Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund

Fundraising

The Atlas Foundation in Asia and The Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund were delighted to host a Pre Rugby World Cup dinner supported by international rugby legends Matt Giteau, Andrew Mehrtens, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Jordi Murphy, and Dave Attwood.

The event was a great success with over 260 in attendance, giving us the opportunity to engage and raise awareness and support within the Singapore rugby and business communities for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

In terms of future fund raising, we are considering events for 2024 following the success of the RWC Dinner.

In addition, the London Marathon 2024 falls on the 5th anniversary of the Colombo Easter bombings in which Anita, Alex & Annabel Nicholson lost their lives. We have a group of 15 runners who keen to take on the challenge in memory of Anita, Alex and Annabel and to raise money for their Memorial Fund. As The Atlas Foundation is not a partner charity of the London marathon, we are liaising with other charities to partner with them for this event. More information to follow.

Projects

The need to support vulnerable children and our drive to do so has continued since our last report. We remain determined to keep expanding our reach and maintaining our support to thousands of children, helping with education, health and wellbeing through our programmes in Asia and have been in conversations exploring ways of leveraging partnerships and projects that will benefit the children.

Kampuchea Balopp

The project continues to be a vital pillar for the children in Cambodia to access regular sporting sessions and to feel that sense of inclusion and acceptance all children deserve.

The KB educators continue to be a testament to the meaningful impact and genuine desire to improve the lives of these disadvantaged communities.

Khelo Rugby

We are pleased to have extended and broadened our relationship with Khelo with a three-funding arrangement covering their general operations and two tiers of educational scholarships at high school and university levels. This will ensures the longevity of our relationship with them and the great work they do.

The project to continues to help young children in India to thrive and we are very pleased to be a part of this programme. Atlas Foundation and Khelo Rugby share a drive and determination to support these children in their lives and education. Not only are the children at Khelo rugby given the chance to express and enjoy themselves through the amazing rugby programme, but the scholarship programmes ensure that children are able to continue their education in circumstances where they otherwise would not.

This has evolved into a truly community led programme with the ethos of “nothing for us without us” bearing on everything they do.

We look to have a tangible and meaningful impact on individual children today, but we also aim to penetrate the stubborn barriers of inequality and deficits that linger in many communities over the long term. Khelo Rugby is a model example of delivering on that long term goal. They have already high school graduation rates rise from 18% to 80% in the communities they serve.

English Language Pilot

We have undertaken a pilot scheme in Kolkota in partnership with Khelo Rugby and Studycat (www.studycat.com ) to operate pop up English classes for young children (ages 6-8). The initial pilot was a success and the scheme is being expanded to other parts of the Khelo network as well as to other projects in Asia. We look forward to growing this partnership with Studycat and announcing further expansion in the near future.

Period Poverty

A further initiative we promote and support is Period Poverty and we are engaging all of the projects we support on the importance of supporting girls

with the challenges they face every month. This is a long term project with which we will persist.

As always, we thank all our donor and supporters without who this work would not be possible.