And here's the latest photo of the Women's Centre construction

This photo was taken on 11 March.

I forgot to mention this when I posted the last photo but under traditional law, building permission is not needed to start construction, but the owner must ask the chiefs' permission before putting the roof on. The formal request is made at a meeting of the chiefs and the applicant provides the customary gifts of food for the village. But the procedure's a bit different in town.

Getting closer

More donations have been coming in, and funds are now just over $3000 - just another $1500 to go. The women of HWC and BWF in Buka are really looking forward to receiving the container and are preparing for a burst of energy when it arrives, as it will bring lots of materials that will help them take a step forward with a number of projects.

We now have dates for packing if you are in Sydney and able to come and help at the site at Addison Road, Marrickville.

The big packing day, when we need to take everything out and pack it systematically,  will be Saturday 12 April, from early morning to (probably) late afternoon).

The final packing, when we squeeze in the very last things, will be on Easter Monday, 21 April, again from early morning but it will probably not take so long.
If you are able to help with either or both of those days, please email us. If you can only spare an hour or so, that's fine, it all helps!

Thank you!

A big thank you to all the people who have donated money to help with shipping costs - $300 in the past few days, so we have now raised about $1400 of the $4500 we will need for shipping. A good start!

And an equally big thank you to those who have offered to help with the packing day! On a weekend soon, probably in April, a small group of people will be taking everything out of the container, putting in a trailer, and then packing everything back in scientifically so it won't shift around too much on the journey - and to make it easier for the people unpacking in Bougainville to identify what belongs to each group. It will be a big undertaking, and all offers of help will be gratefully accepted - even if you can spare only a short time! As soon as we have a date I'll post it here and email all the volunteers.

Please email me if you would like to help with either fundraising or packing.

And something else that would be really helpful would be to pass the word on to your friends, colleagues, Facebook contacts and anyone else who may be interested. The more the merrier!

New Women's Centre taking shape

An update photo of the new Women's Centre, now with a roof.

Progress in Buka and Sydney

Work is progressing on the new Women's Centre in Buka Town, beside the markets (visible behind the framework).
In Sydney, we have moved a lot of things into the shipping container and are sorting out the details of the journey to Bougainville - this is expected to be during the week after Easter (20 April). If you would like to help, top priorities before then are:

1. Raising money to pay for shipping.  Generous donations from a number of individuals and organisations, and a fundraiser organised by NSW Parliament, have raised enough money to buy the shipping container and put $1000 towards shipping costs. These are expected to be around $9000, half of which will be paid by the others who are sharing the container. So we need about $3500 more for the HWC / BWF share. Any money raised in excess of this amount will be used for projects of HWC and BWF.

2. Items still needed, that can be packed in the container, are:
Office chairs and small desks
Office stationery including A4 paper, pens, manila folders
Water bottles or jugs and glasses (cafe)
Small display cabinet for cakes etc (cafe)
Small and medium size coffee plungers (cafe)
Kitchen equipment - eg pots, pans, mixing bowls and electric mixer, a rice cooker,  a microwave (cafe)