Alex and two good friends of The Fishermen: Sereh and Mabiki

As of December 20, 2011, we successfully delivered the education material donated by Janine Bryant’s 1st grade Montessori class to Sereh Olatoye, Director of the Medina Sancha Lower Basic School of Banjul, The Gambia.  The aid material will be hand-delivered to the 152 children of Medina Sancha and will be immediately put to use.  Once again, we wish to thank Janine Bryant and her students for their generosity!

Students and Teachers of the Medina Sancha Lower Basic School, The Gambia

We wish to thank Janine Bryant, her assistant Megan Belton, and all of Mrs. Bryant’s 1st grade class at the Countryside Montessori school for their generosity in collecting a massive amount of education supplies to be donated to the Medina Sancha Lower Basic School in Banjul, The Gambia.  This donation, which includes letters from all of Janine’s students to the children of the Medina school, will greatly improve studying conditions and is a significant step towards a brighter future.

It is important to note that all Montessori schools embrace the same basic philosophy to which The Fishermen also adheres – that we are all part of a global community and that we are to reach out, learn about, and give to others.  We applaud their method of teaching as well as their willingness to engage in charitable endeavors!

We encourage any educator seeking a charitable function for his/her classroom to consider supporting the Medina Sancha school.  The teachers and students would greatly appreciate your assistance.  You will be contributing towards a brighter future for the people of The Gambia by helping Medina Sancha’s very promising students!

Thank you again, Janine!!!

Thank you letter from the Ialoveni Special Boarding School of Romania

Thank you letter for the Girl Scouts of America

We recently received the above thank you letter from the administration of the Ialoveni Special Boarding School in Ialoveni City, Romania.  With the assistance of the Girl Scouts of America and Captain Alfonz Markovics of the North Carolina National Guard, we were able to dispatch 4 shipments of medical supplies to this wonderful orphanage caring for children suffering from Cerebral Palsy and other health issues.

We deeply encourage you to engage in local donation drives to collect basic supplies for the children of the Ialoveni Boarding School.  As we did with the Rosenblum family whom generously donated medical supplies collected from friends and neighbors this summer, we will gladly ship any aid material you wish to donate.  Otherwise, please feel free to contact us for delivery information.

As always, we wish to thank you all for your continued support in our effort to help the orphaned children of the world.  As the above letter indicates, your generosity is making a difference!

Sarah delivering hygiene kits to women in need

Every Christmas, Sarah and I drop off hygiene kits at local homeless shelters to assist the less fortunate.  This year we managed to supply a women’s shelter with 36 such kits, each of which consisted of shampoo, conditioner, and a bar of soap – all collected from hotels during our travels.  We encourage you to do the same while on vacation or away on business trips.  By setting aside the bathroom products provided by the hotel and donating them to a homeless shelter once a year you will be helping those in need while costing you nothing.

Below is a list of local shelters to which we have donated food and supplies and can verify that they are legitimate.  Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

1)  Salvation Army of Wake County:  215 S. Person St., Raleigh, NC 27601, 919-834-6733, http://www.keepthebellringing.org/

2)  Raleigh Rescue Mission:  314 East Hargett St., Raleigh, NC 27601, 919-828-9014, http://www.raleighrescue.org/

3)  Durham Rescue Mission – Men’s Division:  1201 E. Main St., Durham, NC 27701, 919-688-9641, http://www.durhamrescuemission.org/

4)  Durham Rescue Mission – Women and Children’s Division:  507 E. Knox St., Durham, NC 27701, 919-688-9641, http://www.durhamrescuemission.org/

5)  Urban Ministries of Wake County Helen Wright Center for Women:  919-836-1642, http://www.urbanmin.org/hwcw-hours-and-information/

Joanna LiVecchi

Farhana Yasmin

We are happy to announce that as of Monday, December 12, The Fishermen successfully dispatched a shipment of desperately needed dental hygiene supplies to the CEENA orphanage in the autonomous region of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan.  We wish to thank Joanna LiVecchi for her generous donation of aid material, Farhana Yasmin for coordinating the operation, Ty Prettyman of Aidmatrix for assisting in connecting us with UPS, and UPS for donating the cargo space for our shipment.  The supplies should arrive on Monday, December 19, 2011, and will help promote dental hygiene to the 100 orphaned children of CEENA Health and Welfare.

Holding the last of the Girl Scout donations to ship to Moldova

We are happy to announce the successful delivery of the final box of medical supplies donated by the Girl Scouts of America to the Ialoveni Special Boarding School in Moldova.  We wish to thank Captain Markovics of the North Carolina National Guard and the Girl Scouts for making these donations possible.  The orphanages of Moldova are in dire need of assistance.  If you wish to donate medical and educational aid to these wonderful children, please contact us and we will be more than happy to assist!

Sarah preparing our aid shipment bound for the DRC

It is our great pleasure to announce that we successfully shipped over $5,500 worth of surgical and medical supplies to the Mary Herbert Batt clinic in Kikwit, Congo.  The clinic, under the care of the Congregation of Sisters of Saint Marie of Namur, is one of the very few serving the people of the Bandundu region.  With these supplies, many men, women, and especially children, will have the chance to live healthier lives.  We wish to thank UPS – whom generously donated their cargo space, Ty and the Airlink service for connecting us with UPS, Sister Veronique of the Mary Herbert Batt clinic, our friend Mabiki with whom we have been tirelessly working on developing an aid plan for Congo, and Beau Wilson of Secure Care Storage for making this donation possible.  If you wish to assist us in providing badly needed medical aid to the Mary Herbert Batt clinic we would love to hear from you!

Counterpart International

We are happy to announce that The Fishermen is formally signing on to the SMT (Small and Medium Transport) Program with Counterpart International (www.counterpart.org).  With their assistance, our activities will have a greater impact due to the large quantities of medical aid we will be able ship to regional missions or in response to a humanitarian crisis.  We wish to thank Counterpart International for greatly reducing our operating costs and thus improving our focus on providing aid to orphaned children.  We look forward to making the world a better place together with the wonderful men and women of CI.

Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan

Map of Kyrgyzstan

We are happy to announce that we have begun preparation for our first mission trip overseas!  With the assistance of Airlink, to whom we owe our thanks for assisting us in acquiring the donated cargo space from UPS for the DRC medical shipment, we hope to access unoccupied seats on passenger airlines headed for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in September of 2012.  If successful, we will be delivering medical supplies, providing basic medical services, educating the children and administrators on how to use our supplies, and performing basic dental hygiene procedures.

Our Fantastic Dental Hygenist, Joanna

We wish to thank Joanna LiVecchi for the intense and thorough work she has provided to The Fishermen to bolster our on-line effectiveness by creating a dental/medical/health information database to be posted on our website.  The purpose of Joanna’s program is to provide orphanages with the data they need in order to provide basic dental, medical, and hygienic aid to children in lieu of our direct presence.  Thus far, we have avoided mission trips in order to direct the bulk of our funds towards shipping costs for medical aid.  When we are in a stronger financial position we will begin to provide more direct medical support.  Joanna’s wonderful work will bridge the temporary gap in our mission to help the children take care of themselves where medical aid is not available.  Thank you, Joanna!