Princess Marie as Patron of DanChurchAid


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I had the opportunity to watch the docu live and I'm sure one of our newsdiggers will be able to post a link here if and when it's online.

But here is a summary.

It was at the same time a charming, heartwarming and strong documentary.

There are an estimated 20 million people in Ethiopia living in extreme poverty.
1.2 million are estimated to be infected with HIV.
But as no one knows the number of people living in Ethiopia, that figure must be considered to be a conservative estimate. – In fact the population figure in Ethiopia is plus/minus some 25 million. Repeat plus/minus 25 million!!

Marie arrived in Addis Ababa which by African standards is considered a pretty well organized city and here she met with the local head of DanChurchAid (DCA), with whom she went and is seen conversing with throughout the documentary.
The day after they went on an eleven-hour journey, which they for security reasons had to complete before darkness.
As far as I could see there were no PET officers around, but the cars drove in a particular pattern designed obviously to confuse would be attackers and a car or two drove ahead of the convoy to scout and look for suspicious cars and other unusual signs. (That has FET written all over. I.e. special forces methods).
The areas they were going to had only very recently been made accessibly for the outside world and people there had literally rarely ever seen white people before.

Marie looked tired. No doubt the long journey was strenuous. Upon arrival to their destination and the only hotel, just as darkness set in, the convoy passed a mounted wedding procession and a bus on fire, which the locals tried to put out with sand and gravel.

The next day Marie went to see a project where women had been given a modest financial backing and a course in bookkeeping in order to set up a grocery store, which was doing very well.
The men were busy in the fields because a simple irrigation project now enables them to harvest three times a year. Result: Within a few years the local community had become quite wealthy by Ethiopian standards.
The keyword was water. A well and a simple reservoir ensured water throughout the dry season and women now only had to walk at most five kilometers to get clean water, - which on top of that was safe to drink! That has made a tremendous difference.
And as an appreciation – and somewhat unexpected – the locals presented Marie with a goat. That caused some panic among her entourage. They couldn’t refuse the goat, that would be most rude, but Marie kept her head cool and graciously and gratefully accepted the goat – Joachim can look after it…

Marie also met with HIV infected locals, who until very recently were facing a certain death, but not only that, a certain death alone and in poverty, because they were ostracized. Cheap medicine had changed everything. Now they can live a practically normal life and they are no longer kicked out of their social circles.

Marie was during this trip followed by a camera team from TV2 Syd, and yes you were in no doubt as to where the journalist came from! That was a genuine Southern Jutlander, an accent Marie will now be vary familiar with.

Marie also told on a personal level how the famine in 1984 had made a big impression and how she feels she cannot do nothing, especially with the priviledged life she lives.

Finally, and I know some will think I’m biased towards our Marie, perhaps, but I’ll try not to be.
Marie’s Danish is brilliant!
I was listening to her, while she spoke to the camera but in particular when she had private conversations with other members of the team. – No difference. Marie speaking on camera is the same as Marie speaking to everybody else. The same speech pattern, same speed, same choice of words.
She has a clear accent, but her pronunciation was next to perfect. At the same level as natives. In fact we natives may actually be sloppier with our pronunciation.
I could not spot any mistake in her grammar. No problems whatsoever with the endings, which is so difficult for foreigners to master.
She speaks a relatively simple Danish but nevertheless her meaning comes across easily. I’ll predict in ten years we won’t be able to distinguish her from a native, unless you pay close attention.
 
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:previous:thanks Muhler. this trip was great. and its nice that the organization is making a big difference and that Marie can highlight and bring attention to this matter.

Nice to hear about her danish. Simple but close to perfection is great:flowers: I admire her learning a language so quickly
 
I just wish the media would report more on Joachim & Marie. Denmark should showcase them more, delightful couple
 
The weekly Alt For Damerne #14, 2014 bring an illustrated article about Marie's visit to Ethiopia.

