Season' s Greetings

Details
Created: Saturday, 19 December 2009 17:02

We take this opportunity to wish you a joyful and peaceful festive season and a happy New Year 2010 of renewed hope and progress. At the same time we would like to thank you for your valuable contributions and support you have provided for Tonga.Online and our cultural exchange program across the waters and the continents.
We are very grateful to the many friends, stakeholders and partners who have been collaborating with Tonga.Online in support of this program and for the BaTonga people of the Zambezi Valley.
Ube amwaaka mupiya mubotu.
Mweende Kabotu!
Twalumba loko, Leza Amulongezye and see you in 2010!

Richard Simango, Acting Project Director, Binga
Penny Yon, Kunzwana Trust, Harare
Peter Kuthan, Austria Zimbabwe Friendship Association, Linz

2009 has been a remarkable and incisive year for Tonga.Online given its mixture of setbacks and achievements. The severe crisis in Zimbabwe caused untold hardship and suffering for the people of the country and for remote areas like Binga district in particular. The pull out of our partner HORIZONT3000 from Zimbabwe brought the project to the brink of collapse but the team managed to hold out and carry on.

A group of 30 Tonga musicians from both sides of the River was invited and accompanied to Austria to take part in an unique encounter of sound worlds from different parts of the globe, the Parade. www.linz09.at/parade-blog

Sadly, our friend Keith Goddard, a mastermind of Parade and key figure of Tonga.Online and our cultural exchange program since many years, died on October 9th. The release of the Parade documentary is testimony that we are still committed to pursue his legacy.

In fact there is new hope and a light at the end of the tunnel for Tonga.Online with HIVOS and Austrian Development Agency considering to provide for further funding, and with new partners like Basilwizi Trust and Rotary Clubs on board. We hope that the overall situation of the country will also change to the better.

*******

Please note that the Tonga.Online Office in Binga will close for the Festive Season at 1pm on the 24th December and reopen on the 4th January 2010.