Christmas Appeal

Please read further this is not one of our pathetic requests for chocolate, neither is it anything at all to do with VSO's programme in Eritrea we just thought we'd try and help someone whom we meet most days, who always greets us happily and who lets us practice our bad Tigrinya on him but who has never been able to walk in his life and, incidentally, whose father was an amputee, a victim of Eritrea's war of independence.

First a little background; Eritrea has conducted annual vaccination programs against preventable childhood diseases since 1980 gradually reaching more and more of the population and has all but succeeeded in eliminating the common ones - neonatal tetanus, diptheria, measles and so on - including polio which has not been seen in Eritrea since 1997 apart from isolated imported cases.

Unfortunately vaccination programs came too late for Dawit who is now in his late twenties and who now gets around his local neighborhood in a wheelchair due to childhood polio. Furthermore he does not qualify for any government assistance in the same way that war veterans do. He has, however, ambitions to be able to travel further afield and is hoping to be able to raise the money to buy a motorised tricycle (40,000 Nakfa - a small fortune in Eritrea) via donations.

However 40,000 Nfa is only around 1,500 GBP so we thought we'd try and raise it from people we know (we don't really expect strangers to put their trust in a web appeal but if you feel you can trust us ...). The main problem is collection of funds but, given we have time, this is what we've come up with as a plan of action:

• We will contribute the first 500 GBP from our savings to get the ball rolling.


• Please send your donations to us at the VSO address to the left.


• Please send cheques ONLY - please DO NOT send cash as it is illegal to import undeclared currency into Eritrea.


• Please make cheques out to either Phil Appleby or Caroline Holden or both.


• We will then send donated cheques to the UK for payment into our UK bank account (you'll have to trust us on this one).


• Then we will draw Nakfa in Eritrea by changing UK bank cheques at a foreign exchange bureau.


• If we have funds in excess of what we need it all goes to Dawit to cover running and maintenance costs.


• Once we have reached the stage where the tricycle has been purchased we will try to post photos to show the money has been well-spent.

We realise that times are harder for everyone just now and that the response to the discreet appeal for funds for VSO which has been on this page for a long time has been less than stellar (apart from two gentlemen who live in Singapore and Tokyo - THANKS GUYS!). But, we're not asking for all that much from each person and you'll feel better we promise.

One last thing - if you do feel that you can contribute then please let us know via email when sending a cheque so that we can follow-up and check our post.