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NEWSLETTER APRIL 2010
I commented last month about the worsening political situation in Bangkok, Thailand.
The British Government are advising all UK passport holders the following advice:
This advice has been reviewed and reissued with amendments to the Summary (access to Ratchaprasong area of Bangkok likely to be restricted from 18:00 on 13 May; British Embassy closed on Friday 14 May; requirement to carry ID; British nationals in Thailand requiring urgent consular assistance should call 02 305 8333) and the Terrorism/Security section. The overall level of the advice has not changed; we advise against all travel to specific parts of Thailand. We advise against all but essential travel to other specific parts of Thailand, including Bangkok.
You can read the full report at:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/asia-oceania/thailand
In short this does not make for good reading and we can only assume the situation will get worse.
Fortunately all our volunteers have now left Chiang Rai and we do not intend to resume our programme until September 2010.
If you would like to know more about our community development programme in Chiang Rai (far away from the troubles in Bangkok and Chiang Mai) then do look at this link:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=ThailandOverview
I will keep you posted. Fingers crossed things will improve soon.
FUNDRAISING
We are always asked for advice and help on fund raising. Changing Worlds participants come up with inventive and curious ways to raise money.
At Changing Worlds we like to help where we can by offering photos, letters written on our letter head, links to fund raising web sites and sponsoring events where we can.
If you are after fund raising advice do let me know. Write to me at: david@changingworlds.co.uk and I should be able to help you.
Fund raising is never simple – infact it requires a lot of time and effort on your part. Thinking locally helps. Getting a piece in your local newspaper with a supporting photograph really does help. Don’t forget to provide your contact details – at least an e-mail address is very important.
Approaching the right type of audience is crucial also. Target people you know first of all – ask them to help you put up a poster at work (we can help here too!) and encourage them to put something in the company news letter.
Some fund raisers have gone as far as creating web site and blogs (you will see some examples below) that are proving very effective in raising funds.
It is relatively easy to do and can be cheap if you shop around. Again if you need advise on this type of campaign then let me know: david@changingworlds.co.uk.
However at the end of the day nothing beats a letter!
Chantelle went off to Ghana with us in the year 2008. She comes from Chelmsford and workied very hard to put together a fund raising programme.
She explains what and how she went about it:
Fundraising ideas:
Quiz night:
□ Take advantage of your school/college facilities by using the hall for a quiz night.
□ Invite everyone you know and encourage them to create a team. I had a total of 13 teams and approximately about 75 people. These included teams of friends, teachers, neighbours, members of the family, work colleagues and my parents work colleagues. Remember…don’t be afraid to ask because it will make you more money.
□ I charged £5 per person to enter (this included a buffet but everyone had to bring their own drinks - check if the hall has an alcohol license)
□ To include a buffet, I asked everyone I knew that worked at Sainsburys/Tescos/Asda so I could use their staff discount. Though as this is your expense it means that you can charge each person more for their tickets which out-weighed the cost.
□ I also had a raffle during the evening – all prizes had been donated from friends/family and local businesses.
1. Target gyms as these are likely to give free day/week/month passes.
2. Also target local salons who may also offer a free hair cut/blow dry. Tony and Guy also made me up a goody bag of hair treatments.
3. I was also successful with W H Smiths who provided a hamper of books/DVDs etc and Marks and Spencer’s who donated a food voucher.
4. To bulk out the prizes I also bought lots of wine as prizes.
5. I also had a game in the foyer to increase funds before everyone was seated. This included bowles, where whoever rolled their £1 closest to the bottle of Whiskey won. (obviously the prize could be anything)
□ The total that I achieved from hosting this evening was approximately £600
□ I gained about £350 from tickets from the quiz night itself
□ £50 from the game
□ £200 from the raffle – The raffle was £1 a strip and was so popular because of vast selection of prizes.
Gift donations:
□ I targeted local businesses in the area for gift donations by sending them a letter, which reads as follows:-
30th October 2007
Dear Tom Barry,
My name is Chantelle Lesforis and I am writing to you in the hope that you may be able to help me.
