This drawing is his interpretation of the famous words by the Turkish poet Nâzim Hikmet, “To live like a tree single and at liberty and brotherly like the trees of a forest this yearning is ours”.

From Friday January 9th until Thursday February 5th you can visit the exhibition ‘Mongoliez’ in Den Hopsack (Grote Pieterpotstraat, Antwerpen) with pictures by Kees Meijer and Sarah Buys. During the exhibition photographs and photo cards are sold to raise money for Dickey’s.

Mark Dimond from California has started his own project to help Dickey’s. The local newspaper, Laguna Woods Globe, wrote an article about his dream of the Dickey Mouse Club….

VILLAGER CRAFTS TOYS FOR TIBET ORPHANS Hopes to raise money to better young lives

by Cheryl Walker

Mark and Riva Dimond thought their Grand Circle trip to Tibet would be an adventure. Little did they realize it would also be a quest: to bring warm clothes, heat and school supplies to 87 orphans. China supplies the instruction, not books and supplies. The youngsters live in the DeJi (Dickey or happiness) Orphanage where they jam into three rooms in pairs on bunk beds. The rooms are unheated. The orphanage was started in 2002 by Tamdrin “Mama” Dadhon who sold family items, added that to the proceeds from a teahouse and started the refuge for kids in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet on Sept. 10 which became all the kids unofficial birthday.

“I pledged to raise the money to improve the children’s conditions,” said Mark Dimond. He and Riva figure it will take about $10,000 to do so. “We’ve raised $500 so far, says Mark proudly. Now he’s going to better the chance of raising more by making for donations “never-ending friendship mice. He is asking for donation of $10 each. “I’m the only person I know who makes them, he said.”

The mouse has a five square design on its back. “Each one is unique and takes about three hours to make,” says the retired computer programmer. “I’m very fussy.” The frame is four plastic squares, woven first separately and then joined on the edge to make a little mouse face, eyes, ears, and tail. When the sides of the mouth are squeezed a little folded paper is inside that says: “Hello, I’m your Tibet Orphanage ‘Never Ending Friendship’ Mouse, Squeeze my cheeks and I’ll give you a kiss!” When you squeeze, you’ll see behind the paper a little foil wrapped chocolate kiss. Mark has made other plastic frame items such as a Santa’s House and other designs. But by far his biggest hit was the mice.

“Twenty-five or 30 years ago I got one as a children’s present.” He said everyone loved it and used it so much it broke. So, he studied how it was made and crafted his own. The language of the fortune cookie-like insert is in English. Mark says that’s no problem since the orphans learn the language because it’s the universal standard of computers. Mark says he would love to fund the whole project but his current finances don’t allow for that. “But I sure can work.” And he does churning out as many as five a day. He says he would like to start a Dickey Mouse Club for all the children and has already made enough mice for every child.

To find out more about the orphanage go to its website: http://www.dickeyorphanage.org. To contact the dimonds, e-mail markdimond@comline.com.

(Laguna Woods Globe, Thursday January 18 – vol. 42, no. 45, page 1)