The Maria Christina Foundation Scholarship Program

I feel very blessed to to have befriended Maria Conceicao (Emirates Women of the year 2009) and get involved in her scholarship program.

Maria is best known for setting up the Dhaka Project and has recently started the Maria Christina Foundation, which focuses on a variety of projects including the scholarship project for children from slum areas.

This program has placed 6 Bangladeshi children in Dubai schools over the past 5 months. You may have read about this in The National. Sheikh Nahyan has sponsored the 6 children's visas so that they can live and study in the UAE and Maria now has the great task ahead of her to get their school fees sponsored for the next 4 - 6 years.

I have met all the the kids recently and they say the best thing about being in Dubai is being able to go to school. That's very rare for a kid to say! They come from an area where child labour is the norm, so it's a great treat for them to live with their host families in Dubai and just pour their hearts into their schoolwork.

The children are raising funds for their education and will be running 3km for the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon and Maria will also be walking 42km for the marathon on Friday 21 January 2011.

Sponsor Milon, Himel, Sujon, Taslin, Bilkis, Shewly (and Maria!) by contributing anything you feel you would like to give to the bank details below so that they can continue their education in Dubai!

Banking Details

Maria Conceicao
Account No : 2196368162
Swift Code BOMLAEAD
Bank : Mashreq
Bank PO BOX 36612
BLDG - AL HAWAI TOWER, SHK ZAYED ROAD, AL Q003, DUBAI

Thanks for the support and if you want to meet the kids or talk to Maria about how you can help - you can contact her via e-mail mariadaconceicao@hotmail.co.uk

Fighting the good fight

Sometimes having a relationship with God can be tricky.

I mean talking to a man in the sky is a bit odd - well at least according to Ricky Gervais.

Never the less, I try to listen when He does holler down at me - because it's usually for important matters. On 6 Dec I felt an urgent need to contact some drug treatment facilities in Durban to see if any of them would sponsor 5 - 10 teens and young adults in the drug awareness and outreach work done by The Youth Care Centre.

I was worried about one particular girl who was in a pretty bad way when I moved away from Durban in 2007 and I have not had any update about her since then. Of course I do not subscribe to coincidence and two weeks later a concerned family member of the 21 year old girl contacted me saying they had no where to turn to with her 6 year drug addiction, she had landed up in hospital after an assault and could I help.

We arranged for her to be admitted for heroin detox and to start a 12 month outpatient program at the ARCA recovery centre in Durban. Dr Prakash Naidoo, the owner, was incredibly helpful and has offered a massively reduced price on his treatment program for any of the youth in the community that need education or counseling. He helped me co-ordinate all of this while on holiday without a moment's hesitation. I can't express the gratitude I have towards those who genuinely want to help because we are all fighting the same fight.

Some people tell me money spent on rehab is a waste and there are better causes, I beg to differ, I have seen a few individual cases of people who were trapped in a vicious circle of addiction and with proper treatment, support and a process of stumbling and getting up again, they live relatively normal lives now. There is hope - there is ALWAYS hope.

Addiction is a disease and those who suffer from it should have access to medical help if needed. Private treatment in South Africa can cost anywhere between R10 000 to R40 000 per month, which is way more what most families in Wentworth could ever afford.

Good luck to the family in Durban - you guys are in good hands and I'm glad you get to experience a little hope with your daughter. No one can foretell the future, but as Dr Naidoo said " at least I can show them there is a light at the end of the tunnel".

If you wish to help support our drug outreach program, which will allow us to sponsor drug treatment/rehab to a certain number of teens and young adults, please contact me (heather@alchemyfilms.net) or you can make a paypal donation online.