December was indeed a festive month we had the visit of many overseas VIPs concerned with education.
A special thanks to the Rotary Club of London as through Mr. John Holman, SPES has been given support to integrate appropriate Solar system to our Multi-literarcy Global Village Project to help to reach out to children in need of special education worldwide.

On 1st December Mr. Armoogum Parsuraman from UNESCO/Paris engaged in the African Education Sector showed great interest in the SPES proximity project hat integrates our newways of teaching with the e-tools and our pluri-lingual approach.				Mrs. Sonia Fernandez-Lauro from the UNESCO Education Sector in the Documentation and Information Section, spent the morning of 3rd December at SPES and was also very enthusiastic about our mobile Solar and radio systems and above all our Multi-literacy Global Village Project.

Follow a series of virtual photographs to illustrate our NGO's participation on the occasion of AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) Forum events
(December 8 - 10, 2003).

As the SPES Designer Textile Handcrafts were selected by the Organisers for special SHOWCASES provided at the prestigious National Smithsonian Museum of African Art, in Washington D.C., our SPES Mastercrafts Weavers and Silkscreeners presented the famous Mauritian writer and painter Malcolm de CHAZAL ecological colourful Designs.

The SPES Representative was Myriam Narainsamy, one of our NGO’s Vocational Teachers (photograph 2). Photograph 1 depicts Myriam next to collaborators and Members of the Mauritian Delegation: from left to right Mr. Paul Ryberg, the Honourable Jayen Cuttaree, Minister of Industry and International Trade and Mr. Peter Craig.

Photograh 4 depicts our display of the Chazal/SPES Wall Tapestries that we weave in limited series of eight per Design and are in Pure Wool. On the forefront journalist Pamela Dupont de St. Antoine and Myriam. The latter was most grateful to the AGOA Organisers specially to Debby Orsini depicted with her on photograph 3.

Mryiam took a photograph of the Crafts Panel on which our good friend and Crafts colleague, Caroline Ramsay participated. The latter has been an unflinching promoter of Crafts SMEs and promoter of the Washington Crafts Centre, second from right on photograph 5.

On photograph 6, our display of crafted cushions and tablemats handprinted on Pure Cotton yarn from Madagascar Island, woven at the Socota Texile Mills Ltd in the Island of Mauritius and silkscreened at the SPES Workshops.

Lastly, Myriam could not resist taking a snapshot in front of the White House (photo 7).

Our New Year Gift for our SPES internaut friends is the possibility to printout our Sunflower Virtual Calendar. May it remind you that we count with your collaborative efforts to generate a Better Quality of Life for all. Latest news on the SPES special Science Cybercafé for our Teacher / Trainers / Staff /Members Craftspeople and their young kids held on 29th December. Our Guests of Honour for this Festive Fun Learning Occasion were the newly nominated National Ombudsperson for Children and the Apple Representative, based in Paris, who was accompanied by two of his Apple local Hi-tec collaborators. A series of photos illustrate the informal event stimulating Open Discussions that ensued on our SPES Multi-literacy Global Village Development Approach using ecological Solar Mobile Panels and the diffusion of radio broadcasts through the small wonder portable satellite dishes of WorldSpace special programmes on AIDS. The children also enjoyed immensely the WorldSpace Kids Castle programme that SPES captures via satellite on our laptops for either outdoors or indoors use. These newways of communication is really a user-friendly breakthrough to extend the SPES Appropriate Knowledge and Training Skills Access to equalize Children’s chance of sustainable development, be it nationally and regionally, to eliminate Poverty and Exclusion for a Better Quality of Life for those in need of capacity-building to attain self-reliance. Thus we count on global collaboration. In Mauritian creole, Banané to all collaborators of the new informatics society. From left to right: Ombudsperson for Children, Mrs. Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra, Mrs. May Vaddamallay, Mr. Brice Contassot, Apple Area Sales Manager, Mrs. Helena Langlois It is hoped that as early January 2004 the Powerful Decision-makers, Political and Business Leaders and the NGO Direct Funding Donors can find time to visit our “Vocational and Multimedia Training Centre” to speed up the implementation of the nationwide community-based SPES skyskools that can reach out, simultaneously, to all out-of-school marginalized children.