The Nadia Plesner Foundation

Students at the Hananasif Orphanage Center.		DANISH SCHOOL EQUIPMENT RECYCLED IN TANZANIA In November 2009 I shipped my first container with Danish hospital equipment to Darfur in Sudan. A Danish school leader heard about this project and contacted me regarding a lot of school furniture Oesterhoejskolen was about to throw out because they were getting new tables and chairs. She asked me if I could find a recipient who could benefit from the equipment. Through my good friend Javier Colon, the founder of WOA, I got in contact with the Hananasif Orphanage Center in Tanzania. Hananasif Orphanage Center (HOCET) is an independent non-profit organization working to provide comprehensive care to over 100 orphaned and vulnerable children in Tanzania. HOCET believes in a community-based approach to educating and empowering vulnerable youth, focusing on the areas of health, education, social entrepreneurship training, and the arts so they can take their place as leaders of their communities. Watch films from the school here: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0biHqKkLzs • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGGkXJXzu2o It turned out that all the items I was offered from the Danish school was already on HOCET's "wish list" and they happily accepted the offer. Backpacks was also mentioned on the list and together with the Danish school leader I started contacting Danish bag companies and sponsors to see if we could add it to the shipment. The Danish bag company JEVA generously agreed to donate 100 brand new school bags - one for each student! A volunteer working for HOCET, Alberto Brian Vega, wrote me back: "I'm just responding quickly now to let you know that we received the message and photos of the backpacks as well as to forward the news to our founder and director, Hezekia. The backpacks are wonderful! They will be used (I'm not sure if I mentioned) as their bags to carry books from dorms to class but also for those few personal belongings they have (say, a gifted calculator, for instance). Colors, for the most part, aren't associated with gender here so whatever arrives will be appreciated for being bright and colorful - and theirs! :O) Since, so far, the dorms only provide a bed to sleep on these bags will really give each student a small space of their very own so they will indeed be appreciated dearly!" On February 4, 2010, I went to Denmark to pick up the equipment with the wonderful help from friends and volunteers. Though it was a snowy and icy day, we managed to move it all to a temporary storage room in Copenhagen. It took us 12 hours! Luckily the students at Oesterhoejskolen also pitched in and helped us carry all the furniture to the moving trucks. Then I applied with MS Action Aid for the shipments of 4 containers in 2010: 3 with medical help for Darfur and one for the school equipment for HOCET. Amazingly they approved my application! I expect to ship the container in spring 2010, as soon as the paper work is ready. And - this project will only be the beginning of a collaboration between my own foundation and HOCET. Their amazing work to help the children in Tanzania humble me and I will do my best to support their work from now on. I personally believe that it is unacceptable that perfectly usable medical equipment and school equipment is tossed away in the rich West while so many people lack medical help and education in other countries. If I can be the link between hospitals and schools in the west and receivers in 3rd world countries - so can other people/organizations. So get started! Learn more about the school here: • http://www.kujali.org/blog/

Students at Oesterhoejskolen helped us carry all the equipment to the trucks.	Students lacking desks and proper chairs.

Students at HOCET.	200 chairs for the Orphanage.

The bag company JEVA generously donated 100 brand new school bags, one for each student!	Pile of school tables.

After classes.	The equipment is being stored for 2 months before shipping to get all the papers ready.

The Hananasif Orphanage Center, 2010.