“The Mali Fala Fund”
Written in The Tolucan Times and Canyon Crier, Wednesday October 11th, 2006

A tiny baby who will benefit from the work of Jane Drew.

Jane Drew: I want to talk about a local young woman called Jane Drew. Jane, and other good people, stand up and take action to make the world a kinder place. While writing this story I am in New Orleans, a city that is renewing itself on the kindness of strangers. It is heartening to hear of the untold stories of people who are rebuilding houses one by one just because they can and it’s the right thing to do. It is heartening to hear of Jane Drew and her personal mission to provide care for abandoned children in Mali…

Some Mali facts: It’s the largest country in Africa. The capitol is Bamako, the language is French. The Mali population, 12 million, is one of the poorest in the world, yet their culture is one of the richest- being the cradle of Timbuktu and Dogon cultures.

Children given hope for life by the dream of Jane Drew.

Last year Jane Drew had a birthday party and instead of personal gifts, she asks for help to make her dream come true with a donation to a Malian orphanage. Then she personally bought all the donations to Mali to be spent at local merchants to acquire essential goods for the orphanage, thereby helping the community and the children. The story of her good adventure is astounding, and it should be a movie…

So, attention all you creative producers in our Media District. I think the public would be uplifted and entertained by the story of a young girl, (and her pal) taking off to Mali with a dream and some birthday bounty. They stagger off the airplane after endless hours of flying and are greeted by officials and the press and the children. They shop for the food, manage to get it delivered, change lives, and show the true American generosity. Jane receives a tribal name from a faraway community, who trust her goodness. She is confronted with sweet children who sleep many to a bed, but are lucky to have been saved by good people. Tiny babies, twins, growing youngsters who will have a healthier and stable life because Jane Drew had a dream and is following through. She is trying to arrange a fundraising concert and anything in order to meet her next commitment and to keep the tribal land.

Jane Drew with the tribal chief who gave her the land to build the new orphanage.

Jane is very accountable, so everyone knows exactly how their money was spent. It paid past due rent, electric and phone for the orphanage, stocked them up on rice, corn , millet, beans, cooking oil, spices, cleaning supplies and medical necessities and a little candy and some Christmas gifts for the holidays. And to top all this after long rides and challenging meetings with a tribal chief, she manage to get land offered to the orphanage. Now she is trying to raise money to build a new and better facility on this land. She has 13 months or the land is taken back. Yikes! This one person following a passion to make life better for others. We can help her do this…

On Tuesday, Oct. 24 at the Ghetto Gloss Gallery in Silverlake, Jane Drew is organizing a silent auction. Her hope is to raise $10,000 to help the children in Mali. She hopes to replenish the everyday supplies and also get school materials. Jane will personally purchase the items in Mali in January 2007. The fundraising auction is designed to give the highest bidder a professional service or consultation. Anything from gardening advice to a car tune up to a massage or yoga class, all donated by local businesses. This is a simple event, creative and industrious. And inspiring.

Habib Koite, a famous musician, helps with getting the supplies. He will be at Jane Drew's Fundraiser on Oct 24th.

If you want to contact Jane Drew for information or for any way that you can help the Mali orphans, she gave me permission to print her contact information. Her phone is (323) 660-1574 and her e-mail is: jdmalikids@yahoo.com.

This is so doable. Many of us wish we knew how to help Africa and the wonderful and dignified people who need a hand to lift them up and to help them help themselves. Thanks to Jane Drew for the opportunity to join her dream…we’ll talk.