villagers enter our farmyard to greet us, to have a chat, a question…

- A sturdy woman, now stumbles with a found baton. Gasping, sweating and cheeks red of fever sits down. She pulls over her leg and lifts her skirt: open wounds full of pus. The overloaded cart she sat on, knocked down in the ditch. With her wounded leg she walked over 9 km home. I apply a bandage on her wounds, provide painkillers and call one of the strong boys of the village, who carries her on his back to the road. Together they leave for the hospital.
- A burning hut, a two year old died, a ‘lost’ father.
- A by a fire deformed young girl, does not react any more, refuses to speak, stays indoor….

The day I leave -5 hour drive on a very bad road-I hear on the road about the eruption of fire and ashes in Iceland.
The next day when I have returned home I hear good news: the physician decided not to amputate the woman’s leg and in a few weeks she can walk again in her farmyard. The strong boy decided to train handicapped children in swimming and foremost to offer them an hour of fun in the water.

Back in the village: my hesitation  to leave feels right, just, I could never presume its cause..
A more detailed report: see How, ‘travel stories’, but just in Dutch version!

Three photographs of a little girl, expressing the joy, admiration and surprise for water

gushing from the soil like a fountain, with enormous force.

Maison des Sourds,  the House of the Deaf, is a place for meeting-, learning- and work for deaf in Nouakchott. Silent Work invited François Manga from Senegal to travel a long way to Nouakchott, to train 18 persons for 10 days. He has a long term experience in sign language for deaf children. The trainees came from different parts of Senegal and Mauritania: teachers, board members of organizations for the Deaf, a physician and employees of Silent Work.

It is very special that participants travelled so far in a desert world but even more that they, originating from different tribes, worked in such splendid cooperation for this united goal.

French was used as the main language, but employees of Silent Work translated in Arabic and local languages. The students made a list of desired gestures and a deaf assistant took care of executing  these gestures in a pure and beautiful way. All ended with an exam and report.

8 Students started shortly or wish to start a class for deaf children in their region, with assistance of Silent Work.

In continuation, in the summer of  2010 a one month Training will be organized in two classes for deaf: one in Mauritania, one in Senegal, with the emphasis on education in sign language for deaf children.

A girl of 14 years old, with a mutilated face has become a happy and beautiful girl of 16, after two corrective medical surgeries.
Mariamme did not only experience an exterior change, but one as well inside….

She is a charismatic girl full of joy and life, not hiding any more behind the tent-cloth of rags. The housing is very poor, clothes worn out, food insufficient, and the work tough.

But the sun shining in the Sahara, shines as well in the eyes of the people: they are touchingly proud of her being a supportive, friendly girl and opening up. She takes care of the small children in her family and helps her mother with tough jobs. Has fun with her peers and supports other inhabitants when necessary. No one recognizes her as the rigid, retreated and mostly silent child, filled with despair and foremost shame.

Her dream is to make tents: the traditional housing in the Sahara. Learning the craft is not expensive but the materials are.

We would like to buy the primary materials to support her to make a real housing for, and together with, her family.

Mariamme before the surgeries….. and after

by this link www.1procentclub.nl/projects/klamboes at: nieuwste projecten!

Deaf adults will produce mosquitonets in Mauritania and sell them to generate income and defeat malaria: by affordable nets of a locally researched model which offers shelter for complete families.
The money will be used for the starting- and furnishingcosts; furniture, stitching-machines, requisites etc. for the atelier.