![]() Later this year, the Children on the Edge Chichester Half Marathon will be back for a third year, but to keep our runners busy in the meantime, we have the Spring Marathon season sweeping across the UK! This year we have seven runners taking on marathons (including the Virgin Money London Marathon and the Brighton Marathon) in order to raise money for Children on the Edge. Over the next few weeks we will introduce to you to a few of our Brighton Marathon runners, but right now we’d like you to meet our 2014 London Marathon runner, Ben Geralds. As a former employee of The Body Shop, Ben has been involved in fundraising initiatives for Children on the Edge before. Ben started running in 2011 to keep in shape after giving up rugby in his early twenties. After getting the running bug, Ben has been running regularly and when he heard we had a place available for the London Marathon 2014, he jumped at the chance to apply for it. “Having a keen interest in sport, I have always had running a Marathon on my Bucket list, with the London Marathon for me as the pinnacle of all marathons to run in the world. When I lost 10st between July 2011 and May 2012, this became an achievable target, and in December 2012 I ran the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon (in what can only be described as a bog!), in just over 4:30hrs. I was then lucky enough to hear about the opportunity to run the 2014 London Marathon on behalf of Children on the Edge, jumped at the chance and was incredibly lucky and honoured to be selected to fly the flag.” Taking on the challenge of one marathon is a big enough task for most runners but Ben has decided to take it even further: “I think fundraising for such an amazing charity needs to be extra special. Therefore I have taken the plunge to run not one but three marathons in 2014 – Brighton, London and Berlin – all wearing my Children on the Edge colours. Any amount of awareness that I can raise alongside my fundraising will be fantastic and I’m proud to be able to do this – even at 6am at the start of my long training runs!” Three marathons is an incredible feat of running and we are completely in awe of Ben’s dedication both to his running and his fundraising. His target is £2,500 and his company have kindly agreed to match what Ben raises. It costs just £100 a month to provide pre-school education for 10 children at the Child Friendly Space in Soweto Slum, Uganda. This has become a community-changing programme that protects, educates and nourishes vulnerable children. The money Ben, and our other runners, raise this spring will go towards transforming communities like this and returning childhood to hundreds of children living on the edge of their societies. If you’d like to support Ben in his marathon efforts, please visit his JustGiving page. ![]() Whether you’re a beginner or pro runner the good news is there’s plenty of time to train for The Chichester Half Marathon 2014 and registration is open! This year, we’ve opened registration bright and early in January for all those folks full of New Year resolve, looking for a great fitness challenge to work towards in October. The 'Chi Half' is a challenging and beautiful ‘multi terrain’ half marathon organised by Children on the Edge, in conjunction with Chichester District Council and sponsored by Montezuma’s Chocolates and Store Property. The race is now in it’s 3rd year after doubling its entries at the last October 2013 event and raising nearly £31,000 for our work with forgotten children living in in some of the toughest situations across the globe. The route includes a mixture of road, cross country and cycle path terrain; taking in both the historic sites of Chichester and some spectacular views from the pinnacle of the South Downs. Registration opened yesterday (13th Jan) and with this early start even non runners could start their training now in order to complete the race in October. Training support will be offered for all levels of participants from new runners through to past competitors hoping to achieve a personal best. If running really isn’t for you but you’d like to be involved in a great event which brings the community together, then think about volunteering. Roles include marshalling at different points along the race route; manning water tables and handing out medals and goodie bags at the finish. Just contact Amy Chamberlain by e-mailing [email protected] or by calling 01243 534797. The event will take place on Sunday 12th of October. You are advised to sign up early as places go quickly, and discounts apply until the 12th April 2014. ‘Early bird’ prices are £21 for EA affiliated club members and £23 for unattached and other runners. Sign up for the race and get sponsored for Children on the Edge! Image courtesy of Sussex Sports Photography ![]() We often cross paths with some pretty lovely people here at Children on the Edge and recently we were delighted to meet the Hodgson family who have been extremely hard at work fundraising for our projects. Naturally we'd like you to have the opportunity to meet them too. In the photo on the left we