Collection for Ilaramatak in Denmark

African activities attract visitors to discuss development

Text: Lisbeth Jensen

14. september 2006

A photo of a smiling Maasai youth together with a collection box, a little Danish girl beating the African drums together with a musician from Sudan. How does that fit with MS development work in Africa?

It does in many ways. The visitors at Aalborg Zoo in the Northern part of Denmark get attracted by the African activities and the exiting photos. They use the exhibition to discuss the work of MS and its partners in Africa. And MS gets the opportunity to ask them to contribute financially to projects.
The collection at the exhibition in Aalborg Zoo will be used to enhance the work of MS partner Ilaramatak in Terat in Simanjiro. Especially Ilaramatak wants to make more workshops for the pastoralists on their rights on land and water and their collaborations with the national park authorities.

Many visitors - children and adults - visited the exhibition and learned about some of the East African cultures and the problems of the pastoralist in the Simanjiro area.
Many volunteers with roots in East Africa but now living in Denmark helped to create the right atmosphere of Africa: The drums, the food, the jewelry and clothing.
Mwanaisha is 11 years old. She is born in Denmark, her father is from Uganda, her mother from Kenya, and she presents herself as being Ugandan. She is in perfect Danish explaining to the visiting children how to keep the rhythm on the African drums.
Many former DWs volunteered to discuss MS policies and development examples with the visitors and distribute the information materials.
But no one knows if the collection box will be a success. The amount of money in the box will only be known by the end of the exhibition.

Many volunteers are now preparing for at big national collection campaign on the 10^th of December in Denmark.
The Danish government will not fund any activities in MS if MS itself is not able to collect money directly from the Danes. For MS Denmark this means that MS have initiated a lot of new activities in Denmark. Volunteers all over Denmark are just now telling about MS partners all over the world and the need for funds. On the 10^th of December all the volunteers will go from door to door and ask for contributions.