Ubuntu : An Evening in Aid of Tana River Life Foundation

A big “Thank you” to all who supported us at the Amara Hotel on Friday 19th April at “Ubuntu: An Evening in Aid of Tana River Life Foundation“. Your generous support has enabled us to raise the amount needed to build the community library that is part of Phase 2 of the Emmaus Center Project. Our heartfelt appreciation also goes out to those whose sponsorships help us keep the cost of the evening low, and those who worked for months to put the evening together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjzVDe6xrA&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to Mr Milenko Prvacki and Mrs Delio Prvacki for curating the art works for the evening and getting their friends and associates to contribute their works to the event. The catalogue is available for download at https://tanariverlife.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a5-tana-booklet_130326_full-set-low-res.pdf. Please contact tanariverlifefoundation@gmail.com if you would like to view the pieces of Art Available – 22 April 2013. Here are some photos of the evening as well as some behind the scenes pictures. And here are some photos of the evening :

Thanks to one and all who supported us over the last 2 weekends.

Tana River Life Foundation Jumble Sale 2012

Thanks for supporting the Tana River Life Foundation Bake Sale and Jumble Sale. The bake sale raised over $7,000 for the Education Centre Project, where every dollar raised will be matched by Joneron Trust, making that a total of $14,000. The Jumble Sale raised over $8000 which will pay for the shipment of the used items collected for the Mitumba Project.

Special thanks to Siewfan Wong of Gallery Helios for allowing us to setup stall at their Open House, Gina Choong of Kitchen Capers for supplying our packaging and Esther Wee of Halia Restaurant for sponsoring the ingredients !

Here are a few photos of the yummy cakes and cookies

Our youngest supporter who loved her find, a gorgeous pink backpack :

Tana River Life Foundation Bake Sale 2012 in conjunction with Gallery Helios

Thank you for supporting Tana River Life Foundation. The 2012 Bake Sale aims to raise funds for the Education Centre Project the foundation is embarking on. When completed the centre will provide affordable quality education to the communities in the Tana River Delta. Facilities include a kindergarten, primary school, community centre with library, computer lab, seminar rooms, meeting areas, designated areas to house income generating projects for the foundation and offices. The buildings which are oriented to benefit from natural ventilation and lightning have been designed to be environmentally sustainable incorporating solar power and rainwater harvesting. This 3 year project with a built up area of over 40,000 sq ft will cost S$2,000,000.

We’re targeting to raise $4500 which will be matched dollar for dollar by Jonaron Trust, based in Malaysia. $9000 will cover about 40% the cost of a classroom. 10 classrooms will be built. Thanks to the generous support of Ms Esther Wee from Halia Restaurant and Ms Gina Choong from Kitchen Capers, all proceeds from this sale will go to the building fund. Thanks to Gallery Helios ,we will be holding the sale over 2 weekends, 11th March ( Sunday ) and 17th & 18th March. All proceeds from this sale will go to the foundation. It’ll be great if you could order a box or 2 and support our efforts to help educate the young in Kenya.

The following are available :
• Giant Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies – $35 per dozen
• Traditional Eurasian Sugee Cake- $40 per loaf
• Zesty Lemon Loaf – $30 per loaf
• Nutty Banana Bread – $30 per loaf

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies, Traditional Eurasian Sugee Cake, Lemon Loaf and Nutty Banana Bread

They will be available for collection from :
a) 10am – 7pm on 11th March during the Gallery Helios Open House at 38 Petain Road. Click here for location map
b) 17th & 18th March during the Tana River Life Foundation Jumble Sale at Nativity Church, off Upper Serangoon Road. Click here for location map.Collection schedule at Nativity Church : 4pm – 8pm on 17th March, 9am – 8pm 18th March

Please email your orders to tanariverbakesale@gmail.com by March 4th if you wish to collect at Gallery Helios and by March 11th if you wish to collect at the Tana River Life Foundation Jumble Sale and you will be provided with payment instructions. Please also indicate whether you would like to collect them on 11th, 17th or 18th of March.
This bake sale is made possible by the mother-daughter baking team of Norliza Jalil and Maria
Chung.

Thanks so much for your generosity.