have (L-R) Ed, Jamie, Jane, Poppy the dog (and Michael’s training partner), Michael, Tom and Chloe. Michael Hodgson, who lives in South Harting and is Chairman of Douglas and Gordon Estate Agents in London, has raised over £4,500 in sponsorship (including an amazing £500 from one client in Yorkshire) when he ran the Chichester Half Marathon in October. Running alongside him was his second son, Jamie, who had also been busy raising over £850. Their family efforts didn’t stop at running 13.1 miles however! A few weeks prior to the half marathon, the eldest Hodgson son, Tom, swam an epic 10km down the River Dart in Devon. Known as being a gruelling yet beautiful outdoor swimming challenge, Tom was pleased to complete the race and raised over £1400 in sponsorship money. He describes his day: “We were lucky with the conditions with the sun shining and the wind and current in our favour. 700 swimmers left Totnes in Devon in 4 waves from about 1pm and we weaved our way 10km to the finish at Dittisham. It was pretty tough, especially during the last couple of kilometres but apart from the odd stray foot in the face (!) there weren't any mishaps and it was a great event to be a part of. I'm now looking forward to spending a little less of my life counting the tiles on the bottom of swimming pools!" Overall, the family have raised just over £7,400 which will have an incredible impact on our projects. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the Hodgson's and encourage any readers who are inspired by their achievements to get in touch. Maybe you would like to get your family involved with fundraising for Children on the Edge with an activity you can all do together, perhaps not as training-intensive as a half marathon but maybe a sponsored bike ride or a family bake-off? Just e-mail Beckie with your plans and ideas. ![]() On Wednesday 20th November 2013, it was the UN Universal Children’s Day. This marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in 1989. Children on the Edge works to restore the ingredients of a full childhood and the convention on the rights of the child guide our projects throughout the world. This year, we’ve partnered up with some local schools to raise the profile of our work and to engage local school children in discussion around the global issue of children’s rights. Beckie has been visiting schools and delivering workshops, assemblies and class activities all designed to spark conversation and introduce our work. This project started just before the school holidays with a visit to our good friends at Birdham Primary School. The children there had been raising money for our projects all year with a particular focus on the refugee camp schools in Bangladesh. We ran various sessions with all the children, encouraging them to think about what life as a refugee might be like. They also role played as junior reporters, telling their friends in the UK about the situation in Burma. Overall, they managed to raise an amazing £556 which will support the provision of education in Bangladesh. Dorset House School and Oakwood Prep both set aside time to focus on Children on the Edge. Dorset House did a sponsored walk on the downs and raised over £2000! Over at Oakwood, the year 5 pupils organised a day of activities designed to reflect some of the challenges children around the world face on a daily basis. There was an obstacle course where pupils had to carry water without spilling it, a shelter-building activity and a jewellery making ‘sweatshop’. It was a brilliant day and the children were all fantastic! So far this term, we’ve been working with West Wittering, Chidham, Funtington and Eastergate Primary Schools. At Chidham Primary, Beckie spent time with the school council who are planning activities they can do with their peers in order to raise money for our work. At West Wittering, each class gave over a lesson to think about the rights of children all around the world. Reception class loved discovering all the different objects in the feely bag - each representing a different thing that we need to lead happy and healthy lives. Over at Eastergate primary, Green class spent an afternoon learning about what we do and our different projects. They’ve been doing lots of work on the rights of the child and were particularly fascinated with the refugee crisis in Burma. They are now thinking about how they can raise vital funds for our work with Burmese refugees. We’re so excited to be able to talk to local school children about the rights afforded to all children in all parts of the world - the same for them as it is for a working child in Bangladesh or a refugee from Burma. What’s been brilliant is seeing their engagement with the topic and how they are so alert to injustice. This week, on Universal Children’s Day, the children of Funtington Primary took part in a range of activities designed to get them thinking about what rights children all around the world have. They learnt about our projects in Bangladesh and how Children on the Edge is working to make a difference to the lives of refugees living there. We’ve got a range