A Soft Power Christmas
If you are having troubles finding Christmas presents for loved ones then look no further! We have the answer - a donation to SPE! It's as easy as 1,2,3.. ok 5
5 easy steps to the perfect Christmas Present:
1) Decide how much you would like to donate as a present
2) Make the donation either by transfer to our UK bank, online at www.justgiving.com/spechristmas or via paypal using info@softpowereducation.com
3) Email sharon@softpowereducation.com to confirm you have made the donation
4) As soon as the donation reaches us, we will email you the Christmas Card
5) You print out the card and give it to the person to let them know you have donated to SPE as their present!
Easy peasy!
What will my donation pay for?
£5 could buy a shovel or 4 litres of paint
£10 could pay for 60 bricks
£20 could buy a truck load of plaster sand
£35 could pay for the wages of one of our pre school teachers for a month
£50 could buy essential resources for the science outreach lessons from the Amagezi Education Centre for five schools
£100 could pay the wages of one of our Amagezi Education Centre staff for one month
£1000 could pay to refurbish a two classroom block
£1500 could pay for the lunch we provide for 3000 pupils who visit the Amagezi Education Centre in a year
Ways to Donate:
1) Make an online bank transfer to our UK bank. Our bank details can be found here: http://www.softpowereducation.com/Fundraising/Donating/tabid/65/Default.aspx
2) Send a cheque to our UK office at 55 Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1QF, UK
3) Go to www.justgiving.com/spechristmas and donate online
4) Via Paypal using info@softpowereducation.com
If you are a UK tax payer, then don't forget that we can claim an extra 28% on your donation if you complete and post us the Gift Aid form which can be found on our website at http://www.softpowereducation.com/Fundraising/GiftAid/tabid/95/Default.aspx
(You'll only need to complete this if you make a transfer to our bank or donate by cheque. You will have the option on the Just Giving site to ask them to claim Gift Aid for you)
Some recent research has shown that high street shops are passing on as little as 6% of the price of charity Christmas cards to the charities but you can rest assured that every penny you donate for your Soft Power Education Christmas Card reaches us and is used on projects right here in Uganda.
Keep track of how we are doing on Just Giving
SPE on BBC!
Check out this short clip on BBC. One of the crazy Leeds volunteers decided to raise money by surfing down the River Esk! BBC heard about this and went to film her practising! Well done Amy!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8073858.stm
Kibii and Venus ran the Marathon!
On Sunday 17th May Kibii and Venus ran the Jinja marathon to raise money for Soft Power Education. Jackie Smith also took part and they all did very well indeed. Click here to read the full report of the day!
Kibii and Venus are running the Jinja Marathon
Kibii and Venus have set themselves the challenge of running 26 miles in the gruelling Ugandan sunshine! We are very proud of them and even more so when they said they wanted to do it to help raise money for Soft Power Education. You can sponsor them by going to www.justgiving.com/kibiiandvenus You can also keep track of their fundraising with this fancy widget thingy above!
Leeds Crew gets fundraising underway
The Leeds crew seem to have started their fundraising in style this year! Every year we are amazed and inspired by the amount they fundraise and we wanted to share this particular story with you. See what volunteer Amy Hogarth is up to http://www.whitbygazette.co.uk/news/Surfer-Amy-prepares-for-a.4880242.jp?articlepage=1.
Soft Power Education wins an award!
That's right, we have won our first award for 'Entrepeneurship in Education'. Last week Mel and Shaz took a trip to South Africa to accept our prize of $10,000 and to attend a conference on 'Sustainable Education'. Read all about it.
Sign up to the Soft Power Education blog!
You can now keep track of everything going on in Uganda by signing up to our blog. This is will be regularly updated by all of the staff here in Uganda and will keep you up to the minute with what we are doing on the ground. The blog will also import into our Facebook Fan Page as notes. Sign up now!
Soft Power Agriculture Update
Jami has been in Uganda for 8 weeks now and has found her feet firmly placed in the soil of the School Demonstration Gardens and our Community Garden. Read her update on the progress of the project.
Soft Power Education buys ISSB machines
Soft Power Education has taken a huge step towards helping to protect the Ugandan environment by buying two 'Interlocking Stabilised Soil Block' (ISSB) brick making machines. Read more here
Charity Auction at Bonhams, London
Wait for it... £30,000! That's right, the auction at Bonhams on Monday 15th Septemeber raised a huge £30,000! We all nearly fell off our chairs when we were told the news. This money will primarily go towards renovating and refurbishing the Special Needs Dormitories at Walakuba West Primary and also towards our Agriculture Programme through the Amagezi Education Centre. Read the full report right here.
Welcome to our new website!
After a lot of work from many people the new website is finally here! It has been over a year in the making but we think you will all agree that it was well worth the wait. Andy Webb was the genius who did all the clever technical stuff and continues to support us. Domini Alfrey of pixeldom was the design master and came up with the beautiful colour scheme and overall design of the site. Both Andy and Dom did this all for free and we cannot thank them enough. Please do feel free to email us with any comments or suggestions.
Soft Power wins Charity of the Week
Thank you to everyone who voted for Soft Power Education as Charity of the Week at www.optimistworld.com. They hold this vote on a weekly basis and the winners from each week will go through to round two and eventually compete for Charity of the Year! We'll let you know when that comes around. Thank you too to our friends at Optimist World.