Pioneers/Travel Teachers are required in these countries -

Bhutan - urgent need for pioneers in this beautiful Himalayan country. Job opportunities sometimes can be found with the various international development agencies and Voluntary Services Overseas and the World Wide Fund. Botswana - Job opportunities will shortly be occurring for doctors and medical staff as seven new hospitals are being built in remote areas of Botswana. Cook Islands - Travel teacher or short term pioneer required to train child education teachers and to sort materials for Local Spiritual Assemblies in connection with child education. Present employment opportunities exist for English teachers and carpenters. Cyprus pioneers urgently required on this lovely Mediterranean island, particularly in Strovolos, near Nicosia. Pioneers would have to be self-supporting financially. Professional Bahá’í artists are needed to help teach the Cause in Cyprus through participating in non-Bahá’í cultural events. Fiji - There is a particular need for pioneers to move to Fiji and to settle in the numerous small towns scattered around the country. Pioneers are required to be self-supporting, as jobs are generally not available in these areas. A peaceful semi-rural life is available in these small towns. Retired persons with experience of living in foreign cultures and who still have reasonably good health are the type of people that may best fill this need.

Slovenia and Croatia - pioneers urgently required so that two separate National Spiritual Assemblies can be formed in these two countries. In particular, two pioneer families are much needed in Slovenia.

South Africa - requires travel teachers for any period of time between two weeks to a few months to assist in achieving the goals of the Four Year Plan.

Tanzania - Pioneer volunteers for Ruaha Secondary School, Iringa positions which need filling are: English/oral Education Teacher and Computer Programmer who can assist with Accounts.

Virgin Islands particularly if familiar with training institute programmes. Tourism is the major industry. Possibility of teaching jobs on some of the islands.

Zambia - Teachers required at Banani Bahá’í School, 100 km north of the capital Lusaka, in lovely rural surroundings.

In addition pioneers are very much needed in the Faroe Islands, Greece and Latvia ...Stories from pioneers are featured in this issue’s World News.

Please contact members of CIPTT for information on these and other opportunities: Rouhieh Afnan, Tel: 0181 904 7355, Thelma Batchelor, Tel: 01372 375782, Edgar Boyett, Tel: 01483 568926, Barbara Winner, Tel: 01162 730181.

The non-formal rural education project supported by BASED-UK at the request of the Universal House of Justice and implemented by the Bayan Association among Garifuna and Miskito Indians on the north coast of Honduras is almost half way through its five year term. The project aims to provide young rural people with the skills, knowledge and attitudes to live and work in rural areas, and become effective community leaders who will help their very poor communities achieve a decent quality of life and discourage migration to the cities. The project is trying to develop the human potential of youth in the area. As mentioned in the Prosperity of Humankind document, it is striving to achieve the "real purpose" of development ... the cultivation of the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness."

There have been many difficulties and challenges, not least those caused by Hurricane Mitch, which left the project area traumatised and impoverished due to both the loss of crops and the ensuing inflation. But the project is now gaining credibility among the regional and national authorities. The Honduran Minister of Education visited the project in May, together with a representative of the United Nations development programme and actually stayed a night in Bayan’s field office. He said that the programme has a great future ("mucho futuro"), and the success that it can have in the Gracias a Dios can be expanded throughout the Republic ... The Ministry of Education is willing to support these efforts". The Minister was particularly impressed by the students he met and their commitment to the project. He said that he would like to visit the project every six months to monitor its progress.

Secondly, an official request was recieved by Bayan from a departmental governor for expansion of SAT to all the communities in his area. While Bayan clearly does not have the capacity to respond to this at the moment, it is evidence of how highly the project is viewed. The British Government, through the Department for International Development (DFID) has provided half the money for the project - just over a quarter of a million pounds over five years. DFID has commented to BASED-UK that it regards this as one of its best Non-Governmental Organisation projects.

Up to April 1999 the other 50% of the funding was provided by the Kellogg Foundation and The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). However, this funding has now come to an end, and while every effort is being made to find other funding both here and in Honduras, applications so far have been unsuccessful. This is why the National Spiritual Assembly is currently providing the counterpart funding required under the terms of the DFID grant. This is to avoid having to ask the Universal House of Justice for the money who, because of its importance, originally underwrote the project.

Can we all make a monumental effort and contribute financially to this inspirational project and take the burden off our National Spiritual Assembly and the Universal House of Justice?

Please send all contributions to: The Secretary, BASED-UK, 22 East Saint Helen Street, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 5EB. Please make cheques payable to BASED-UK earmarked for Bayan. If you are a tax payer and would like to covenant your donation please make cheques payable to the "National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the UK". You will be sent the appropriate form.