of different workshops, lessons and assemblies that can be adapted and delivered for any age group. We’re always pleased to be able to build further partnerships with local schools as well as producing a schools pack with ready-to-use resources for those schools a little further afield. If your school would like to get involved with learning a bit more about our work and children’s rights, please get in touch! ![]() Charlie Meyrick has spent the past six years running up mountains and along roads and tracks including 5 marathons and ultra marathons across the Italian, Swiss and French Alps as well as numerous long distance runs in the UK. The photo on the left shows him finishing a 120km run in Chamonix earlier this year. He has now decided (with the help of his wife!) that perhaps it's his turn to walk the dogs, and is finally hanging up his running shoes. As a swansong he has decided to run the June 2014 SDW100 - a one hundred mile race taking in the entire South Downs Way national trail, starting in Winchester and ending in Eastbourne with a total elevation of 12,700 feet. He is aiming to qualify for the prestigious 100 miles - One Day running buckle awarded to those who finish the race in under 24 hours. He would like to use this barking mad challenge to raise much needed funds for a well deserved charity and has chosen Children on the Edge! We feel incredibly privileged, and would like to thank Charlie for choosing us! We wish him all the best for next year’s challenge. Watch this space next year to see how he gets on! If Charlie has inspired you to start training for a challenge to raise money for our work, then please do get in touch. ![]() Just £3.00 a calendar and each sale makes a difference to the children we work with. We are launching a major fundraising effort in the weeks leading up to Christmas to raise money for our centres of activity across the globe where we work to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to forgotten children, living on the edge of their societies. These projects include:
These are our main centres of activity and we desperately need an increasing flow of money to support and expand these endeavours. In order to do this we are launching a special appeal today, through until Christmas, with a beautiful 2014 Calendar entirely sponsored by local businesses and full of stunning images from our projects. Our aim is to sell as many calendars as we can and to this end we are asking all our friends and supporters if they would consider joining us in this effort. By circulating this request our hope is that we can encourage enough of you to buy an average of ten calendars at £3.00 each, much the same price as an arty Christmas card! In fact if you do go for a bundle of ten or above, you can have them for £2.00 each. Whether you buy calendars as an alternative to a card, for yourself, or as a present, whether your business buys them as Christmas gifts for your staff, or to sell in your shop or cafe; each sale will make a difference to the children we work with. Our target is to raise £10,000 all of which will be used to support and expand the projects we have highlighted above. You can contribute to this and get a great set of pressies at the same time... or a nicer looking kitchen wall!? You can both view and purchase the calendars in our online shop or if you’d like to talk to us about buying in bulk at a reduced price then contact our office. ![]() Children on the Edge believe that rights are things that every child should have or be able to do. They all have the same rights, all these rights are connected to each other and are all equally important. Because we hold these as important we have a rights based approach in all the work that we do and we want all the children on our projects to have an awareness of their rights in the most child friendly way possible. We have recently had the privilege of working with illustrator Hannah George to create a colourful poster entitled ‘You have rights’; to go on the walls of our child friendly spaces, classrooms and crisis centre which which explains some of their rights to them. We wanted them to be accessible for children from different cultures and Hannah has done an amazing job meeting this brief. Currently the posters are being translated into Thai, Burmese and Bangla and will be being sent out to our various projects over the next few months. Hannah is a freelance illustrator living and working on the south coast of England. With a fluid and versatile approach she creates her illustrations using a combination of watercolour, pencil, ink and digital process. Hannah works regularly with a variety of publishers and has illustrated several children’s picture books with Little Tiger Press. As you can see in the poster; Hannah’s artworks really bring characters to life by exploring movement and personality and we are delighted to have her contribute to our work in this way! Learn more about child rights and how we implement them in our work. Also you can see more of Hannah’s wonderful work on her website. |
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