Uniting Communities, Tackle Global Issues

Dear Supporter,

What a year! We thought over the next month we'd give a little summary to some of the fantastic things the Charitable Trust has been able to achieve with your help.

South Africa

In Limpopo we have been working with both the environment and community but also, on a cause striking the heart of a common goal around the world; Saving the Rhino. This year, we established a new project to project Rhinos on a private game reserve in Limpopo, a region of the world struggling most with Rhino poaching. The funds raised so far for anti-Rhino poaching will be used to pay for a brand new 4x4 vehicle that will be used as a dedicated anti-poaching vehicle on the Karongwe Private Game Reserve. This vehicle will do daily patrols of fence lines, checking for incursions and serving as a deterrent to potential poachers. The vehicle will also be a response vehicle in emergencies and will be capable of pursuing poachers off road. Not only will this vehicle help reduce the threat of Rhino poaching, but all forms of poaching and criminal activity targeting the reserve.

In Cape Town, we celebrated four years of GVI working in Nomzamo township. Celebrations were at Ikhayalethemba Orphanage and Mama Lumka, our first Project Partner in Nomzamo. There is no doubt she values the support we have given in the township since our partnership began back in August 2009. Recent donations have also been spent on assisting the Orphanage with the finanical burdens of day to day running costs, including purchasing a washing machine and a large supply of nappies.

 Kenya

Donations for this project have been funding the ongoing feeding programme at Nyota Ing’arayo Primary School (Precious Vision Care Centre). .For the majority of children at Nyota (Precious Vision) there is no breakfast at home before they travel to school. Prior to the initiation of the feeding programme in 2010 the children had to walk home at lunchtime in order to receive a meal, however it was not always possible for their families to provide this, so inevitably many children would not return to school for their afternoon lessons.Not only does the feeding programme guarantee the children staying at school for the full day and receiving the education they deserve, but it also increases their performance during lessons.  

The Seychelles

The team in the Seychelles have successfully completed their creation of a Carbon Neutral base. The Curieuse base has implemented a photovoltaic system, designed with the remit of supplying 24hrs electricity a day seven days a week, being highly corrosive resistant to cope with island beachfront conditions and to be maintenance free and easy operate. The solar system works perfectly saving nearly $7000 annually in fuel bills as well as avoiding 9 tons of Co² emissions thanks to your donations!

Thank you for supporting our projects in Africa this year, we really could not have achieved all of this without you. 

All the best

Sophie Birkett

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org

Dear supporter,

This quarter has been incredibly exciting with a new website and fantastic stories coming from the field.  Our new website is now live! With a greater focus on live stories and social media from the field as well a showing our impact and how people can get involved, we hope you enjoy looking through it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Our team in Limpopo, South Africa also undertook a fantastic challenge to raise additional funds for our ‘Protect The Threatened White Rhino In South Africa’ project. It was a multi-day challenge in the Drakensberg Mountains and so far they have raised £2,558.68, 102% of their target! I look forward to sharing with you more how this was spent.

• Pez Maya - The construction of the recycling centre in continuing, recent CT money was used to build three compost containers and another part of the main structure as well as the wages for the builders.
• Brazil - We received an additional 7 students when we returned from the carnival holidays. These kids are settling in really well and are fantastic additions to our school. 
• Chiang Mai - The Mahout Training and Elephant First Aid Training was held at Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC) during June. It was 4 days intensive training for the average mahouts who mostly have had no formal instruction on elephant health, biology, elephant care and modern medicine.
• Nepal - the team have partnered with a school in a small village outside of Pokhara where GVI work to hold a women’s class on school grounds to give these women better employment opportunities and so that many of them can help their children study.

We hope to continue bringing you more news as the year progresses.  We are currently celebrating raising £960,051 so far and are very much hoping to reach the 1 million mark this year!

Thank you as always for your continuing support for the work we do

All the best

Sophie Birkett

Charitable Trust manager

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org