The end of an incredible year!

Dear Friends,

What an incredible first year it has been for the Selvin and Friends Foundation! In less than a year of launching we have taken part in over 10 events across the UK, from London to Edinburgh, raising awareness and funds that will be used to buy essential teaching equipment for schools in Central America.

The last run of 2011!

The final Selvin and Friends event of 2011 was the Grand Union half marathon, from Uxbridge to Watford, on 13th November. Joining Stu was Jane and Rachel, proudly wearing their Selvin shirts and raising vital funds for Selvin. Jane completed the circuit in an incredible 1 hour 40 minutes, Stu in a personal best of 1 hour 59 minutes and Rachel in an amazing 2 hours and 30 minutes.

A special mention must go to both Jane and Rachel’s parents who supported all three on the day. Rachel’s mum Claire even ran some of the course with Rachel, giving her huge support at the end of the race as she persevered despite injuring herself at the 9 mile mark, a great

display of determination!

In total, over £600 was raised by our runner runners, thank you to Jane and Rachel for your time and hard work and to everyone that supported us at the event.

Selvin’s friends

We are also delighted to thank our friend Ant Allen for his half marathon success on the 25th September when he completed London’s Run to the Beat half marathon in an amazing 2 hours and 40 seconds. Huge thanks to Ant who managed to collect over £100 for his aches and pains!

A huge thank you…

We really have to thank our incredible friends and family who have made this year so amazing for us.

First a special mention to Tom Dunn who designed an amazing website for us to use as a platform for our project. You took our little idea and brought it to life!

As 2011 was the year we ‘Ran for Selvin’, its only right we thank our incredible runners! Simon Roberts, James Dunham, Amardeep Claire, Andy Newman, Jane Mackey, Rachel MacGregor and Ant Allen. Your time, dedication, aches and pains have all been so very much appreciated and we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Last but not least, we want to thank each and every one of our incredible friends and family who have donated to Selvin over the year. You have helped us to raise a staggering £2512.72!

This project really would not have got off the ground had it not been for your amazing generosity. We can never say thank you enough for what you have helped us to achieve this year.

We look forward to showing you what all of your donations have brought for schools in Guatemala next summer!

From Schools, For Schools!

We are delighted to have launched our ‘From Schools, For Schools’ campaign this year. This campaign has been developed to encourage schools in the UK to join us in supporting schools in Central America through activities such as non-uniform (mufti) days.

We were thrilled to have Danes Hill School supporting us on the 17^th November with a mufti day where they raised a incredible £100.00. Haddlington School also raised funds for Selvin during their mufti day and raised an amazing £82.55. A huge thank you to every one of the students and staff at both schools for their kind support.

We will also be continuing our ‘From Schools, For Schools’ campaign throughout 2012 and have been selected as the Spring Term charity for Parkfields Middle School, Toddington. Thank you to Claire MacGregor for putting us forward and organising this with the school.

If you work in a school and would like to support the Selvin and Friends Foundation, please contact Vicki and Stu directly or at info@selvin.org.uk for a copy of our ‘From Schools, for School’s’ presentation and information pack.

Selvin and Friends 2012

As we come to the end of an incredible first year, we now start to focus on our challenges for the year ahead. 2012 will be the year we ‘Tri’ for Selvin, as we take on the London triathlon in September. Other events lined up over the year include the Lisbon Half Marathon, treks and mountain challenges, so that we can continue to raise essential funds to purchase school materials so vitally needed in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

The support of our friends and family is vital so if you are thinking about taking part in an event in 2012 and would like to support the Selvin and Friends Foundation, please speak to Vicki or Stu.

Last but not least…

We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2012.

Gracias amigos de Selvin,

Vicki & Stu x

Just a little note to say...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from The Selvin & Friends Foundation xx

Run to the Beat

The Selvin and Friends Foundation would like to thank Ant for his run on 25th September when he completed the Run to the Beat half marathon in an impressive 2 hours and 40 seconds! 

Thank you and congratulations!

Grand Union Half Marathon

The Selvin and Friends final big event of 2011 was the Grand Union half marathon from Uxbridge to Watford on 13th November. We had three runners proudly wearing their Selvin shirts. Joining Stu was Jane and Rachel. All three managed to complete the circuit; Jane in an impressive 1 hour 40 minutes, Stu in a personal best of 1 hour 59 minutes and Rachel in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Congratulations to all of our runners and thank you for helping us to keep Selvin's legacy alive.

