Serenity Foundation News and Updates
Yes that's right the creatively challenging, physically exacting, aurally exhausting sing-a-thon is back! Check out how Serenity did in 2009 and sign up to join us for Charioke 2011!
DECEMBER 2010: Umzi Wethu Academy
We are happy to announce that we will be part funding the establishment of a new Umzi Wethu Training Academy for Vulnerable Youth in Stellenbosch.
The academy provides learners with accredited training in Hospitality and Catering through an intensive year long programme supported by personal development, wilderness trails and outreach programmes.
This is an important step forward with our skills development program, as it will provide young learners from Kayamandi to gain important skills and training in order to find sustainable employment.
We are launching our christmas appeal to help fund this important new academy. You can donate in a number of way here.
You can read more information about the academy here.
JULY 2010: Serenity Foundation is a year old! Serenity
Foundation has recently celebrated its first birthday, and we wanted to
thank everyone for their support over the past year. With your help,
we have raised a little under £5,000, and this has allowed us to do a lot of good in Kayamandi. We
now have 6 children, ranging from grade 4 up to grade 11, for whom we
have financially committed to paying school fees via our school grant
program. The children all come from extremely low income families and
this financial support allows these children to attend schools outside
of Kayamandi, providing them with a chance at a better education. You
can read some of theirs stories on these pages. We
also support three children (Ronaldo, age 7; Jody, age 8; and Xolani,
age 3) who come from a very impoverished home situation in which even
their basic needs were not being met. Our support of these children now
allows them to participate in a school program that provides food, a
safe environment, educational and literacy guidance, encourages
extracurricular skill development such as music and art, and gives them
the warm feeling of love and support You can help us extend this
program from as little as £15 per month. We
also learned of a story of a very brave 16 year old girl in Kayamandi
that was living on her own after her guardian had died. She had kept
this quiet for approximately a year before her schoolmates began to take
notice and reported the situation to a guidance counselor. Serenity
Foundation, in partnership with a Kayamandi youth program, will provide
financial and emotional support to help relieve the worries that a 16
year old shouldn’t have to deal with and allow her to focus on her
education. We kicked off our skills development program
by partnering with a local young adult program, to support a young woman
from Kayamandi who wished to attend a nursing program but didn’t have
all of the financial means to do so. We were able to pay a portion of
her training program and she is now enrolled and attending nursing
school. This will hopefully allow her to flourish in a wonderful and
much needed vocation. The need in Kayamandi can be overwhelming
and we are in gratitude to you for opening your heart and caring about
these children and supporting our cause. There are a number of ways you
can continue to do so, either donating online via PayPal or JustGiving or signing up to easyfundraising.org.uk
where you can raise money for us simply by shopping online. To discuss
any other way that you would like to help us in our cause, feel free to
contact us at info@serenityfoundation.org.uk.
16 MARCH 2010: An Important Update from Kayamandi
We recently learned of a story of a very brave 16 year old girl in Kayamandi
that was living on her own after her guardian had died. She had kept
this quiet for approximately a year before her schoolmates began to take
notice and reported the situation to a guidance counselor. Serenity
Foundation, in partnership with a Kayamandi youth program, will provide
financial and emotional support to help relieve the worries that a 16
year old shouldn’t have to deal with and allow her to focus on her
education..
16 MARCH 2010: An Update from Kayamandi
The aim of Serenity Foundation is to help those children who have no way of helping themselves, to give them back the opportunity to be children by providing them with education and spiritual guidance to help them develop the ability to have the dreams for their future that come so naturally to us.
And now....a few rambling words about how we are doing this!
We now have 6 children, ranging from grade 4 up to grade 11, in which we have financially committed to paying their school fees via our school grant program. The children all come from extremely low income families (about 100 euros or $135 dollars a month) and this financial support allows these children to attend schools outside of Kayamandi, providing them with a chance at a better education. Please check out photos and stories on our facebook page, and the website.
