By coming together and giving so generously on Wednesday we actually all raised over £5,500 for Boom Bus, Cecily’s Fund and Hackney Pirates!
We hope you all feel as warm and fuzzy as we do for being part of the solution, that will make a massive difference to many young people’s lives in the UK and in Zambia. Basically…you rock!
If you left the event thinking ‘rats, I wish I had given a little bit more’ or offered to volunteer then never fear, there is still time to do both! Drop an email to youthtfn@gmail.com and we’ll be able to sort that out – project presentations below!
Location:The Gramaphone (on Commercial Street in Spitalfields, near Aldgate East tube station)
FEATURED PROJECTS
Boom bus: 26 year-old Louis Cole has a passion for seeing positive change in the world. He uses a double decker party bus with a music studio to empower young people to steer their lives in a constructive direction.
Cecily’s Fund: Training 50 Zambian peer educators to work in schools to promote awareness of health and HIV and help young people make informed choices.
Hackney Pirates: This exciting pilot project is establishing a tutoring centre where young people can receive one-to-one support in an unconventional learning environment.
So come on down (or up, or across), enjoy a cheap drink and a tasty snack or two, listen to some music, have a little mingle, and get a bit arty in the craft corner (with cupcakes!) if you like that sort of thing.
Working with Zambian NGO partner Hodi which has access to valuable local knowledge and networks, Cecily's Fund helps educate children who have been orphaned and made vulnerable because of HIV. In June 2008 the crowd at YTFN’s preview event in Cafe 1001, raised £2,563.88 towards uniforms, shoes, pens, pencils, exercise books and a nominal school registration fee which in turn enabled 102 children from in and around the city of Kitwe to go to a government primary school. Email youthtfn@gmail.com for the full report.
Pix from our March extravaganza are now online – check ‘em out (and feel free to add more if you’ve got some too!) Once again we raised over £6,000 for the 3 featured projects – a massive thank you to everyone who got involved by pledging time or money to such amazing causes.
We’ll be announcing the date of our summer event soon, so keep your eyes peeled or join our mailing list if you want to stay in the loop.
We had so many great applications that it was really hard to decide on just three, but we’ve managed to do it – and we’re bursting with excitement to announce the projects that you’ll meet (and get to support!) on March 18:
The London Orchard Project – developing a skilled community of Londoners to plant, care for and harvest fruit trees, connecting communities and securing access to fresh fruit
Combu Education Centre- providing schooling for local children and social and cultural support in a vulnerable Riberinho (river people) community in Brazil
Nuture Romania – a grassroots project that aims to tackle the root causes of child abandonment by establishing a travelling baby clinic and other parenting support programmes for parents in difficult live circumstances
Come hear from the project’s inspiring founders, learn about the social change they’re creating and help them to do even more good work. Later this week we’ll be announcing the event venue so keep one eye on the Facebook event and your email inboxes for details.
Check out the London Orchard Project in action, planting fruit trees:
And meet the most important members of the Combu Education Centre:
HUGE shout out to the amazing Musa Okwonga whose words we failed to catch on film but who inspired us all… you can find him on myspace/ofmooseandmen The music accompanying our evening and film can be found at myspace/gracebanks
It’s official – our next event will be on Thursday, March 18 2010. More details coming soon but for now, mark it in your calendar and get your friends to do the same!
