Raising Funds for Mali
In April of 2007, Mark Sinclair emailed WCE president Timothy Anderson with his idea about "Limo To Africa". His vision was to drive a 1988 Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine from California to Mali to raise some funds for a shipment from WCE for a few schools in the area around Bamako, Mali. We introduced him to the Rotary Club Bamako Amitie that works with the Ministry of Education. The Rotary's plan to connect 70 schools and 7,000 students to the Internet was approved as a WCE Partner in March of 2006.
As part of his fundraising plan, Mark had the idea to auction the limo that he named 'Vegas' after the rally.
Over the next few months, he drove from California across the States raising funds. Then the rugged limo was loaded on a ship and then drove across Europe as one of 15 cars who drove the 3,600 mile path of the Plymouth-Bamako Challenge rally organized by Julian Nowill.
to quote Mark, 'It was an amazing journey – winding through the tiniest of alleys in the Medina of Marrakesh, off-roading through the soft Saharan sands and along the beaches of Mauritania, ferrying across the Niger river, and the brutal road to Timbuktu."
After his arrival in Bamaka, Mark had raised close to $3,700 from 17 family, friends, and fellow employees of the Degenkolb Engineers New Technologies Group. The donations arrived from November 2007 to April of 2008.
WCE was grateful and thought that was about it.
Every so often Mark would email that he still had hopes for the auction of 'Vegas'.
Through an unfortunate combination of aborted sale arrangements and the inevitable long distance miscommunications, Vegas sat unused and unsold. In late July 2010 team members Mark Sinclair and Brian Dunn decided that the unresolved situation had to be dealt with. They jumped on a plane with one small bag of clothing and two large bags of spare parts and tools apiece. 48 hours later they arrived in Mali with a scant six days to resolve the situation. Fortunately "Vegas" had been well-cared for by their good friend in Bamako, Dagnon Souaybouand family. With a tune-up and a new battery she was purring like a kitten again, ready to find a new home.
Sunny Akuopha of the Rotary arranged for 'Vegas' to be available for viewing at the Banque Internationale du Mali Headquarters at Bolibana and oversaw the auction in September 2010. WCE received an email celebrating the $4,000 that 'Vegas had fetched.
WCE was grateful and thought that was about it.
The next day Sunny Akuopha contacted WCE announcing that the West Africa Rotary District is donating $5,000 and that the matches from Rotary International will total $13,000.
Mark's vision is about to leverage nearly $40,000!
Mali is the first to be matched by Rotary International. WCE has received support from Rotary Clubs in Canada and the USA to ship refurbished computers to projects assisted by Rotary Clubs in: Afghanistan, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Mali, Mexico and Tanzania.
Donate directly to our Mali project to connect 7,000 student:
