April, 2008 News

Sarah Jackson runs the London Marathon!

Sarah Jackson completed the London Marathon in 4 hours and one minute!!
In doing so she raised a fantastic £2,320 for tme.
Well done Sarah and many thanks to everyone who donated.
£2,000 will buy portable DVD players for 33 locations around the world where people need to learn the basic messages of our DVDs.

Exciting new experimental forum created

The forum is created for the Associates and any one that has an interest in the work of tme.

Please go to Experimental Forum and let us know what you think.

April has been a fantastic month for getting lesson scripts recorded into languages needed by our overseas partners:

Within a 2 week period, along with a French and a Hindi recording, three Ugandan women came to Leamington Spa and stayed overnight to help us get 12 recordings in 3 different Ugandan languages (Lugisu, Acholi and Ateso.) Luckily some of our Associates and friends have expressed an interest in helping facilitate recordings, so a willing team is now able to spread the load and increase the possible output. A plea for help with translation printed in the ‘South African’ magazine has resulted in several new volunteers - one of whom did an Afrikaans translation of one of our lesson scripts overnight!

Naomi Lumutenga, who kindly recorded 4 Lugisu scripts (pictured with her husband, Charles, and Bev at our office in Leamington).

A plea for help with translation printed in the “South African” magazine has resulted in several new volunteers - one of whom did an Afrikaans translation of one of our lesson scripts overnight!

Jack and Nigel are back in Malawi having toured South Africa at breakneck speed.

They have been working with Tom and Alison Husbands to look at getting new discs into Chichewa and the existing lessons have gone down very well there. Amazingly, they are due back next month after five months on the road. They will return with some new recordings and a whole lot of new experiences under their belts!

There is an official town link between Leamington Spa, where the tme headquarters is based and the Bo district of Sierra Leone.

This "One World Link" is involved in youth and women's projects as well as support for local government and schools. We met with the planning committee in April to discuss ways of collaborating, as it is an obvious easy link to recruit new partners. There are a number of languages in Sierra Leone but the local people have already been involved in translating a script on TB into Creole and Mende. We are now hoping to link up with local Sierra Leoneans here to record the soundtracks and send the discs out.

Associate Jyotsna Chandrani has taken time out from her busy work schedule to visit her parents in Japan.

Whilst there she will not only be on holiday but also helping plan the future for tme India - the local branch which her family have constituted to raise funds and implement the programme there. There are lots of ways in which this new organisation will be able to help us achieve our goals thanks to the entrepreneurial Chandrani spirit!

Students studying new media at Coventry University are being encouraged to think of new ways that technology can help distribute our messages.

Potential Associate Nick Middleton who is a tutor on the course has set them a challenge to look at ways of making the concept web friendly. Steve took part in an evening lesson for these adult learners and mopped up a Swahili speaker in the process.

Brainstorm

Following the Distribution brainstorm, there have been a number of activities. Pippa Donavan a new friend from Leamington has made contact with a couple of people who might be able to help us in the area of Intellectual Property and copyright issues. Nick Barclay a singer/songwriter has been researching funding possibilities as well as following up other leads from the day. Mike Feerick of Alison.com is busy working with his staff and liaising with Euro Talk over putting trial lesson on the web for the whole world to see.