Gallery Helios Logo

A space to kick off your designer shoes, walk barefoot on timber floors, smell the coffee, and unmask…. so that you can prepare to be at the highest expression of who you are… The Gallery Helios, Center for the Art of Mind-Body Wellness is a boutique shared services facility in a conservation Peranakan-style shophouse in a quiet area near the Farrer Park MRT. The interiors were specifically designed to exude an ambience of beauty, nature and healing, with features like sky lights above an air-well lush with tropical plants and a water feature. It offers clients beautiful, discrete and serene spaces to come back to themselves.

More Details on TRLF Book Drive 2011

Thanks for your support of Tana River Life Foundation in the past couple of years.

It is that time of the year again to dig into our book collections to help fill the libraries at the schools supported by Tana River Life Foundation in Kenya. This year the books will be filling up the empty libraries at the new nursery & primary school that Gabriel is building and the schools that the foundation supports. As with the previous year, we will be leveraging the annual Book Exchange that the NLB is organizing.

Here’s a few ways you can help us :

1. Set aside books from your collection for contribution to the TRLF libraries directly. To do this, you would need to have books that meet the TRLF collection requirements. Please download this document : Tana River Life Foundation Book Drive 2011 – info to view the types of books needed. You have up to the end of May to hand the books to me.
2. If your books don’t meet the collection requirements ( eg. books not in English, are too old, pulp fiction, romantic novels, cook books etc ) you can take your books down to the nearest library between now and the 15th of April and exchange them for a Book Exchange voucher per book ( please check http://w16.nlb.gov.sg/page/corporate_page_visitus_AllLibraries for the full list of libraries, their addresses and opening hours. ). The library accepts up to 30 books each time. You can then pass the vouchers back to me before the 16th of April.
3. Volunteer to help us ‘shop’ for books during the exchange on Saturday 16th April. We’ll roster volunteers on 4 hour shifts between 8.30am and 6pm, and provide you with the vouchers and a list of our book requirements. You’ll then “shop” through the books available, check-out using the vouchers and bring the books to our collection table. You may have to do this a couple of times during the 4 hour period.
4. Help us collect A4-sized photocopy-paper boxes. This is the best size for packing, storing and transporting the books to Kenya.

Thanks so much

We had 2 great events over the weekend

Over the weekend of the 7-8th March, we hosted 2 events for the Tana River Life Foundation. Saturday dinner at Palate

Gabriel presenting at Buko Nero

Sensations, the gourmet cooking school and Sunday lunch at the “hard-to-get-in” Buko Nero.

Thanks to over 40 of you who showed up to meet Gabriel and learn about the foundation. We enjoyed great food, wonderful company and were inspired by the work Gabriel has been doing in Africa since 1995. TRLF received offers for water purification systems and solar energy, as well as cash contributions.

The very talented Michelle sang her original songs for us on Saturday . She has also offered to write and record a song specially for Tana River Life Foundation. Thank you Michelle.

3 of the 6 art pieces were sold and we also received requests to commission works similar to those that were sold out.

Gabriel will be in touch with you.

Meet Gabriel this weekend

Gabriel is back in town. Most of you are keen to meet him again after a year. He’ll be speaking about the progress he has made in the last 12 months, and the new projects he’ll embarking on this year. Find  how you can play a part. Darren Smith, Wong Lee Yuen, Wong Fang Chin and I are co-hosting 2 events this coming weekend. We’ll be really happy to see you there. We’ve picked venues that are destinations in themselves : the private kitchen of Palate Sensations cooking school, which was featured in last weekend’s papers, and Buko Nero, the ever popular Italian restaurant with a one month waiting list. Cut quene by joining us for lunch this Sunday.

Here are the details :

Dinner at Palate Sensations Cooking School

Date : 7th March 2009

Time : 7.30pm

Venue : Palate Sensations, 1 Westbourne Road, #03-05 Aden, Singapore 138941

Menu : 3 course set dinner at $60 per head

Contact Iris Tay for details and to RSVP

Lunch at Buko Nero

Date : 8th March 2009

Time : 12.30pm

Venue : Buko Nero, 126 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088534

Menu : 5 course set lunch at $65 per head

Buko Nero is a Fusion Italian restaurant with a seating capacity of 22, and a waiting list of a month. We managed to book the entire restuarant for this lunch. Seats are limited and you don’t need to wait for a month to get it.

Contact Iris Tay or Darren Smith for details and to RSVP