I have recently completed my A Level studies at The Boswells College in Chelmsford and before furthering my education and career, intend to participate in a voluntary project with, Changing Worlds. The organisation was founded with the aim of offering young people the opportunity to participate in a variety of voluntary placements in such countries as Ghana, Kenya and Thailand among others. My placement is for six months in an orphanage in the south west of Kenya, where I will be a carer/teacher of children, many of whom have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
The cost is approximately £2,499 which includes return flights, accommodation, food, briefings and other ongoing support. Other additional costs such as my visa and injections etc., take the total cost to about £3,500.
During the last few months I have been busy trying to raise the funds required, including a successful Quiznight at College and holding raffles etc. I have also secured a small grant from the local authority. Unfortunately however I am finding myself with a shortfall of funds of about £500 and so my fundraising efforts continue.
In the meantime I am writing to a number of organisations to see whether or not they may be able to support me in this venture. I’m sure you must receive many requests like this, however any help – no matter how small – really will be greatly appreciated.
If you would like confirmation of my involvement in the project or further information, Changing Worlds may be contacted as follows:
Telephone: 01883 – 340 960
E-Mail: ask@changingworlds.co.uk
Website: www.changingworlds.co.uk
I thank you for taking the time to read my letter and considering my request for help and look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Chantelle Lesforis (Miss)
□ The key to sending the letters is to find out who to write to. This can be obtained by ringing the company and making an enquiry to find out the manager’s or the fundraising co-ordinator name.
□ Companies that you target are also important – Try to keep them reasonably local so that they can relate better to your plea. It is also good to approach the companies that you think might take a particular interest in your project. For example, I approached the co-operative, who promote the use of fair trade produce, and as a result received a gift donation of £200. I also targeted pharmaceutical companies as they too are more likely to relate to the demands of your project.
□ It is also vital to follow up the letters. If you don’t hear anything back…call them!
At the other end of our placements we are proud to say that many of our returned volunteers continue to fund raise for their particular projects.
These three examples are all based on our Kenya programme:
Zoe is working towards helping the children at Nakuru Workers primary school. She writes:
Hello!
In May or June I will be skydiving from a plane somewhere above Nottingham and hoping to dear God that I don't just plummet into a tree.
I am doing this for the school in Kenya that I spent 6 months teaching at last year. 70 children at the school only eat one meal a day and I don't think this is fair. ALL money raised from my skydive will pay for free lunches for these children.
25p pays for one child's lunch.
£15 will feed a child for a term.
£45 will feed a child for a YEAR.
The kids are the friendliest, loveliest, most hard working people you could ever meet, and they deserve better than one meal per day. The kids who don't eat enough cannot concentrate at school and achieve so much less than they could if fed properly.
Please help them have a fair chance at doing well in school and achieving a better future for themselves.
If you could donate anything you can I, and the children in Kenya, would appreciate that so much. Just the amount we'd spend on a night out makes so much difference.
To donate go to http://www.justgiving.com/Zoe-Kelland
Thank you so much :)
Zoe xxx
Please offer your donation if you feel you would like to help the children at Nakuru.
Livvy recently completed the London Marathon. She writes:
Hope you are well, I did the marathon on Sunday and I have got £1000 for the orhanage from it so hopefully with all our fundraising we'll be able to get it off the ground this year! Speak soon, Livvy
and finally Becky says:
Hi David, hope you are well.
Things are going well with fundrasing now. Myself, Ben Lock and a few friends and family completed the London-Brighton cycle on sunday, it was good but very tough. Once i have collected my sponsorship from that as well as another event at church i should have around £1000 which is my target to have by july when i go back to kenya for 4 weeks. I also know that some of the others have had/ have coming up fundraising events for the orphanage and Zoe's Nakuru workers feeding programme. The only concern that many of us still have with the orphanage is the issue of running it. We dont want to put a few more thousand into the building if there are going to be no children living there but we definitely dont want to waste the money already gone into it. It is difficult to communicate with Karanja about this because he is so busy do you know any more about this issue?
