We have been working for some time to try and get internet in Guinea-Bissau. Up until today there were just a couple of internet cafés in the capital Bissau. We are just testing the new GPRS mobile phone system that was switched on for Gabú last week. Mercy Trucks are working with a telecommunications company who are using us to test the new system. We can now start to get the schools online and the many missionaries and other organisations working in Guinea-Bissau will soon be able to communicate via email from their operating locations instead of having to travel for a day to the capital.

The island of Caravela is a new location we are working in. It is very remote and we are working there to set up a maternity facility.

Mercy Trucks are now working to finish the construction of a health centre in Gabu. The health centre includes a reception and waiting area where education films will be shown along with a three bay dental facility, a wounds treatment clinic, a general medical clinic, a pharmacy with storage facility, a large child malnutrition centre with social and educational facilities and a staff area with an office.

We have been able to assist on a number of other projects including providing toys and clothes to an orphanage in the capital, Bissau. These new clothes and toys (teddies for tragedies) were handmade by ladies in the UK. Through your kind donations, we are providing medical facilities and equipment to help kit out a new hospital run by the Emanuel charity in the capital Bissau. This includes equipment to allow for new medical procedures, a dental facility and a maternity unit (We would also like to help in provide a malaria facility but we need more equipment).

Over the next few weeks we have more volunteers coming from Holland and America, who will be working on the many projects we have underway at the moment as well as initiating some new ones. Aids is now beginning to spread more rapidly in Guinea-Bissau and if the necessary funds are donated we hope to be able to include an AIDS testing and treatment facility for the Eastern region next year. To be able to do this however, we are in great need of more funds and staff.