Isle of Wight Rotarian, Adrian Brewer, is a man of action who gets things done.
And since May, Adrian has been co-ordinating a project to send valuable aid to West Africa, working with his charity, the Roll Out the Barrel Trust.
His charity linked with Paddington Rotary in West London to fill a 40-foot shipping container with an assortment of more than 1,000 items which will help the community in Bouafle, and working with the charity, Kweni Inc.
Now, the colourful container, its outside painted with striking images completed by artist, Tony Trowbridge, has arrived in Côte d’Ivoire.
Adrian explained: “The container came to the Isle of Wight and we arranged for one of our volunteers to cheer it up with a mural on both sides.
“This surely is a stand out container. When the container is emptied we are turning it on its side, removing the doors and converting it to an Arts and Community centre for the women and children in the area, with a nursery and a post- natal clinic if we can get it staffed.
“It could even be used as a school room for primary children every afternoon for three hours.
“We filled the container here on the island and what is inside which is essentially enough aid to help 800 people who have virtually nothing and to help set up a number of small enterprises in the Bouafle area, such as clothes making, a cycle shop, cobbling, photography, children’s clothing and charcoal manufacture.
Since May, Adrian has been co-ordinating a project to send valuable aid to West Africa, working with his charity, the Roll Out the Barrel Trust.”
“In addition, we have included tools to establish a group as builders. All the tools needed are in there.
“In this container are also 140 family water filters and water barrels to help with the collection of water. The tools are to help manage the basic mechanics of putting things together and repairing them.”
Last July, the container was loaded on the Isle of Wight and then driven to Portsmouth where the port operating company, Portico, helped the charity to get all the goods cleared reading for shipping with no charge.
The container was loaded onto Africa Express Lines’ vessel, Caribbean Star bound for Antwerp in Belgium, before continuing on to West Africa, where it arrived earlier this month.
The container really is an Aladdin’s cave of treats to help 800 families in Bouafle. They received donations from all over the country including art materials, garden equipment and mustard seeds.
Adrian drove to Aquabox’s headquarters in Derbyshire to collect 120 Family LifeStraws donated by Brynmawr Rotary almost a year ago and which were destined to go to Argentina.
However, due to insurmountable problems, the LifeStraws were held back, and now they are in Côte d’Ivoire.
“There’s sportswear, garden tools, hand tools, bicycles and scooters and a drum kit with a xylophone. There is some medical equipment and even the kitchen sink,” added Adrian.
“The important thing is that everything in there is usable or can be refurbished easily with a bit of training and determination.
There’s sportswear, garden tools, hand tools, bicycles and scooters and a drum kit with a xylophone. There is some medical equipment and even the kitchen sink,”
“This is not a ‘hand out’ container, it is a ‘help you out’ container and everyone will need to make an effort to make something really sustainable from the contents.”
Never one to rest, Adrian now has another container ready to fill. “We call it big yellow, because it is,” explained Adrian.
“This is going to Uganda full of stuff. Everything from 5,000 lifejackets to a pair of pliers and this week we were given almost 200 tins of paint, some partly used but so many unopened. Now we need brushes and rollers.”
If you can help with the container to Uganda, then contact Adrian on 07809 456247.
