Support Community Development in South-East Asia

We're always excited to bring you updates from The Branch Foundation office as it gives us the chance to communicate with our valued supporters. The last month of the year is a good time to look back at all what we have achieved along with your help. During 2015, TBF and its partners have concentrated our efforts on providing more educational opportunities for both refugee and migrant communities along the Thai-Burma border. This has come in the form of supporting teacher wages and multiple teacher training sessions at Koung Jor Shan refugee camp, and providing soft skills development workshops in Chiang Mai.

Not only have we been busy with our projects in recent months, but we have also concentrated on ensuring that TBF itself is sustainable as an organisation - this has meant us planning carefully for the long-term. With that in mind, it has always been our goal to put the means of positive change into the hands of the communities with which we work, therefore, we have planned various workshops for the first half of 2016. These include a 'photography for advocacy' and a 'website/blogging' course to ensure that the communities themselves have the opportunity to communicate their needs directly to the world.

For many people, the month of December is a month of giving therefore we would like to inform you about our fundraising initiatives which, following the theme of this year, will help support those who do not have easy access to high quality education. We are inviting people to hold a 'dinner by candlelight', in which people invite their friends and family to eat together without the use of electricity - as is the way of life for many community members with which we work. The proceeds from these dinners will go directly to the following project:

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-140-refugees-on-the-thai-burma-border/

If you are interested in helping us reach our goal to continue to support teacher wages and training in a remote refugee camp, please fill out the form on THIS page so we can send you more details.

Alternatively, if you want support this project via the means of a gift to a loved one, please click HERE.

We hope you have a happy festive season and look forward to updating you in the New Year.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom Rosen and The Branch Foundation Team.

Links:

• Our 'education for refugees' project
• Sign up to host a 'Dinner by Candlelight'

The last few months have been packed with exciting developments. We had the honour of meeting Eleanor Harrison, CEO of GlobalGiving UK, in London. We also met the rest of the GlobalGiving UK team over lunchtime sandwiches and shared information about The Branch Foundation and working in South-East Asia. It was lovely to finally meet in person and to get to know the team and the inner workings of the office a little better. In August we also had the previlage of having Alice & Tapiwa GlobalGiving UK's Field Evaluation team visit us in Chiang Mai. During their five day visit we also took Alice and Tapiwa to the Koung Jor refugee camp to meet the community and see our projects first hand. You can read more about their trip here.

It is also with great excitement that I present you with our very first Annual Report! I hope you enjoy it and are proud of what we have collectively achieved, I know I sure am. As I saw the pages of the report come together it became evident just how much we had achieved in one year....

The Branch Foundation - Annual Report 2014/15

As we near the final quarter of this year we are in full holiday fundraising planning mode. We will be hosting our annual Chiang Mai fundraiser on October 30^th, we’ll also be bringing back our successful Dinner by Candlelight campaign and of course our ever popular Gifts of a Different Kind. We will be sure to keep you updated and look forward to an exciting few months ahead.

With gratitude,

Iona Proebst and The Branch Foundation Team.

Links:

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