Several international charities from Angers and Le Mans, all of them partners of CODER in Cinco Pinos (Nicaragua), have invited Flora and Francisco to spend 2 weeks in France
Here is a selection of the happy moments they spent :
They arrived in Vendée on Tuesday sept. 27th... the sun was shining !
They had 2 special moments :
In the morning they went to the College Sainte Marie in Aizenay, which has been involved in exchanges with young students from Cinco Pinos for a few years. The discussion was in Spanish. Francisco became a teacher for a few hours and used the backboard and the chalks. Flora was a bit tired and mostly talked about the school and the activities of the youth.
They spent the afternoon in Poiré-sur-Vie’s library. We must remind that the library created by CODER in Cinco Pinos has a major role. 20 to 25 volunteers alternatively come to help Yasmina, who works full-time and gets a salary. There are about 1000 to 1500 books and magazines. Even if Nicaraguan villagers are not used to read, this project exists because people are working together. Young people from Cinco Pinos go to the library also to do their homework in a quiet place. Yasmina created a mobile library that goes to classes 3 times a month. Something important is the club called "Reading to grow up" created by the youth in 2003. It gives to young people the opportunity to experiment drama. In the plays they write, they present some of the problems they and their community encounter in everyday life. They can also practise dancing, handicraft and write a newspaper that Flora and Francisco promised to send us.

Then they spend some time in Anjou.
29/09/05 Visit of ITEPMAI (Institute of Medicinal Plants) in Chemillé. Flora and Francisco were interested but in the meantime aware of the difference between the situation here and in their country.
30/09/05 :
Visit of the Garden of the Pharmacy Faculty in Angers and then meeting with the AVDI (French Farmers in favour of International Development). They met Bertrand Métayer, Louis-Marie Rivière and André Chabot, President of CASI 49. The exchanges they had were very interesting and complementary, thanks to Africa and Latin-American different visions. In the evening, they met Jean-Jacques Bérel. They presented the actions and the projects of CODER with a CD Rom. Finally, there was a dinner with traditional music from a folk group. Our Nicaraguan friends enjoyed dancing. We had a happy moment !
01/10/05
Presentation of CODER in Saint Pierre School : Flora and Francisco were surprised to hear relevant questions coming from so young children.
A short visit was made to Chantal Gourdon’s family in Toutlemonde "It’s really important" said Flora "as it is the earth that keeps your umbilical cord"
Francisco even helped a goat having her 2 kids !
Then they spent the evening with the organization Bécon Solidarité.
02/10/05
Morning : working meeting of DEMAINS and CODER about the new projects to support.
03/10/05
Visit of an organic garden market. Francisco was delighted to see all these vegetables and took many seeds to experiment in Nicaragua. Then we went to the market of Doué-la-Fontaine where we could see products from the farm.

Our organisation in 2005

First of all, there has been a great mobilisation for the tsunami victims as we could collect 12 000 euro !
The French Ski School of Combloux decided to give part of the profits they make by selling badges. They collected 3991 euros.
On February 20th, the "Club des P’tits Loups" of Cressat( 49) gave a performance, with a play adapted from a tale by Grimm, "The Frog-King", and dances by the folk group " Jean do Bouex". They collected 500 euros.
In July, we received a grant from the "Fondation de France" : 7000 euros this year and 8000 euros in the next 2 years for the tsunami victims.

Thank you to all these donors !

We were sorry to hear that sister Christiane had left us at the beginning of 2005. We admired her work with poor children in Sri-Lanka.

Following a violent hurricane in Andra Pradesh, our partner of LITDS, Peter Daniel, asked us for help. We decided to give 7000 euros as we had the money and no other project was completed.

On February 4th, 120 people met to watch the diaporama called
" The African Odyssey of Paule and Arthur, a 14-month bike-riding in Africa "

The profit made at this occasion was of 900 euros and was given to Indian tribes of Katukapalli (to buy buffaloes).

Once again, the Angevine Team organized a night with storytellers on 22nd May.
We invited the Storytellers of the Jabotée.
32 enjoyed the humour and the solemnity of these friendly people !
A profit of 165 euros was made.