To all people of Kagnew Station:

This is a letter from Jeffrey L. Shannon, a former Peace Corps worker, who is 
currently living and working in Asmara. He says the people of Eritrea need 
help. Some people have gone back to visit Asmara. 

You mentioned that if I needed help, the people at the former Kagnew
Station might be able to help. Well, we can always use help. In what sort
of areas would the people be interested in helping out in? I've got several
project proposals I'd love to have funded. There are items that we'd love
to have sent over in just about all fields. We're setting up our office and
need a fax machine and photocopier, not to mention a computer and printer.
That's very selfishly speaking, mind you, and just for our office.  But we
also need thousands of blankets, medicines, medical equipment, clothing and
on and on. The list is really endless. And that's just for emergency
relief. These are things that we can buy here or in the area, but simply
need the funds to do it (it's much cheaper to buy the things here in the
area than to buy them in the US and ship them over). There are also
longer-term developmental needs: I'm working on a project to set up a
computer training/internet café center in collaboration with the National
Union of Eritrean Youth and Students, so that underprivileged children can
also have access to the internet and computer training, both in Asmara and
around the country. We're working on a program for HIV/AIDS prevention
among vulnerable populations. There are several projects waiting for
funding to work on income-generating projects, especially for women who are
really suffering from the economic downturn in the country and, all too
often, who have lost their husbands or sons to the war (either dead or away
on the front). Now these women are the primary breadwinners, but with no
marketable skills or no access to the small amounts of capital that they
need. They need the sort of help that will help them market the skills they
already possess or to teach them new ones that will enable them to restart
their lives and to care for their children.

Whew. I could go on for pages and pages, but I'll spare you all that.
Suffice to say there are many needs and we're doing our best to address
them with our very limited capacity.

By the way, I'm now working for the US non-profit, non-governmental
organization Eritrean Development Foundation. I'd volunteered and
cooperated with them many times over the past two years and was much
impressed with their work. When they decided it was time to open an office
here in Eritrea, instead of operating exclusively from Washington DC, I was
ready and willing to help them out. So I'm now with them on a short term
contract to get the office set up and the program going. It's nice too to
have that sort of backing. They're a good and very dynamic organization.
Check out their website if you get the chance and the interest. They do
very good work (hmm, does that sound self-serving now that I'm working for
them??).

Take care, John, and thanks very much for contacting me. If you're
interested and can bring some more old Kagnewers on board, I think we might
be able to do some good work together. What do you think?

Selaam,

Jeff

You can read about Jeff Shannon at the following Web site:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/3075/jeff/jeff.html
________________________________________________
Jeffrey L. Shannon,
Country Representative
Eritrean Development Foundation (EDF)
P.O. Box 5804
Asmara, ERITREA

tel.: (291 1) 18 30 33
fax: (291 1) 12 51 45
e-mail: jlshannon@gemel.com.er
www.edfonline.org