Associazione Fitil Onlus
Via dei Cartari 11, 00186 Roma, Italia,
tel. +39 06 68804624
Codice Fiscale 97384630584
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Sector 8, Lot 318, Parcelle F, Rue 8-16
tel. + 22 650343678
fitil_bf@yahoo.it - www.fitil.org
NEWSLETTER, September, 2010
Back from Ouagadougou where I spent a little less than my usual two months…and it seemed too short a time.
Angela Rosati, one of our vice presidents came down for a week to touch base.
It is the rainy season so my contact with the villages is unfortunately at a minimum as everyone is in the fields from dawn until after the sun sets and then there is the long path home, chores to be done, dinners to make, children to be fed. This is the season of the hardest work but also often the season when little food is left especially if last years harvest was not a good one.
Time here in Ouaga goes by quickly in the follow up of last year’s activities and planning new projects for this year
LITERACY
This was one of the first requests and one of the most important. Fitil has been slow in answering this hope of so many women because we feel that literacy alone does not satisfy the needs of the women we hope to reach. We have found what we feel is a broad approach which encompasses the teachings of Paolo Freire and which Action Aid has been made into a system called Reflect,
Over a three year period, the participants learn to read, write and do maths by working through problems which they themselves have prioritized such as health care, education, gender problems and many other subjects. The women in this way not only learn to read and write but are empowered to contribute towards changing their own lives and the future of their communities.
This autumn, friends of Fitil have organized an event to raise money for this project.
GALLERY ERCOLI, ARTE CONTEMPORANEA DI ROMA
will be the host of an art exhibit: Winigri: light the fire of knowledge. Important contemporary artists have donated their works to be sold in order to raise money. The inauguration will take place on September 15 and the exhibition will continue for 10 days.
The catalogue, price list and other information can be found on the first page of our website: www.fitil.org This will be an enormous help in putting this project into action beginning this autumn.
ADOPT A STUDENT
For the first time in 2009 supporters of Fitil made it possible for 5 students in each of our villages to continue their education for another four years. This year 20 more students will be chosen from the graduating class of the primary school We hope that many of you will want to join us in this popular project in sending these children to school and onward to a better life.
5 of the best students (3 girls and 2 boys) were chosen by the primary school in each of our 4 villages. We send more girls than boys as girls who have finished their schooling early are often led into early marriage or very poor families send their daughters into Ouagadougou as maids where they are usually poorly paid and badly treated or worse.
4 more years of schooling opens huge opportunities for everyone.
This is a very popular project and we are so grateful to everyone who has participated .
SOLAR PANELS
At the very beginning of 2010 solar panels were provided to light one room per school.
The original idea was to give our students a place to study in the evenings plus to run an adult evening course. This has proved to be so highly successful, with other exam year students wanting to study, teachers to do extra preparation etc etc that there has been no time for the adult education. We have just added 4 new solar panels .. so now two rooms are available for each school
FOOTBALL TEAM
First the women, then the children and then the men.. And we realised we have done nothing for the young people in the village. So one of our projects this year is to equip a football team for each of the villages who will then be able to play, compete informally amongst themselves and also in the Mayors Cup of Niou.
… you mustn’t think we have forgotten the girls. When I asked someone what sport they would be most interested in doing, someone answered..”Oh, they just want to go dancing” We think they might be interested in something more.. Basketball?...volleyball?...football?... or something else?
Next year we are planning to find out ..and on the basis of our inquiries, we plan to organize, equip and organize girls teams.
There have been studies done which say that sport gives girls self confidence and the possibility of a better start in life… and this is definitely what we are aiming for.
LONG DISTANCE ADOPTION
Fitil has initiated a Long Distance Adoption Project. If any of you might be interested in “adopting” a child, please look on our website (www.fitil.org) for information.
Fitil needs your help with these and all our projects.
We hope you will consider a contribution.
With appreciation
Bettie Petith
President
2009
Il Respiro del Mondo, Emilio Leofreddi, personal exhibit at Complesso del Vittoriano, Rome, September 9-20 2009, organized by La Nuvola art gallery.
The artist will donate Associazione Fitil the proceeds of the sale of one work.
www.stile.it/articolo/emilio-leofreddi/638587
www.ilmessaggero.it/articolo.php?id=73258...
roma.corriere.it/roma/notizie/arte_e_cultura/09_settembre_8/mostra_leofreddi_vittoriano-1601746455648.shtml
www.gallerialanuvola.it
Millenium Klima, Tonj Acquaviva and Rosie Wiederkehr
The CD is produced by Weltlabyrinth (distribution Egea Music) and available in Feltrinelli stores from May 2009.
The work is the fusion two musical projects created by Tonj Acquaviva, founder and leader of Agricantus, a group that has always cultivated an interest for minorities and has contaminated its work with different sounds and languages, performed by singer Rosie Wiederkehr.
Millenium Klima support’s Fitil’s project with QDrum, to facilitate the transportation of water in the rural communities of developing countries.
espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio//2103178
http://www.agricantus.info/
www.tonjacquaviva.com/Sito/TonjAcquaviva.html
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7VNAUog994
www.tonjacquaviva.splinder.com
2008
Dov’è andato il cielo, (Where the Sky Went), silent auction, Sala 1 art gallery, Rome, October 11, 2008
Art curator Manuela De Leonardis and artist Giusy Lauriola, in collaboration with the director of the gallery, Angela Schroth, organized an auction to collect funds for Associazione Fitil.
