A request ..

I'm under a lot of pressure to make sure that C.R.E.E.R will work.  We're all determined to make it work.  I've been talking to everyone and anyone that will listen to me!

We have a lot in place due to the generosity of the Mayor of the town we're going to be in with the land donation.  I've also had a long chat with a lovely lady in Canada who is very interested as she already has her own charity there that deals with trafficked children, trying to repatriate them but others who 'can't' go home may come to us.  She will be meeting our contacts in Cote d'Ivoire in the near future we hope to examine how we can work together.

I am hoping that people reading this blog may be able to offer a) advice b) support c) a word of mouth community to enable us to make this move forward, as I said, in the long term this should be self-sustainable, starting it up is going to be a difficult exercise so there are a few ideas namely:

1. Financial donations
2. Contacts you may have in the commercial world who would might like to be involved in giving material gifts (tools, materials, shipping containers of goods etc) or financial contributions
3. Sponsoring one of the children that will be with us for the longer term, keeping in regular contact and getting updates from them.
4. Donating items of use including clothes, shoes etc, although this might be difficult for us to get them to Cote d'Ivoire - I already have a mountain of clothes that I will be taking with me on each trip as I used to do for EMSF.
5. Doing fundraising on our behalf, when the website is up & running we intend to have a PayPal account.  So this could be evening charity auctions, fun runs, accomplishing a long bicycle ride or marathon run.
6. Just TALKING, if you're at university or at a school we're keen to hear from you & will send you fliers (to be made up soon on PDF) etc to get more interest. 

For French companies (and possibly across the EU, I need to examine this) there is a taxable deduction for companies who give either financial or material aid from their company, it's at 65% in France.

I've just added Amazon links to this blog.  I will receive some money from any clicks on there.  If you're thinking about Christmas presents already & want to buy from Amazon, please use my links & the money will go to C.R.E.E.R

Thanks!

c.r.e.e.r.rci AT gmail.com
C.R.E.E.R group page on Facebook

C.R.E.E.R

C.R.E.E.R was formed last night.

Finally after years of wanting to do something to assist children, I've formed a French charity with a wonderful team of people who are all committed to the cause; Centre de Reinsertion et Education des Enfants de la Rue; Cote d'Ivoire.

It's going to be a lot of hard work. Prior to forming C.R.E.E.R I had some great news that 5ha of land would be donated to us; we'll be under an hour from both the Ghana border and the coast in a very quiet & un-touristed area of Cote d'Ivoire.

The idea is to run it as a farm with workshops. We will initially take in street kids between the ages of 12-15 and train them in various trades so that when they're ready to leave, they will have a trade to help them find employment; we're looking at carpentry, metalwork, sewing etc for both boys & girls. Many of them will have been affected by the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire, have been the victims of trafficking or encountered some personal catastrophe to be living in the streets.

Controversially we will be opening the doors to volunteers. I've previously said that I'm anti-volunteering organisations, but as a French charity we are non-profit making. All the funds will go to Cote d'Ivoire with very little held in France, solely to pay website fees, banks transfer fees and charges of that nature.

Our plan is to ask volunteers for a one-off sum to reserve their place, they can stay as long as they like. It's not going to be anywhere near 1,000 euros a month as others charge. They can go & assist with a number of projects initially clearing of the land & construction of the centre; accomodation will be offered locally.

Accomodation will eventually be provided on site in very basic dwellings with a small sum being asked of the volunteers for their stay. The reservation fee will pay the salaries of the small team that will run C.R.E.E.R, buy materials & offset any other costs they may have. Other funding should come from the produce on the land, vegetables, eggs, meat etc plus the products that the children will be able to create with their new skills.

To my mind it's a 'HAND UP and not a HAND OUT' project. In 5 years I'd like to see this being self-sustainable. If there's 'extra' money available in the longer term then we plan to build a second centre elsewhere in Cote d'Ivoire with the same principles.

I'm just back from a business trip to South Africa & Botswana, it's been 27years since I was last in South Africa, went as a child; very pleased to see the changes there. However my heart is still firmly in W.Africa, there just wasn't that vibe down there that I was expecting!!! Whilst there I visited a few projects in my spare time which gave me a lot of ideas about what could be done in Cote d'Ivoire with the children & made a few very useful contacts.

At the moment, this is a word of mouth project. If you know anyone who would like to help us, either by coming & assisting with the project or by fund-raising at home, we'd be very grateful to hear from you. I hope in the near future we'll have a website up & running with constant updates on the progress of the centre.

Post a comment on here with your e-mail address if you like (it's not published unless you ask me to do so) or e-mail us at: c.r.e.e.r.rci AT gmail.com