We are now supporting three children (aged 7, 8 and 3) who come from a very impoverished home situation in which even their basic needs were not being met. Our support of these children now allows them to participate in a school program that provides food, a safe environment, educational and literacy guidance, encourages extracurricular skill development such as music and art, and gives them the warm feeling of love and support.
And last but not least...we just kicked off our skills development program! Partnering with a local young adult program, we are now supporting a young woman from Kayamandi who wished to attend a nursing program but didn’t have all of the financial means to do so. We were able to pay a portion of her training program and she is now enrolled and attending nursing school. This will hopefully allow her to flourish in a wonderful and much needed vocation.
The need in Kayamandi can be overwhelming and we are in gratitude to you for opening your heart and caring about these children and supporting our cause.
Peace and Love,
Kim
01 JANUARY 2010: Countdown to Christmas
Charity Raffle
Thanks to everyone involved in the
Countdown to Christmas raffle at the Two Brewers and to everyone who
bought a ticket.
The raffle raised £113, which is fantastic considering the tickets were only £1 each.
Thanks again.
30 NOVEMBER 2009: Countdown to Christmas Charity Raffle
The Two Brewers pub in Covent Garden is holding a 12 days of Christmas Raffle in support of Serenity Foundation. There are some fantastic prizes to be won ranging from a case of branded glasses right up to a stage instrument from the show Stomp, signed by the entire cast.
Tickets cost £1 and will be on sale from 1st December. All tickets will be placed into the draw box, and a winning ticket will be drawn from the box every day from Sunday 13th December to Thursday 24th December, so the more tickets you buy the more chance you have of winning (even more than once).
The tickets are only available at the Two Brewers Pub located at 40 Monmouth Street, London, WC2H 9EP, only a short distance from Leicester Square tube station, so come over to the Brewers for your chance of winning fantastic one of a kind prizes for only £1.
A full list of prizes will be posted on the website in the next few days
03 NOVEMBER 2009: Thanks to our Karaoke Team
On 02 November 2009, Serenity Foundation linked up with Refugee Action and Lucky Voice, along with a number of other charities working in the UK and overseas to hold the first annual Charity Karaoke Marathon.
We fielded a team of five singers - Alex Grace, Emily Scale, Tyrrell Hatch, Niki Berak and Guy Kirkpatrick - to take part in this 10-hour non-stop karaoke fundraising marathon and they raised money through individual sponsorship for donating their vocal chords and for completing this creatively challenging, physically exacting, aurally exhausting sing-a-thon. In short it took the same format as a charity run, but with a better soundtrack!
Over the course of the 10 hours, our team sang around 140 songs ranging from Tom Jones' Delilah to Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars, taking in The Wombles Theme Tune and Aqua (yes that song) along the way. There are a few videos of our songs posted below if you want to see our efforts.
Thanks to the team and their generous sponsors, we raised a grand total of £875 and special mention must go to the dynamic duo, Alex and Tyrrell, who won the Michael Jackson tribute category with their excellent rendition of Man in the Mirror.
02 OCTOBER 2009: An Appeal to All Singing Fanatics and Karaoke Lovers
Serenity Foundation is linking up with Refugee Action and Lucky Voice, along with a number of other charities working in the UK and overseas to hold the first annual Charity Karaoke Marathon.
We will be fielding a team of seven singers to take part in this 10-hour karaoke marathon. The event will be hosted by Lucky Voice from 1pm – 11pm on Monday 2nd November at Lucky Voice in Islington (173-174 Upper Street, London N1 1RG). Our team members will raise money through individual sponsorship for donating their vocal chords and for completing this creatively challenging, physically exacting, aurally exhausting sing-a-thon. We have a target of £2,500 between the team and I am providing a prize for the person who raises the most. In short it will basically take the same format as a charity run, but with a better soundtrack!
We already have 3 confirmed team members, so if this sounds like the event for you, contact me ASAP via facebook (on the charity's group wall or via message), or email us.