Fourty artists participated, by donating one of their works:
Marco Bernardi, Alessandro Bulgini, Desideria Burgio, Priscilla Burke, Roberto Cavallini, Alberta Cuccia, Marco Delogu, Baldo Diodato, Emilio d’Itri, Patrizio Di Sciullo, Simona Filippini, Ruza Gagulic, Zazie Gnecchi Ruscone, Rosanna Granata, Gianfranco Grosso, Fathi Hassan, Reiko Hiramatsu, ITTO, Giusy Lauriola, Emilio Leofreddi, Carole Le Pers, Giuliano Lombardo, Bertina Lopes, Dafne Lopiano, Sandro Mele, Elisa Montessori, Antonella Monzoni, Franco Ottavianelli, Andrea Papi, Giordano Pariti, Renata Romagnoli, Claudia Romiti, Andrew Rutt, Samagra (Anna Maria Colucci), Maia Sambonet, Mary Serpico Lay, Silvia Stucky, Sahoko Takahashi, Yosuke Taki, Tarshito, Tito
www.eosarte.eu/?p=4573
www.giusylauriola.it/
www.artapartofculture.org/author/manuela/
The unsold works have remained the property of Associazione Fitil. It is possible to see and purchase them in the section Artists for Fitil of this website.
A Fundraising Event, St. Stephen’s School, Rome, October 17, 2008
Presentation of Associazione Fitil
Photographic Exhibition / Screening of documentary Glamour Burkinabè
Music, drinks, snacks / African objects for sale
www.ststephens-rome.com
2007
Glamour Burkinabè, by Angela Rosati and Enrico Pergolini,
in collaboration with Associazione Fitil, with the patronage of Rome City Council.
A documentary on Fespaco 2007, one of Africa’s leading cinema festivals, which takes place every two years in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A conversation with Burkinabé director Gaston Kaboré provides a running link, accompanying the most telling images of key places, protagonists, events and trailers of competing films. But Fespaco is not just cinema. During the festival, Ouagadougou becomes the world capital of the best of African glamour, hosting artistic events, special evenings, fashion shows and concerts every night. It’s an on-going party, which opens and closes in the stadium before a crowd of nearly 40,000 people. For those who can’t afford tickets, itinerant street cinema, the event’s other leading protagonist, steps in to fill the gap. Images of the festival alternate with views of the savannah and the images of the first ever film screening in the village of Sakouli, where Associazione Fitil works.
Glamour Burkinabè has been screened in various festivals, among which Everglades in South Africa (second price for Best African Documentary), Golden Lion in Zimbabwe, Filmstock in Luton, UK, Panafricana at Villa Medici in Rome; Informazione Disinformazione at Casa della Pace, Milan.
www.cultframe.com/.../panafricana-le-mille-afriche-del-cinema-a-roma/
www.filmstock.co.uk/history.html
www.amritsa.com/ev1.htm
temi.provincia.milano.it/casadellapace/.../disinformazione_programma.pdf
2006
Magnificat, Church music concert
Polyphonic chorus Polifollia, soloists of Accademia di Musica di San Godenzo
May 21, 2006, Church of All Saints, Via del Babuino, Rome
free entrance, with donations for Associazione Fitil
Tam Tam Riace 2006
Festival of Theatre, Art and Music
art director Francesco Marino
August 27 – September 9, 2006, Riace (RC)
Associazione Fitil was invited to speak at one of the workshops
www.lesenfantsterribles.info/teatro.../mooffanka/?...
2005
For Bettie, personal exhibit by Sandro Mele
Il Totem gallery, Venice, July-August 2005
For Bettie was the brain child of Sandro Mele. It is the encounter of contemporary artistic expression, which represents in its diversity, the positive atmosphere created by the figure of Bettie Petith. Her home in Rome’s historical centre is always inhabited by people who can’t afford their own place, artists, students, political refugees, from everywhere, each with a story to tell. But Bettie’s vision goes beyond, to those who are even more in need and vulnerable. After years of professional experience in Africa and Latin America, where she worked with various non profit organisations, in 2005 she decided to form an organisation with some friends. In order to help raise funds for Associazione Fitil, artist Sandro Mele came up with the idea of producing a DVD in the context of his exhibition For Bettie. It is a multimedia work, to which several artists contributed with original pieces. The DVD was distributed in exchange for donations for Fitil.
In the Venetian gallery, Totem Il Canale, Sandro Mele exhibited the works realized by photographing people around the dining table in Bettie’s house. The pictures were accompanied by a video with an interview of Bettie, who relates how the association was born (shot and edited by Sam Cole, with the music of Tonj Acquaviva).
Artists who contributed to the CD: Matthew Garrison, Roberta Garrison, Joy Garrison, Giuliano Lombardo, Sam Cole, Foly du Burkina, Minimono, David Cossin, Tonj Acquaviva and Rosie Wiederkehr (Welt Labyrinth), Mario Crispi, Andre's Arce Maldonado
Texts by Manuela De Leonardis, Sebastiano Vitale, Raffaella Guidobono, Alessandra Pomarico, Pietro Roccasecca
www.totemilcanale.com/pagine%20artisti/mele.htm
www.exibart.com/notizia.asp?idnotizia=13550
www.novaudio.it/ita/news01.htm
www.novaudio.it/eng/allestimenti.html
www.exibart.com/profilo/.../persona_view.asp?id...
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