![]() Ghislaine Davis, local artist and patron of charitable initiatives, has donated some beautiful unframed watercolours to Chichester based charity Children on the Edge as part of her desire to share her talents with the world and to make a difference. Educated in France, Ghislaine has lived in Norway, speaks five languages and settled with her husband in Chichester 5 years ago. Ghislaine has always supported charities with her artistic talents and recently saw a story about our projects in the local paper and decided to donate some pieces which can be viewed by clicking here. Anyone willing to display or wishing to bid for these beautiful watercolours depicting Chichester and surrounding coastal scenes should contact Children on the Edge on 01243 538 530 or e-mail Euan Clarke at [email protected]. Euan Clarke, Community Fundraiser for Children on the Edge says “These paintings would be perfect for a special Christmas present or anniversary memory of happy times. Ghislaine is to be warmly commended for her wonderful generosity”. ![]() Matthew Gray ran way past the mark when he took on the Windsor Half Marathon to raise money for our projects. Matthew aimed to raise £300 but has smashed this target and bought in £400! Matthew seems to have many strings to his bow. He is not only a speedy runner but a musician in the forces. One of the ways he managed to boost his total was by encouraging friends to give at one of his gigs! £400 will make an incredible difference to the children we work with. It will pay for the rent of one of our Apartment Schools for refugee children in Malaysia for an entire year, as well as four months wages for a teacher at the schools. If you want to take on a challenge like Matthew please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you! ![]() Until Christmas 2011 every time you buy one of the 100% natural, Roll-on Lip Oils from The Body Shop, the store will donate 50p to one of the four ‘Child Friendly Spaces’ we have pioneered for vulnerable children across the globe. This new product has only been available from July and each of the five flavours are made entirely from natural oils and ingredients. The oils not only give a natural sheen and moisturisation for lips, but now give something back to some of the most vulnerable children worldwide. Our Child Friendly Spaces are structured and safe environments where children can meet each other to play, learn to deal with the risks they face, be involved in educational activities and relax. It gives the children a sense of safety, structure and continuity amidst overwhelming experiences. Money raised through the sale of the lip oils will be going to Child Friendly Spaces in East Timor where children post conflict have had the opportunity to be children again and to Indonesia where communities are re-building their lives after the Tsunami. It will go Moldova where employment is so scarce that many parents migrate to find work, leaving their children at risk of trafficking. Funds raised will also go to Bangladesh where poverty levels are at a level where many children have to work alongside their families to survive, instead of gaining an education. Each afternoon we give these children a safe place to break from work and to learn, rest and play with their friends. Ben Wilkes, our Head of UK says “We’re incredibly grateful to have this support from The Body Shop, it’s fantastic to think each time someone buys a lip oil it will fund one of 750 children for a day attending our Child Friendly Spaces”. The roll-on lip oils are available in The Body Shop stores across the UK, online and at any Body Shop at Home party. They’re fantastic to slip in your bag when you’re on the move, or slip into someone’s stocking this Christmas! ![]() Yee Win’s day began like many others at the Children’s Crisis Centre in Mae Sod, Thailand. Rising at 6.30 in the morning, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and glanced out the small wooden window next to her bunk bed. “I couldn’t believe it” she said “Our garden was gone. There was only water. Everywhere I looked there was water.” Over the past three months, Thailand has endured its heaviest rainfall in a century. With 75% of the country facing unprecedented levels of flooding, the situation has reached crisis levels. The government reports that the floods have claimed 281 lives this year, many of the victims have been children. Rising waters have inundated homes, shops and schools, directly affecting over 19 million people and causing an estimated USD $5 billion worth of damage. Children on the Edge’s partners with an organisation called Social Action for Women (SAW) who have have borne the brunt of floods here directly. Stores of dry food like rice and beans have been contaminated straining already tight budgets. Piles of books and stationary at the nearby SAW migrant school have been ruined as well. With most of the major roadways under water, usual supply lines are cut causing the price of staples to rise dramatically in rural areas. Vulnerable groups, such as migrant children, are the first to feel the effects of the crisis. With limited resources available to them, they have little choice but to make do with what is available. With your help, Children on the Edge would like to assist those affected by flooding in Thailand. Supplies of food and clothing are in acute need. Furthermore, numerous schools and shelters for children have been seriously damaged. Please help us intervene in this crisis by making a donation today. Text HELP FLOOD to 70080 to give £3. This small amount can buy three textbooks, or replenish 3 days worth of food for a child at the crisis centre. Thank you. ![]() By November this pile of wood will be transformed into a primary school for 84 Chin children in Burma who at present have no chance of getting an education. The Chin people in the tiny village of Tilum in Burma have been the target of persecution and oppression for many years. The Chin Human Rights Organisation describe how the Chin people in Burma have had to endure “decades long violation of the rights of women and children, forced labour, political suppression, racial discrimination religious persecutions committed by the Burmese military regime”. Tilum is situated just 3 miles from the neighboring village of Tibual where one of the main Burma Army Battalions are posted. These soldiers force tax, labour and food from the Tilum villagers and consequently many people have left the village. The remaining 19 households (which consist of 3-4 families sharing the same house) are those who lack the money or capacity to leave the village or those who are too afraid to settle in other communities. Many families cannot leave as they rely on jhuming cultivation, growing rice or sweetcorn in order to survive. There is no transportation out of the village so the children remaining in Tilum have no chance of an education. This is why it’s so vital for us to support the community and build a primary school. Children on the Edge are paying for the building of the school which will have four teachers and give an education to 84 children. Materials have arrived and building works have