13 SEPTEMBER 2009: Online Donations and Fundraising
We now have an account with PayPal (email: donate@serenityfoundation.org.uk) and so it is possible to donate funds to us online using the button here, or by directly transferring funds to our account which makes things easier for international donations.
We have also set up another easy way to raise funds for us. We have partnered with the website easyfundraising. Easyfundraising is essentially a shopping directory which lists hundreds of popular stores, such as amazon.co.uk, Marks & Spencer, ASDA, Tesco's and even National Express Coaches. All you need to do is follow this link register on the site (for free) with Serenity Foundation as your chosen organisation. Then, provided you follow the link from that website to the shop, eg Amazon, we'll receive a free donation of up to 15% from that shop from every purchase you make.
It’s completely FREE to register and you won’t pay a penny more for your shopping when you use the easyfundraising site. In fact you can even SAVE MONEY as many retailers offer discounts, special offers and even 'e-vouchers' exclusive to easyfundraising, such as a 10% discount vouchers for Interflora and 1 year downloads of Norton 360 '09.
27 AUGUST 2009: An Update on progress in South Africa
My apologies for not having updated the news for a while, but there have been a lot of things happening.
Although the municipality still hasn't got back to me with details about the land, we have decided to start our work on the other parts of our project while we await their decision.
Our first move is to make a start on the introduction of an apprenticeship scheme for the non-academically inclined children to ensure that they can at least gain vital skills that they need to develop a future. I have already made a couple of contacts who are willing to take on an apprentice and I am in the process of making more contacts within the Stellenbosch area, so that we will be able to make this a full scale scheme.
We are also investigating families who are willing to take in orphans until we are able to get the land and build the orphanage. We have got a number of positive responses to this and should be able to start placing orphans with them within the next couple of weeks.
Guy Kirkpatrick
30 JULY 2009: An Update on progress in South Africa
Unfortunately, due to the overrunning of a Mayoral Projects Committee Meeting Councillor Anthony was unable to meet with me himself, so I met with Mr Otto Van Noie, who works as Executive Council Support, and hence works with all the mayoral committee members, and he was able to update me on what's going on with our application for the grant of land.
Our bid is classed as an unsolicited bid, due to it's nature of looking for land that is as yet unzoned for the purpose, and therefore they must work through the procedures set out in the Municipal Finance Act. This takes on two stages which are running concurrently:
- First it must be agreed upon by the political executive for Kayamandi, which we have enough contacts within to ensure it will be.
- Secondly it must be agreed by the planning department which again we should be able to do.
Our application is now being processed and he will get back to me as soon as possible.
Guy Kirkpatrick
24 JULY 2009: An Update on progress in South Africa
I had an encouraging preliminary meeting today with Councillor Anthony, but as there are major problems at the municipality it was only a preliminary one to give him more information about the project as he hadn't been able to get all the details from the documents we submitted to him. Consequently, we have another meeting scheduled for Thursday 30 July and I will update you with what happens at that one.
Progress in other areas is also being made - we have have made a number of useful contacts who have been able to give us a lot of information and we have received a number of offers of assistance.
Hopefully, I will be able to get back to you on Thursday next week with good news.
Guy Kirkpatrick
20 JULY 2009: An Update on progress in South Africa
Today I had a meeting scheduled with J C Anthony to discuss the grant of land, unfortunately, however, he was called away to an urgent meeting and the result of it was that he had to fly out and will not be back until Thursday evening. Therefore we have scheduled a meeting for first thing Friday morning and I will be able to further update you on progress after that.
He did, however, seem very positive about the project and so, hopefully, I will be able to bring you good news on Friday.
Guy Kirkpatrick
20 JULY 2009: Online Donations
We’ve teamed up with JustGiving, the UK’s leading online fundraising website, so you can donate and raise funds for us online.
Using JustGiving saves us costs and reduces our admin burden, so going online is by far the most efficient way of supporting us.