I have scanned the article and here are summaries of the captions to each scan.

https://app.box.com/s/up6elvhqzr6kglk3oggl
On the way. - This is way out in the country side where even the crows bring their own lunch boxes! And where Europeans to put it mildly is a novelty, let alone Europeans who dance around with cameras.
That attracted some attention, not least among the children, who were no less baffled when a European woman jumped out of a car and presented them with bananas, water bottles and cola and talked to them in an unintelligable language.

https://app.box.com/s/t4chx59u6w0nvbtk9w3e
From top to bottom:
In the village of Jibri, where our Marie was met with applause. A new and very effective water well has been dug, and wouldn't you know? There are no longer any limits to how much water people can fetch for drinking and washing! So much water! It has completely changed the life of this village.

The now legendary goat is presented.

Mariem, age 34 and mother of eight children talks about how it was beforehand in Jibri: "Beforehand we drank of the same water as the cattle, but the water project means that we now have clean water and that is a huge improvement.
There is however still a shortage of food. Normally I can feed my family, but there are two-three months a year, where there is not enough water. We have family in other districs who have a better income than ours. When we are lacking food we borrow from them".

https://app.box.com/s/5amvpkm5ytmspvi33aei
DanChurchAid set up a water-collection-divise on the roof of the local school, which is a great incentive for the children to be send to school. (Access to clean drinking water). Actually only two children have dropped out of school since and that is most unusual!

At home with Almaz, age 35, in the village of Maliyon. Almas has a husband and four children - and HIV.
Because she was diagnoced early on, while carrying her first child, and got medical attention, none of her children have HIV.
In fact she is vicepresident of the HIV-organisation and she goes ot to teach other mothers how to avoid getting HIV, she has also formed a support group, now consisting of five members, who go out and spread information about HIV.
That increased information has meant that people with HIV are no longer outcasts and people are no longer afraid of them.
 
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Thank you as always for the links and summaries:flowers::flowers:
Marie really "shined" in this trip. And the organization is making a difference, Im glad that work is highlighted :)
 
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Thanks, Iceflower :flowers:

In the video our Marie told the reporter that they do indeed bake at home, "the children love it".
The pastries were sold and the proceeds went to DanChurchAid and Marie got busy, because all the children wanted to buy their pastry from her.
Marie praised the children sky-high, both during the work and afterwards.
 
Great photos from the event and Marie's warm and friendly personality shines through.
 
Forgive me the danish here but i like more Marie than Mary. I think her more sweet and warm.
 
Forgive me the danish here but i like more Marie than Mary. I think her more sweet and warm.

No need to apologize. :)
It's just a question of personal preferences.

It only becomes a problem when some people use their preferences for one person as an excuse to attack another. That we have unfortunately seen often here at TRF. :sad:
 
Thanks, Iceflower :flowers:

A BT video: Royal Roskilde-visit: Prinsesse Marie besøgte festivalen - Musikfestivaler | www.bt.dk

And a BT gallery: Royal Roskilde-visit: Prinsesse Marie besøgte festivalen | www.bt.dk

Recycling is very much in at the Roskilde Festival this year. (The Roskilde Festival is a mix between Woodstock, Glastonbury and a communal binge accompanied by rock music).
That includes urine.

The festival goers are encouraged to donate their urine (rather than urinating everywhere else...). That urine is being collected in tanks and will be processed and used in fertilizer on barley fields that is again used to produce beer. So the concept of (pardon me) "p*ss for beer" has been a huge success!
Unfortunately women have problems contributing as it's basically a long pissoir. But it's the first time at all this has been tried on a serious scale and there is probably an export in that one...

Finally, for those who think this is pretty tasteless to write about. I can assure you that the concept has seriously improved the general hygiene, not to mention the stench, around the festival area a lot!
 
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The things one learns here at TRF!!! I would have to agree that encouraging everyone to use the facilities to recycle their urine for fertilizer is much better than having them go "anywhere at anytime."
 