In addition to this i am in the process of setting up a link between my mums school in worthing and Kiamaina. I did 2 assemblies there yesterday and hopefully the children are going to write letters and raise a bit of money.
Becky
All very exciting!
Whether you choose to do fund raising before you head off or on your return – you will quickly find out how satisfying it is doing something to help others.
BRAZIL
Aldo, one of the Changing Worlds representatives based in Canavieiras in Bahia region of coastal Brazil has produced a video about the work of the Julia Thomson Centre where we are sending volunteers.
He writes (in English and his native Italian!):
Hello everybody,
Ciao a tutti,
A quick note to pass this link to a You Tube video, so you can have a look at the project for which I have doing voluntary work for 6 years now, and to give a big thankyou you to everybody who has helped us on the way. On the second part of the video you can see the pose of the first brick of the new project that started last month, The Julia Thomson Centre. It will include a multi purpous covered court and a cultural centre where we will open capoeira, music, dance and theather schools. We hope to open the centre in November 2010.
If you want to know more about Canavieiras and our projects here click on the links below.
Un veloce messaggio per passarvi un link di un video su You Tube, dove potrete dare una occhiata al proggetto per cui sto lavorando da volontario da ormai 6 anni, e per ringraziare tutti quelli che in qualche modo ci hanno aiutato fino ad oggi. Nella seconda parte del video potrete vedere la posa della prima pietra del nuovo proggetto che abbiamo cominciato il mese scorso, Il Centro Julia Thomson. Questo nuovo proggetto prevede la costruzione di un campo polisportivo e un centro culturale per scuole di capoeira, musica, danza e teatro. L'innaugurazione e prevista per Novembre 2010.
Se volete sapere di piu su Canavieiras e i nostri proggetti cliccare sui links qui sotto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se85UzFLNeo
www.juliathomsonmemorial.com
www.giardinodegliangeli.it
www.bahiatropical.com
CIAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Changing Worlds is offering the opportunity to work with the children in Canavieiras. If you would like to know more about our programme go to:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/Content/Destinations/Brazil/Overview.aspx
CHINA
Jack the Changing Worlds rep based in Yantai in China has also used the power of You Tube to keep us updated here. He writes:
Dear David,
I have just uploaded the weblink info of Yantai City and Yantai University videos online, and they are in English version. This is the brief introduction for the city and the university only for volunteers to understand and know something about the city before they arrive. Can you open the following links easily at the regular speed in UK? Please check and let me know. It is under testing stage now.
Yantai University:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTY2MzIxMjAw.html
Yantai City:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTY1OTQwMjE2.html
Thanks.
Jack Liu
For more information about our teaching programme in China then hit this link: http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=ChinaOverview
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Craig continues to work hard at our Twitter and Facebook accounts. Last month I reported we had over 600 followers on our Twitter account. (Find us at:
http://twitter.com/Changing_Worlds).
This month we have exceeded 1 500 fans on our Facebook group. Do look for us at the Changing Worlds Facebook pages.
We are very proud to have such a huge following and find that it allows you to find out more about us.
Thanks Craig.
SUSANNA AS A POP STAR
Susanna went to Kenya with Changing Worlds last September and completed a six month work placement with us.
Susanna and Christie Lee are now pop stars! They were even noticed on the flight back to the UK by some fellow travelers. How cool is that?
How it happened I am not too sure but it appears that there ‘mum’ in Nakuru knew a Kenyan Christian singer called Paul Maui. Grace introduced the girls to Pual and he invited them to take part in his latest videos!
To view it have a look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYNXfIX7xM
this song is called racing Up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwppXiZhzck
this song is called Nindagutia, sung in the kikuyu language!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XAqfhx9PYc&feature=related
this is called I love you Lord!
I hope you enjoy!!!
Suzanna did all kinds of work when she was there including teaching in a local school, helping street children at an orphanage and working within the paediatric department of the general hospital. Do look at our website at:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=KenyaOverview
It is possible to mix and match our placements in Kenya.
AND FINALLY UPDATES...
As always we receive lots of lovely feedback from our participants from around the World.
