I am the director of the Africa Village Project, a very small, very new grassroots non-profit society based in Vancouver, Canada. Our aim is to partner with African villages to help them become self-sustaining and improve their standard of living. Our approach is to ask the villagers what they want and need and then try to help them get it.  We raise funds and then visit the village ourselves to buy them what they need. At this point, we do not use any donated funds for operating costs, fundraising or overhead. Our modus operandi is fast, efficient, personal and direct -- an effective use of the money we receive.

Our first partner is Okaseni Village on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. We purchased supplies and materials to upgrade the water distrbution system and to start two nurseries when we visited in September 2007. We also collected bikes, sewing machines, books, medical supplies (also requested by the villagers) and shipped these items by container to the village June 2008. Our next projects are to run electrical power to the village office and primary school and to start a small, local microcredit program when we return to the village in September 2008.

We are passionate about helping African villages and creating a more equitable world, in which all people have access to health services, education, opportunities to make a living, and peaceful and safe communities. We are doing what we can to this end in our own small way.