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Dear Supporters, 

We are very excited to share with you the 2015 Trustee's Report. The report is meant to help you, our donors, understand what we are able to achieve thanks to your donations and highlight the successes and achievements of the past year. 

The full report is available for download as a PDF, so today we'd like to share a snippet of the report with you:

2015 has been a year of change, growth and renewed- inspiration for the GVI Charitable Trust. During the course of the year we have recruited new staff, had a new trustee instated and raised a record-breaking £279 884, a 42% increase from 2014.

We would like to thank all of our donors for their contributions, without you none of our work would be possible.

Thanks to your tremendous support we have been able to offer support to 22 projects in 13 different countries. The work that we do on is very broad in its focus, but it all serves to achieve our objectives of promoting and contributing to conservation efforts, advancing education and offering relief from hardship, poverty, and distress.

2015 was a tough year in a number of the locations where we have partners, but most notably in Nepal. In April and May a series of massively devastating earthquakes caused widespread destruction. The road to recovery for Nepal is long and we are doing our utmost to offer support where we can.

2015 was also a year of building here at the Charitable Trust. We focused on construction projects in a number of locations. In Costa Rica, we were able to assist a school in Roncador to build a cafeteria, which is a government requirement, re-build a classroom and fix an entire playground. The construction projects in Kerala, India have been extensive. Thanks to generous funding from the Anna Crossman Trust, 14 brand new houses and a playground have been built. We also started on the construction of a toilet block at one of our partner schools, due to be complete in February 2016. On slightly smaller scale, we have completed upgrades and construction in South Africa, Fiji and Nepal.

Our conservation projects have also been well supported this year. In Karongwe, South Africa funds were used to purchase new quad bikes to give the anti-poaching team more mobility. We were also able to help fund a de-horning operation in an effort to reduce the number of rhinos killed for their horns. In Thailand we have continued to provide funding for the elephant project in Chiang Mai and the shark project in Phang Nga.

It has been a wonderful, challenging year and we thank you for your commitment to helping us achieve our goals in 2015. As we embark on a new year and a new phase in our growth plan, we hope that you will continue to support all of our work- by raising your voice and by making a financial contribution.

We hope that you enjoy the full report and we encourage you to get in contact with us if you have any questions or comments. 

As always, thank you for your continued and generous support. 

With Gratitude, 

The GVI Trust

• The 2015 GVI Trust, Trustee's Report (PDF)
  

Dear Supporters, 

We can't believe that half of 2016 is already over! We wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on how the first half of our year has gone and tell you how we have been putting your donations to use all around the world. 

Fiji

In February Fiji was devestated by Cyclone Winston. The village that we work in, Silana, was completely destroyed and the villagers, our Fijian family, have lost everything. We have been completely overwhelmed by the support of our GVI Alumni since then and have raised over £45 000 for the relief and recovery efforts. 

Since February we have been able to provide

• Basic food items such as flour, rice, lentils and tinned fish.
• Household products to help improve hygiene practices including antibacterial soap, washing detergent, bleach and dish soap.
• Basic wound dressing kits including gauze, antiseptic solution, micropore tape, cotton wool and bandages.
• Tools for the clear up operation- 22 pairs of safety boots, 34 sets of gloves and 38 protective masks, as well as basic construction tools including shovels, rakes, pinch bars, tin snips, nails, rope, cable ties and hammers.
• Water tanks and repairing of water systems. Hand in hand with this, we have been running WASH training to increase awareness of the spread of disease. 
• Hiring a grader to level out an area on higher ground where people will start to build their homes. 

There is still much to be done, including rebuilding schools, libraries and community centres, but the Fijians are definietly Stronger Than Winson!

Laos

Our project in Luang Prabang has been going from strength to strength and we couldn't be happier!

So far this year we have managed to

• Sponsor 47 students on individual sponsorships for 2016
• Support 78 students on class sponsorships for 2016
• Teach 800 students taught daily 
• Grow our women's empowerment class to 35 disadvantaged girls and we are about to sponsor them each a bicycle so that they can get to class more safely. 
• So far we have 10 hours of computer classes per week, using 8 laptops we were able to purchase towards the end of 2015. 

Thailand

We have secured enough funding so that we were able to sponsor an extra elephant to come and live freely in the forest in Chiang Mai. So we now have 3 elephants, Lulu, Sah Jah & Khum Suk. 

On our shark project we are busy getting a book on shark conservation translated into Thai. We will then be printing them and distributing them to local schools. 

Carbon Fund

So far this year we have been able to purchase and install a solar system unit at our base in Jalova, Costa Rica, taking them completely off the grid! In the next few months we will be doing the same at our base in Limpopo, South Africa. 

All of this is only possible because of your kind and generous support and we thank you!

With Gratitude, 

Kate

The GVI Trust, Operations Manager

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