started, so come November we should be reporting on the opening of a brand new school. Find out more about our work with the Chin people of Burma or donate to our projects. ![]() Nant Bwa Bwa Phan is the representative of Karen National Union in the United Kingdom. We were delighted to have her as a guest speaker at our fundraising dinner in Chichester last year, hosted by the then Mayor Michael Woolley. Bwa Bwa has recently written a brilliant article on the current plight of the Karen people in Burma which has been published on the Democratic Voice of Burma website. We work with children from Karen State both within Burma at our Nursery Schools and in Thailand in our Children’s Crisis Centre, Boarding Houses and Migrant Schools where many Karen families flee across the border to find safety. In her article Bwa Bwa highlights how the international community continue to make policy about Burma whilst ignoring what is happening in Karen State. In 2006 the Burmese Army launched a major offensive in Karen state resulting in the most appalling crimes against humanity with 80,000 Karen people fleeing their homes to hide in the jungle. Bwa Bwa notes that the UN made no response to this, even when their envoy visited Burma. Four years later, despite a petition for action from 84,000 Karen people to UN Secretary General Ba Ki-moon and to other Presidents and Prime Ministers across the world, there has still been no reply. While the international community continue to focus their attention on events in Rangoon and Naypyidaw, the shocking abuses and atrocities in Karen State continue to be ignored. Bwa Bwa says “The generals know this, which is why they carry on killing. They know all they need to do is make nice speeches in Naypyidaw, and agree to let diplomats visit now and again, they can literally get away with murder.” Please read the full article by Nant Bwa Bwa Phan, find out more about our projects with the Karen people both within Burma and Thailand and consider donating to our work. ![]() As the sun starts setting in Thailand, children all over the country can be seen playing ‘Takraw’, a popular game similar to volley ball where the players don’t touch the ball with their hands but with their head, feet or any other part of the body. The children love leaping high into the air to punt the ball back to their opponents. On a recent visit to our Children’s Crisis Centre on the Thai-burma border, our Field Assistant Satawat Sriprakarn had the opportunity to see the children enjoy a few matches of Takraw in the evening. He said “I saw them playing on the cement field that we made for the Crisis Centre instead of playing in the dust and getting dirt on their clothes”. The cement court is one of the new facilities that have been built as part of our renovations to the Centre in the last 10 months. The renovations have focussed on improving sanitation for the 75 children in the centre including new flushable toilets and a bathing area. For these children keeping clean is vital, but we’re fairly convinced the new playground’s appeal lies in the extra bounce it gives to their ball games rather than the extra clean appearance it gives to their clothes! The Children’s Crisis Centre was set up to support refugee children fleeing the brutal regime in Burma. Many of these children arrive in Thailand having been separated from their parents. Without parental care and support they are vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, many have suffered traumatic experiences and have little or no access to food and education. The Centre provides much needed shelter, food, education and trauma councelling for these children. Where possible we work to re-unite children with their parents. We are thrilled to be able to make these improvements to the Centre this year thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Please feel free to find out more about our Children’s Crisis Centre and consider supporting the project by making a donation. ![]() This weekend staff and volunteers from Children on the Edge took part in Chichester’s Get Active Festival, a free family sports and activities day presented by Chichester District Council. We ran a popular face painting stall and raffled off two pairs of Goodwood Revival tickets, generously donated by Revival’s founder Lord March. As we painted our way through many butterflies, tigers and spidermen Spirit FM described our work over the tannoy to the hundreds of people in Oaklands Park enjoying the day. “We were delighted to be part of the Get Active Festival. It’s a fantastic opportunity to rub shoulders with others in the local community and let people know what we do” said Euan Clarke, Community Fundraiser at Children on the Edge. Get Active was part of Chichester’s Big Weekend which also included a local food fare and a beautiful illumination of the city’s park and walls. Please feel free to find out more about our work and how you can get involved. ![]() US cable news channel CNN have this week selected Patrice Millet as a ‘CNN hero’. Their CNN hero awards are set up to honour everyday people who are changing the world, unique individuals who have made remarkable achievements for the benefit of others. Patrice set up the work we support in Haiti, and is a true hero. Five years ago, Patrice was told he was in the advanced stages of a rare bone cancer. The Haitian businessman went through a stem cell transplant procedure in the US and after nine months of treatment, his cancer was in remission. When Patrice returned to Haiti he was determined use the time he has left to make a difference. He turned all his attention to helping children from the poorest slums in Port au Prince to have a brighter future. "Every day you see so many kids in need, so many bad stories, tragic stories," said Patrice, "All my life, I wanted to do something good for my country, for the kids. I said, 'This is the time. I have nothing to lose." Patrice sold his construction supply business and started a project called FONDAPS, which stands for Foundation Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours (Foundation of Our Lady of Perpetual Help). The program uses football to help children stay out of trouble and learn valuable life skills. Patrice calls it "education by sport." He braved dangerous areas and befriended the locals in some of the worst ghettos of Port au Prince, eventually building up a sports programme for 600 children who are are coached in football, receive free football kits and are given food parcels to take home. We support this remarkable programme as it helps some of the most vulnerable children in the world. Children in the slums of Haiti endured grinding poverty and were at risk from criminal gangs even before the earthquake hit. After the tremors they were made doubly vulnerable. The work Patrice is doing is a lifeline. He says; "To see the joy in the face of a kid when you know what he's living through ... that makes me happy. It's so wonderful to see the progress they make in soccer, in their own life, in everything." Read the full story on CNN and contribute to our work with Patrice. |
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