News
Tandem Help featured on OSR T.V.
OSR-T.V., a cable network received in the areas of Luebbenau, Luebben, Calau and the surrounding areas, accompanied our 5 tandem teams on their training trip through the Spreewald. Starting May 19, the program will be shown numerous times.
Aid to Litauen is on the Way
Four large cartons of aid for the Kaunas School for the Blind and Partially Sighted (Lithuania) were given to the Lithuanian Embassy in Berlin. The Embassy is taking care of transporting them to the Balkan Republic. In these cartons are four computers, three electric reading machines, and twenty white canes. A tandem is just waiting to be transported.
Everyone Can Help
We want to thank all those promoters and sponsors for their commitment to support schools for the blind and partially sighted in connection with the project Berlin-St. Petersburg. We are now in contact with schools in Laski (Poland), Kaunas (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn and Tartu (Estonia) as well as Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg (Russia).
The need for assistance is very great, even to the most elementary helps for the blind. We are happy for contributions of mechanical Braille typing machines and collapsible white canes (can be second-hand, but must be perfectly functioning). We also need help financing other auxiliary goods. If you would like to help, please send an email to kontakt@tandem-hilfen.de.
Joana Zimmer is Tandem-Help’s New Ambassador
Joana Zimmer, famous blind German pop singer, wants to support the project “Berlin - St. Petersburg 2006,” a project that is bringing aid to schools for the Blind in five countries. She says, “I think it is a really great thing. And I think that it is important to get involved. I’m happy that I have the chance to do that. It’s about a handicap that I understand best. I know how important and how expensive supplies are. I’m glad that I can be a part of this.”
Tandem friends collect 100 Euros
From the very beginning, Brigitte and Hartmut Rudolph from Wismar have led and supported Tandem-Help Projects with lots of interest on their part. They are excited about riding Tandems, and so they took a few training tours with the initiators of Tandem-Help. In spite of that, we weren’t able to get them excited about going on the trip to St. Petersburg with us.
BUT: At her birthday party on the 15th of January (Brigitte reached the half-century mark), her guests donated 100 Euros and 50 Cents for buying material to help our project. As spokespersons for all the blind and visually handicapped children, the initiators of Tandem-Help want to thank her very much for her help with the project Berlin - St. Petersburg.
A CD in support of Tandem-Help
The CD “Forest Music 3” has just come out - the best excerpts of the five-hour live performance “Forest Music” from the summer of 2005, produced by Thomas Nicolai and Friends.
Songwriters, jazz musicians, an acappella group and soloists perform in a wide spectrum of music genres. The proceeds from this CD (10 € per CD) benefit Tandem Help, Project Berlin-St. Petersburg. Interested? Contact the initiators of Tandem-Help (see „Contact“).
Order the CD in January 2006, and the 48-page brochure “Berlin-Athens,” a photographic and text documentary of Tandem-Help’s first project, on the occasion of the 2004 Paralympics, will be sent free.
Order the CD in January 2006, and the 48-page brochure “Berlin-Athens,” a photographic and text documentary of Tandem-Help’s first project, on the occasion of the 2004 Paralympics, will be sent free. Tandem Friends Collect 100 Euros
From the very beginning, Brigitte and Hartmut Rudolph from Wismar have led and supported Tandem-Help Projects with lots of interest on their part. They are excited about riding Tandems, and so they took a few training tours with the initiators of Tandem-Help. In spite of that, we weren’t able to get them excited about going on the trip to St. Petersburg with us.
BUT: At her birthday party on the 15th of January (Brigitte reached the half-century mark), her guests donated 100 Euros and 50 Cents for buying material to help our project. As spokespersons for all the blind and visually handicapped children, the initiators of Tandem-Help want to thank her very much for her help with the project Berlin - St. Petersburg.
Start for St. Petersburg is now June 10, 2006
A message from the General Consulate of St. Petersburg threw the Project Berlin-St. Petersburg touring plans in disarray. The originally planned arrival date (July 13) falls during the preparation for the G8 Summit, which is being held July 15 to 17 in St. Petersburg. The city will surely be filled with security, and won’t be waiting for Tandem Helpers. Therefore, the entire touring plan had to be reformed, all the vacation plans of all those participating changed, and everything thought through again.
Now the start will be on June 10 in Berlin, and if everything goes as planned, the successful finish will be at a press conference on July 2006 in St. Petersburg,
Those riding either tandems or bicycles, who want to travel with us for a portion of the first section of the trip, should let the initiators of Tandem-Help know in plenty of time (see “Kontakt”) Warmest regards
Start Social Praises Tandem-Help’s Dedication
Start Social is an initiative of the business community and the German government, both of whom have been involved in Tandem-Help. At Start-Social’s completion of the application phase, the Jury praised the exceptionally great personal dedication of the Tandem-Help initiators, and expressed their conviction that the project Berlin-St. Petersburg would be completed successfully. As critique, they mentioned that Tandem-Help, a strictly private initiative, is not starting an association in order to achieve their project goals, which means that the initiators have had to carry too great a portion of the project’s financing.
Will everything fit?
The training trips with trailers have already begun. Because it isn’t certain if we will always find accommodations with beds along the way from Berlin to St. Petersburg, riders need to take sleeping bags and mats along, as well as light camping gear for emergencies.
The company Two plus Two (Firma Zwei plus Zwei) is loaning out comfortable trailers without cost for the purpose of training.
Appeal for Partners in the Schools for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Over 60 educational facilities for the blind and visually impaired have received letters from Tandem-Help. With the introduction of the project Berlin-St. Petersburg 2006, the schools and vocational schools have been given the chance to get involved in this assistance project.
On November 11, at a conference for teachers at Berlin’s Johann August Zeune School, named for the founder of the first school for the blind in Germany, Dr. Thomas Nicolai presented the project plans and named the following possibilites for supporting the project:
- Informing colleagues, students and parents about the project,
- Adopting a facility in one country that will be passed through on the tour from Berlin
to St. Petersburg
- Asking for donations for help in financing costs of the tour in conjunction with a school
activity
- Participation of tandem teams at the start on June 10, 2006 in Berlin
Tandem Calendar Now Available
Tandem-Help is offering all of the Tandem Groups and organizers of tours that have been announced in Germany the possibility of listing their dates in the Tandem Calendar. Through this, we want to improve communication for those tandem bikers who are blind or visually impaired.
Berlin - St. Petersburg
- Tandem-Help’s newest project
- At an exhibitioner’s day for the Initiative Start Social, Tandem-Help introduced
the new Help-Project Berlin - St. Petersburg, for education and understanding
one another.
- In conjunction with celebrating 200 years of education for the blind, Tandem-Help
will be supporting schools and press centers for the blind and visually impaired in
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Thereby the initiators are also building
up the dedication of patrons and sponsors.
- With an approximately 2,200 kilometer Tandem Tour along the Baltic Sea Coast, the
initiators want to bring the needs of the blind and visually impaired to the attention of
the public, and to advertise tandem biking as a sport.
- Tandem Help gave the project concepts to Start Social, an economic initiative under the
umbrella of the German national government. Tandem Help is one of 100 chosen
projects that will be supported by experts in the consultation phase until the end of
October 2005.
Presentation at startsocial
|
