Back to reality

What a great experience it was to represent Nata village in Geneva, Switzerland. We hope the experience will bring more attention to the website and more help to the people of Nata. There were many people from different African countries at our seminar and we hope that additional villages will start their own websites and help more people in remote areas. It's just such a contrast to go from Geneva to Nata. The woman pictured above is eeking out a living selling bananas for 20 cents at the Francistown bus rank. A cup of coffee in Geneva is equal to a days wage for many people in Nata. So, it's back to work for all of us here. With your donations we are currently sponsoring and essay contest for grades 6 and 7 at Nata primary school. The essay topic is: How HIV/AIDS has affected or could affect my life. We will pay $60 for 1st place, $36 for 2nd place, $18 for 3rd place, $9 for 4th place and $5 for 5th place. Certificates will be given to those coming in 6th through 10th place. This is alot of money for a child to win so we hope this encourages them to think about the topic and do their best to avoid contracting the virus. We have nearly 100 essays to read and we will announce the winners at the Standard 7 farewell party at the end of this month. We will post the winning essay with the students photo on this website so you can read how the young people of Nata are thinking about this disease. We try to think of ways to make YOUR donations have the greatest impact. For $127 we have mobilized an entire school to focus on the issue of HIV/AIDS and in the process have rewarded students for their academic efforts. Thanks to all of our donors!! By the way, it took four days to post this!! We really miss high speed internet and a decent server.