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[Thomas Beckett <thomas AT tbeckett.com>]

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I must admit that the second thing that occured to me was that there
must be a good joke to make involving the 419 scam.  And even though it
is in incredibly poor taste, my lizard brain is still trying to think up
that joke.

On a more serious note, I also want to make a modest pledge, but the
pledge page doesn't seem to be working.

http://abomeyorphanageproject.org/makeapledge.htm

There are only entry fields for name, contact info and a comment, but no
"submit" button or payment options.  I'm using Firefox 1.5.0.12 on XP
and enabled scripts for this site.  Am I missing something?

Thomas

Bill Geschwind wrote:
> As some of you who knew me personally may remember, last year I resigned
> my position at UNC to accept an offer to join the Foreign Service. After
> my initial training I found myself posted to Cotonou in the West-African
> nation of Benin for my first two-year tour of duty, and I have been
> living here since early January.
> 
>  
> 
> Before arriving here I was warned that the level of poverty that I will
> witness at times can be rather overwhelming and that I would need to
> resist the urge to try to personally “fix Africa” or to give money to
> any beggar who would ask for a handout. There are plenty of shady
> characters here who will take advantage of your feelings of charity and
> pose as beggars, only to turn around and spend your money on things like
> drugs and hookers. I have no sympathy for those types, however there are
> plenty of people here in genuine need and one is still left with the
> desire to do **something** to help.
> 
>  
> 
> Now, rather than blindly jumping on the first project that I would come
> across, I wanted to make sure that any efforts of mine would make a
> tangible and lasting difference. Shortly after I got here I found that I
> wasn’t alone in this sentiment and it turns out that a colleague of mine
> who arrived here several months before I did has already organized a
> project with an orphanage in the town of Abomey, about a three hours
> drive from here. This colleague of mine, the Embassy’s GSO (General
> Services Officer – in essence a facilities manager) organized a team of
> volunteers, performed a comprehensive needs analysis, and set up a
> project schedule to refurbish the facilities of this orphanage. The
> project team has even set up a web site describing the project:
> 
>  
> 
> http://abomeyorphanageproject.org/
> 
>  
> 
> Even though this web site is still a work in progress, please do take a
> look at it to see the desperate conditions in which these orphans are
> living. The word inadequate doesn’t even begin to describe the condition
> of the facilities!
> 
>  
> 
> To move forward with this project we have now reached the fundraising
> stage. I’m not going to ask you to personally donate money, although if
> you would like to I’m sure you won’t be turned down, however if you
> belong to a church, civic or other group that is looking for a
> fundraising project or if you have any connections to a business,
> corporation or maybe an alumni association that is looking for a
> charitable cause, I would very much appreciate it if you could bring our
> project to their attention.
> 
>  
> 
> Please note that this is not an official US Government, State Department
> or embassy project, but rather embassy employees donating their spare
> time, effort and expertise towards this cause. Also, not being a tax
> consultant, I cannot make any representations regarding any donations to
> this cause being tax-exempt.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for taking a look,
> 
> Bill
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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Thomas A. Beckett, JD & MBA                  Business Law and Consulting
828-713-1668            <http://www.tbeckett.com>           919-824-5696
Authentication instructions: <http://www.tbeckett.com/verification.html>
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