August 2007, Bethany, CT - American Friends of Le Kinkeliba (AFLK) is pleased to announce the first-ever Founding Members trip to the Le Kinkeliba sites in Senegal, West Africa taking place March 23rd - March 31st, 2007.  Lead by AFLK's Founder and President Nicholas Weber, and Dr. Gilles Degois, Founder and President of Le Kinkeliba, this trip serves to introduce the Founding Members of AFLK to a range of Le Kinkeliba sites located deep in the Southeastern Senegalese bush country.  Founding Members are AFLK sponsors who have pledged their gifts at a major level and wish to see firsthand the facilities and communities to which their support has been directed.

Over the course of the trip the Founding Members will visit the following sites:
· Le Kinkeliba Medical Village at Wassadou
· Le Kinkeliba Kindergartens at Niemeneke, Koar, Saal
· The Tambacounda Girls Dormitory Project
· Maternal Clinic in Carole
· Le Kinkeliba Medical Village in Sinthian
· Le Kinkeliba supported school in Thies

In addition to visiting these established facilities, the Founding Members will accompany AFLK's and Le Kinkeliba's leadership in selecting three to five possible sites for the next wave of Le Kinkeliba clinics.  These newly proposed facilities will aim to provide medical care to rural village communities where access to treatments and medicine is virtually non-existent.  AFLK and Le Kinkeliba are set to begin research and development on the creation of these new facilities with the hope that construction might begin in early 2008.

The AFLK Founding Members will also be included in a visit to the future site of The Kinkeliba Foundation at Ngeen.  In 2005, Le Kinkeliba was given a spectacular site of nearly 100 acres by the Senegalese government, lying just 10 miles south of the original Le Kinkeliba medical center.  This site, overlooking the Gambia River, will be the setting for a new initiative: The Kinkeliba Foundation.  The Kinkeliba Foundation will offer visual and performing artists, writers, scholars and others from all over the world a unique opportunity to converge in an extraordinary setting and work independently and inter-dependently.

American Friends of Le Kinkeliba is thrilled at the scope and breadth of this upcoming trip and looks forward to posting reports on the experience.  For further information about American Friends of Le Kinkeliba or on how to become a Founding Member, write to info@lekinkelibaus.org or call 203.393.1006.