[Imc-india] about the african imc fundraising e-mail (read me first)

[Jay]

Hello there, IMC India,

This is Jay from Philadelphia IMC.  Some of you may know me, most of you 
probably don't, but hi to everyone anyway.

I'm e-mailing you to let you know I'm going to send you, in another e-mail, 
an appeal for funds to support
the upcoming Indymedia African continental conference, to be held in Dakar, 
Senegal, March 1-14.  The imc-africa group is trying to see if we can 
harness some of the energy and resources of our network to support this 
really important network-building event -- one that can't take place 
withour your help.

The imc-africa at indymedia.org working group is trying to plan a convergence 
that will allow indymedia
organizers from all over Africa to exchange experiences and inspire each 
other to build independent media networks all over the 
continent.  Delegates from existing IMCs in South Africa, Ambazonia and the 
Madiaq would like to come, and others from Angola, Kenya, the Congo, etc. 
want to attend to help jump-start their local IMCs.

As you can imagine, international travel within Afirca is difficult and 
EXPENSIVE.  The imc-africa group
currently doesn't have the funds to support travel to the conference by 
delegates, let alone any
lodging/food/supplies for attendees.  They're just starting to send out 
urgent fundraising appeals like
the one I'm going to send you.

I'm not expecting any of you to actually send $$ (that's right, you're off 
the hook!) but I would love
it if any of you could spread the word about the conference and its need 
for funds.  Perhaps you could post information about the upcoming 
conference in your features column.  There is information in the 
fundraising e-mail about how to send funds (paypal is easiest -- 
imc-africa at indymedia.org).  Or, if you're really cool :), you could have a 
fundraising party.  In Philly we're having an African dinner party and 
asking for a $10 donation per person.

I do hope we can find enough money to assure representation from several 
African countries.  It's going to be a
small conference, no matter how much money comes in, but if it works it 
could be a positive step toward inspiring some great independent media 
organizing in Africa.

Thanks for taking your time to send the info around.  Please feel free to 
e-mail me or imc-africa at indymedia.org with any questions.  Thanks!

Jay