Let’s start with one of our regulars – Adam in Queenstown, New Zealand. He writes:
Hello David,
Hopeing all is well back in england?
Well it's been a funny few months these past few, though I have hit the half way point of my stay here, well my current stay...who knows what may happen to keep me here longer...!
I havent been traveling that much, as I'm saving up for my snowboard stuff for the coming season, i had never planed staying for winter so had no preperation for it! But my new job is offering plenty of hours so saving hasnt been that hard!
In other news I had a bit of an accient a few weeks ago, embaressenly as a skyline member of staff i managed to come face first off the luge into the track, i did look a little bit like something from a horror film, ripping my lip, grazing most of my lower face and cracking my front two teeth. Luckly Skyline offered to pay for my first treatment and ACC covered the rest and the cost of the repair to my teeth. It is worth knowing that ACC is there for travelers to NZ so that they dont take out the most expensive insurance options, as long as basic health care and personal belongings are covered I dont see the neesd for anything else with the way acc works!
I noticed your coment on facebook today, werre you wanting photo's of just rafting or a few different ones? If you would like i can arrange some time to send you a few when i have access to a computer i can upload from!
Thats about it for now, I'll keep you posted!
Thanks,
Adam D
Useful advice for me regarding the insurance situation.
Elliot in Mendoza, Argentina was keen to stay in touch> He writes:
Hola David,
This month has been very good, we've finally started regular work (even though we've been given the weekend for easter ha) and really feel like Mendocinians. We're sad to see Jay leave, and are constantly trying to convince him to stay; let's hope we swing him over ha.
How did it go at Charles Darwin? Any new "world-changers" on the horizon? Also are there any more people coming to Argentina, feel free to pass my e-mail address onto them if there are.
Hope you're well
El
Katie and Helen went out to work in a zoo just outside of Brisbane, Australia at the end of March. They are settling in to their project very well. They write:
Hi David
It awsome!!!. Katie got to hold 4 koalas and now won't shut up about it :-)
Naomi is really nice and there are two girls from the Neathlands also staying with her who are both really nice and are volunteering at the zoo as well :-).
Have also looked around Brisbane city and are planning some trips to fraser island and such.
Hope all is well in the UK
Best wishes
Katie and Helen
They go on to write:
Hi Everyone!
So we've been here a month and so far we're having an awsome time and Helen and I havn't managed to kill each other yet :) (no 3 weeks blues for us!)
Lone Pine is just brilliant. All the keepers are just so kind and fun. The hot news this week is that spando ballet might be coming to visit lone pine!
Naomi's is really good. We've had a pair of dutch girls living with us who are really nice, but they are leaving very soon which is a shame.
At the weekends we've been up to all sorts! Shopping at south bank market, getting spooked on a night time ghost tour of brisbane and yesterday we watched the Anzac day parade. We've also found an really tasty cafe called the pancake manor which has become a favourite :)
We've also just booked a tour to Fraser island which we are really excited about. There are also plans for trips to Noosa, The sunshine coast, Byron bay, whitsundays and the Great Barrier reef (if the oil doesn't destroy it :S)
Hope everyone is well! Take care
Katie and Helen :)
Rory is completing a journalism placement with us to Southern India. He writes:
Hi David,
Getting along great thanks. Just came back from a trip to Kerala that Vibha helped me organise and met up with some friends of mine from the UK. We went around on a houseboat on the backwaters and finally mannaged to experience some rain -it was amazing!
I have spoken to Krish briefly about Olly and Ishaan coming out and im hoping to meet them for lunch with Krish on thursday.
Hope everythings well back home?
All the best
Rory
Since this time Rory has sent me an example of his work at the news paper:
If you would like to comment on Rory’s work then do please contact him at: rorysmith2@mac.com. I am sure he would appreciate any positive comments on his work.
If you would like to know more about our journalism placement in Chennai in India then hit this link:
http://www.changingworlds.co.uk/default.aspx?qlink=Journalism
That’s about all for now.
Enjoy the Spring in the UK!
Regards
David
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