Our Year in Review blog isn’t a collection of your best-loved music – instead, it’s a look back at our fundraising over 2019.
As the start of a new decade approaches, we’ve been reflecting on the unwavering generosity of our supporters, demonstrated by the success of African Adventures Foundation’s 2019 fundraising.
Without your generous donations, and ongoing commitment to our cause, we wouldn’t be able to continue to support our partner projects in Ghana, Kenya, and Zanzibar.
Proudly presenting 2019 Wrapped – our Year in Review…
In 2019, our campaigns changed with the seasons.
The start of 2019 saw our team working hard to organise our 10-Year Anniversary Dinner at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton. The black-tie event celebrated the hard work of our staff and volunteers since African Adventures was founded in 2009, and Fred – our beloved In-Country Co-ordinator for Kenya – even flew over to join us for the festivities.
As summer drew to a close, we kicked off our Brick by Brick fundraising campaign for Dedzidi Community School in Ghana. The campaign aimed to raise a portion of the funds needed to complete the build of a new, two-storey classroom block at the school, which would provide an additional eight classrooms for the school’s 430 students.
Finally, as the time came to deck the halls with boughs of holly, our annual Christmas Meal Appeal returned, with the aim of providing every child at our partner projects with a nutritious meal and festive party this Christmas.
One campaign was your #1.
Our 10-Year Anniversary Dinner raised an incredible £10,000 for African Adventures Foundation, and these funds were distributed to our partner projects in each of our host destinations.
Our Brick by Brick campaign raised its goal amount of £1,500, thanks to some very generous donations from ex-volunteers and returning groups, as well as a UK office bake sale.
Meanwhile, our Christmas Meal Appeal has now reached its initial fundraising target of £1,500. We’ve now set a new target of £2,000, which could fund festive parties or Christmas meals for a further 2,000 children at the projects we support.
The impact of your donations has been widely felt.
We never undertake work at our partner projects for the sake of it – all the support provided by African Adventures Foundation to our partner projects, financial or otherwise, is allocated according to each project’s specific needs. The funds raised from our 2019 campaigns – alongside regular and one-off donations – have enabled us to complete a variety of work at our partner projects. This includes the construction of buildings and perimeter walls in order to provide a safe, secure, and more stimulating learning environment for the students. Construction work has also been carried out to improve the facilities at some of our partner projects, including staff rooms, school offices, kitchens, and libraries.
In Kenya, we support feeding programmes. With the help of your donations, our partner projects have been able to provide regular meals for over 1,300 children this year. For a lot of the children at our partner projects, the meal they receive at school may be the only one they have each day, making your support all the more valuable.
Your donations have also enabled us to purchase equipment and resources for our partner projects, such as chairs, desks, and new school uniforms. Such things may seem small to us in terms of significance but can make a big difference to the lives of the children at our partner projects.
Here’s to 2020…
So, what we’re trying to say is, thank you! We really value your support, and we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do without your help. Have a wonderful Christmas – keep an eye out this time next year for our 2020 Year in Review!
Although we have reached our initial target for our Christmas Meal Appeal, we have now set a new goal of £2,000. If we achieve this, the impact will be significant – it could provide parties or Christmas meals for 2,000 more children over the festive period in Ghana, Kenya, and Zanzibar. Please donate what you can via our safe and secure website, or text ‘MEALAPPEAL’ to 70085 followed by the amount you’d like to give.
Typeface image courtesy of Spotify – https://ocs-pl.oktawave.com/v1/AUTH_2887234e-384a-4873-8bc5-405211db13a2/splay/2019/12/Spotify-Wrapped-2019-logo.jpg