:previous: Indeed. You can find the videos online of young gentlemen, in various stages of inebriation demonstrating the concept. :whistling::cheers::p
They showed it on the main news, yesterday I think and with absolutely no...eh... facts... hidden. :lol:

In two years the result, in the shape of beer, will be ready.

But policing the festival is very popular duty because hardly anything
happens. So police officers volunteer for that duty.

ADDED: Here the concept is demonstrated: BTs fotografer på Roskilde: Se de skønne billeder | www.bt.dk

And there is plenty of fuel for the tank: BTs fotografer på Roskilde: Se de skønne billeder | www.bt.dk
(Most empty beer bottles and cans are refundable in DK).
 
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How normal and sweet seems to be Princess Marie.
 
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Thank you, Iceflower :flowers:

BT has an article as well: Her er prinsesse Maries krav til sine børn - Royale | www.bt.dk

With some nice pics:
http://www.bt.dk/sites/default/files-dk/node-images/411/12/12411544-wefood.jpg
http://b.bimg.dk/node-images/411/12/620x/12411542-wefood.jpg
http://www.bt.dk/sites/default/files-dk/node-images/411/12/12411543-wefood.jpg
http://a.bimg.dk/node-images/411/12/620x411-c/12411545-.jpg

Together with Minister for Foodstuff, Eva Kjer Hansen (She needs some good PR these days! She's also Minister for the Environment and Minister for Agriculture = conflicting interests!) our Marie opened the new WeFood store under DanChurchAid in Copenhagen today.
The store sell products that are close to expiry date or that have a minor flaw in the manufacturing. These good are donated to DanChurchAid, which sell them at reduces prices with the surplus going to various projects.

IMO a good thing to do, and if such a store should open anywhere near here I wouldn't hesitate to drop by from time to time.

In many Danish households there is a way too high waste of especially food that isn't eaten before the expiry date and as such is thrown out, so there is a public campaign to reduce that. And that's great. - However with two teenagers in the house it's not that easy to plan how much food we need... In fact we've considered putting a revolving door on the fridge!

Marie talked about what they do home a Villa Joachim to reduce waste: "We really try to avoid wasting food. We do our shoppings with sense, eat up and try to go shopping when the fridge is empty".

That applies to bette Henrik and Athena as well (they are still young enough to understand it...): "Of course. They must finish the plate. All of it. They understand that, because they know from my travels that there are many children - and adults - in the world who are starving".

--------------------

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A BB video: VIDEO: Mine børn skal spise op, siger prinsesse Marie | BILLED-BLADET

What Marie is saying is in the quotes above.

She was BTW a bit under the weather from flu.
 
:previous: seems the Dailymail confused Marie with Mary lol

But yes this a great concept that can help many.
 
Our Marie has been on the job again for DanChurchAid: Prinsesse Marie delte dejlig varm suppe ud | BILLED-BLADET

Monday noon, she went to central Copenhagen to help putting focus on DanChurchAid's national fundraiser on Sunday 13th March.

The theme this year is: Share your time with the poorest women in the world.
Here she joined women from the socio-economic catering-business, Send More Spices, for twenty minutes, selling pumpkin-soup for the price of 25 DKK per bowl. The surplus being donated to poor women worldwide.
However, those who volunteered to go house-to-house collecting in a couple of weeks got their soup for free.

- As I understand it, the business Send More Soup, employ mainly immigrant women with no education and no or next to no workplace experience, who would otherwise never have a genuine chance of entering the job-market.
 
i think this is a good move on marie and the DRF at the moment, seeing the strict position that denmark has taken against immigrants into denmark.
 
I think that stance is pretty universal in all of Europe or about to be implemented.
Anyway, the DRF is hardly going against a stance that has a very wide support in the Parliament as well as the public.
So I don't think we should read anything political into this one.
 
Thanks, Carlota. :)

Our Marie has really involved herself with DanChurchAid.
 
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