It’s easy to make a single or monthly donation with a credit or debit card online. All you need to do is go to the JustGiving Donate page.
JustGiving reclaims Gift Aid automatically and pays donations to us directly at the end of every week. The site is 100% secure.
It’s really easy for you to raise money for us by creating an online fundraising page on JustGiving. It takes just a few minutes and you can collect donations for any sponsored event or appeal. To find out more visit JustGiving's Online fundraisng page.
Fundraising pages are just like paper sponsorship forms, except they’re online, so you don’t have to spend time collecting cash and cheques. Just personalise your page with a photo and message and email the web address to all your contacts. Then your friends, family, colleagues and anyone else can make a donation through your page from anywhere in the world.
You can create a fundraising page for absolutely anything. You could get sponsored to run, swim, cycle, get fit, grow a moustache or have your head shaved. You can even create a page in memory of someone or instead of wedding gifts. The only limit is your imagination.
If you have any questions, or need any help, you can contact the Justgiving helpdesk on 0845 021 2110 or email JustGiving from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm.
For more information, please visit our website, email us or give us a call on 0777 961 4054.
JULY 2009:Blank Canvas Project
Serenity Foundation is chosen as one of the nominated charities for The Blank Canvas Project.
02 JULY 2009: An Update on progress in South Africa
Today I had a meeting scheduled with Nkomfa Deon Mkabile (Political Executive Support) at the Stellenbosch Municipality to discuss the grant of land in Kayamandi to Serenity Foundation. Unfortunately, when we arrived for the meeting he was not there, however, we were referred to J C Antony, who's portfolio includes planning, and was, in fact, the exact person we needed to speak to.
I gave him our proposal and business plan to look over and he promised that he will propose it to the relevant departments and, on Monday, to the deputy mayor who has ultimate responsibility for these things. He will then contact me with an update on the situation, but should be in a position to give us a yes or no on the 20th July.
Guy Kirkpatrick
This is an appeal to all those out there who secretly watch X-Factor and insist that they could do better, or anyone who likes to sing and wants to raise money for charity in the process - we have the fundraising challenge for you! On 02 November 2009, Serenity Foundation linked up with Refugee Action and Lucky Voice, along with a number of other charities working in the UK and overseas to hold the first annual Charity Karaoke Marathon.
We fielded a team of five singers - Alex Grace, Emily Scale, Niki Berak, Tyrrell Hatch and Guy Kirkpatrick - to take part in this 10-hour non-stop karaoke fundraising marathon and they raised money through individual sponsorship for donating their vocal chords and for completing this creatively challenging, physically exacting, aurally exhausting sing-a-thon. In short it took the same format as a charity run, but with a better soundtrack!
Over the course of the 10 hours, our team sang around 140 songs ranging from Tom Jones' Delilah to Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars, taking in The Wombles Theme Tune and Aqua (yes that song) along the way. There are a few videos of our songs posted below if you want to see our efforts.
Thanks to the team and their generous sponsors, we raised a grand total of £875 and special mention must go to the dynamic duo, Alex and Tyrrell, who won the Michael Jackson tribute category with their excellent rendition of Man in the Mirror (see below). The Two Brewers pub in Covent Garden is holding a 12 days of Christmas Raffle in support of Serenity Foundation. There are some fantastic prizes to be won ranging from a case of branded glasses right up to a stage instrument from the show Stomp, signed by the entire cast.
Tickets cost £1 and will be on sale from 1st December. All tickets will be placed into the draw box, and a winning ticket will be drawn from the box every day from Sunday 13th December to Thursday 24th December, so the more tickets you buy the more chance you have of winning (even more than once).
The tickets are only available at the Two Brewers Pub located at 40 Monmouth Street, London, WC2H 9EP, only a short distance from Leicester Square tube station, so come over to the Brewers for your chance of winning fantastic one of a kind prizes for only £1.
A full list of prizes will be posted on the website in the next few days.