M & M in Suriname

Our life with the Wayana indians

Vanessa’s shop in Apetina

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When we fly to Apetina we often have extra capacity in the MAF plane. We use to fill this with cargo containing soap, toothpaste, fish hooks and other things the people of Apetina need and which is not available in the village. This way we assisted the people with the things they needed and they helped us by paying a small amount for each item we could sell.

The children are happy the river is declining

E.g. when someone buys a tube of toothpaste, they pay the price of the city plus 145 gr. of the price per kilo airfare. This makes us competitive with the chinese shops downstream where people would go to do their shopping. This means two days in the canoe, gasoline for their outboard motor and much higher prices than in the city. This all made that the goods we brought in, were sold in no time and we had to disappoint many who showed up too late.

Volleyball tournament in front of our house on July 1

We have been talking about the possibility to help the Wayana to start a shop in the village for several years now. This has been tried before several times and failed time and again. You need logistics in town, an amount of money to buy enough for a whole village, a place in the village where the goods can be stored and a shop. So it took quite a while to get all things and the players in place.

Marco explaines

Now everything and every one is in place.

We provided a ‘micro credit’ to start a grocery shop. In a few years the parties involved have to pay back their loan. The workers in the shop can earn a small salary. Monday July first the shop opened its doors. People were waiting long before opening hours already in line to see what they could buy in ’their’ new local shop.

Situnka thanks the Lord for His provision

These days we are finalizing the administrative things that are needed for the shop. How does each player report to each other so all lines are clear and workable. In the mean time we heard that another village upstream would like to get involved as well bringing groceries from the Apetina store house to their village and sell things locally also. We’ll see if this will work out.

Vanesa learned how to run the shop

Baby Buddy Project

A few months ago we heard from the MZ doctor that there was one baby in Apetina malnourished because of insufficient nutrition by its mothers breastfeeding. He needed cans with powder milk.

We provided the first box with twelve cans while we were still in Lawa supported by MAF. Last month the nurses in the village told us there was another baby not growing very well, so we decided to help this mother also with cans with powder milk. You can’t help one baby and say no to another, can you? Now it seems to get above our financial capacity so we hereby ask if there are people who want to support us in this endeavor we call the ‘Baby Buddy Project’. Until now we received 400 US$, which is enough to cover the first three months. In September we’ll give a next update. If you can help please let us know by e-mail mjschuurmans@me.com

 

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