THERE IS STILL TIME! Please send cheques made payable to us (Phil Appleby and Caroline Holden) at: VSO Eritrea, PO Box 5565, Asmara, Eritrea.
Things have changed, however …
Behind the scenes we have been working on getting information on how to source one of the machines in question and that line of inquiry led us to have a talk with the head of the Eritrean Veteran’s Association – a very reasonable and affable man by the name of Abraham.
He instantly voiced some concerns about the petrol-engined tricycles which Dawit had heard about and seen on the streets, some of which echoed our own:
- Spare parts are not easy to come by now.
- Ordering and importing a new one of these machines would be very expensive.
- There would be the recurring cost of buying fuel which is also in short supply.
- He wanted to know if Dawit and his family had considered alternative uses for the money collected.
To add a couple of points of my own, they look dangerous and they seem to be intended for travel over quite long distances.
Eventually we managed to arrange a meeting involving Abraham, Dawit and friends and family and the conclusion which was reached remarkably quickly is that we should change the purpose of our collection and divert the funds into Dawit’s business.
What he wants to do is to license and establish a kiosk to replace his current street pitch and to expand into selling more goods. We felt that this approach would be more sustainable than just a large outlay on a motor-vehicle which would then incur running costs.
If anybody who has already donated has any objections to our cavalier behaviour with their money please just let us know – we haven’t cashed any cheques yet.
If anybody has not already donated please do so!
P
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