Dial Afrika Wednesday 14 May

Join PJ this week for a very important music/social progress combination, as he talks to Mardi Kendall.

Dial Afrika 9am Wednesdays

Mardi Kendall is an American/Australian, and a beloved Sydney yoga teacher since 1989. She’s having a benefit concert on this coming Saturday, May 17th, to take yoga to Guinea, West Africa and to support her NGO EcoGuinea. The evening will be a wonderful, varied & wild evening of music, dance, meditation and yoga performance.

The music of the kora – (the West African 21 string harp) – pulled Mardi to Guinea in 2000 and her life has revolved around helping her friends survive and thrive ever since. Guinea, while classified as the 13th poorest country economically, is among the highest-ranked in first-class music and dance.

Moving beyond Mardi’s numerous useful but band-aid measures, EcoGuinea is spearheading a community of resourceful Guineans who are committed to lifting their nation out of dire poverty. Their passionate grassroots mission is to transform the country, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, through inexpensive, tried-and-true and practical Eco technologies.

EcoGuinea already has programs in place where volunteers (over 100 families involved) are cleaning up their local areas and hospitals. This fundraiser is part of a push to keep EcoGuinea going, and to get Mardi to Guinea permanently. It’s all leading towards building our EcoCentre, a model permaculture farm and creative hub where all Guineans can learn the green solutions that can spell the difference between a life and death. (In Guinea the absence of sanitary waste disposal is not just inconvenient, it can kill you!)

The first big project will be Toilets for People, where EcoGuinea will bring a team to Guinea to build unique composting toilets (called “The Crapper”) from local materials and to set up local businesses to disseminate them.

Dial Afrika 9am Wednesdays