Thank you's and congratulations!

To our wonderful Birmingham Half marathon runners, Deep and Andy. 

Deep finished the 13.1mile course in an amazing 1 hour 58 minutes and 33 seconds whilst Andy finished in an impressive ‎2 hours 13 minutes.

(Andy at the finishing line)

A huge thank you to both for taking the time to train, fundraise and run for Selvin.

You are helping us to keep Selvin's legacy alive.

Gracias amigos de Selvin

x

A little note to say a big good luck!

This weekend sees the lovely Deep running the Birmingham half marathon for Selvin.

A huge thank you from Vicki and Stu for all your hard work training and fundraising and good luck for the big day!

You can still support Deep by making a donation via here.

Gracias amigos de Selvin x

Fundraising Update

Our fundraising total now stands at a whopping £1348.10. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far and made 2011 a rather wonderful first year! x

A big cheer for our runners!

Some rather wonderful friends of ours have very kindly offered to run half marathons on behalf of Selvin.

Firstly, the lovely Deep will be running the Birmingham Half Marathon on 23rd October, you can support Deep by making a donation here. Every penny will make a huge difference to the schools we support and will give Deep a little boost when his legs start to hurt!

Secondly, Jane, one of Stu's good friends from his time volunteering and his rather lovely girlfriend Rachel will be running the Grand Union half marathon in November. You can support both by making a donation here. Stu will be with them every step of the way as he will be running for moral support on this occasion!

Good luck to all as they continue to train for their big days and a huge thank you for your time and effort, you are helping us to deliver Selvin's legacy.

Gracias amigos de Selvin! x

A year of firsts...

2011 marks the first year that Vicki has been able to complete the big four running events, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon! With a new running challenge set each year, the complete set has been a long time coming, but made all the more sweet doing them all to raise funds for a project that she is immensely proud of.

Next years challenge...Triathlon!

Fundraising update...

You have now helped us raise an incredible £1247.67 for school supplies in Central America.

At nearly 25% more than our fundraising total for the year, we truly are speechless by your generosity and support.

You have made more of a difference than you'll ever know.

Gracias amigos de Selvin!

x

Don't stop running!

On an extremely sunny Sunday 10th July, Vicki took to the streets of London to run the British 10k for Selvin.

Update from selvin HQ

Hello Friends,

Following on from our successful launch back in March and a very busy few months here at Selvin HQ, we thought it was about time we gave you an update on all of the latest Selvin news.

Visit Selvin’s blog

New posts have recently been added to the blog including Vicki’s training updates and final thoughts before her Edinburgh marathon, Stu’s report on the schools in Guatemala that we will be supporting this year and also a shopping list to give you an idea of how your donations can help improve the education of children in Central America.

You can read all of these posts and more by visiting the blog at http://selvincharity.blogspot.com

Selvin Goes Social!

Following the great warmth and amazing feedback we have received for our website we are pleased to say we have now taken over Facebook and twitter as well!

We continue to grow our presence on social networks, which provide an excellent way for you to keep up to date with Selvin news as well as getting in touch with us.

You can find us on Twitter as @selvin_charity or on Facebook by searching for ‘Selvin & Friends Foundation’.

A Scottish affair

On 22^nd May Vicki took on the challenge of running the Edinburgh marathon. She battled against high winds, sore legs and painful feet to run over 26 tough miles in an amazing 5 hours and 27 minutes! A huge well done after the many months of hard work put into training!

       

                         

On the same day our Friend James Dunham made his running debut and took on the Edinburgh half marathon. James completed the 13.1 mile course in an impressive 1 hour and 49 minutes, a great achievement, congratulations James!

James’s efforts have been rewarded as he went on to raise a total of £184.50, which is massively appreciated by the Selvin & Friends Foundation and a big thank you to everyone who supported him on his challenge. 

Thank you James for running for Selvin.

Keep on Running

It seems 2011 the year we run for Selvin!

We have two friends, Jane Mackey and Rachel MacGregor who are getting into the running spirit by taking part in the Grand Union Canal Half-Marathon on 13^th November. Jane volunteered with the children in Guatemala so she has seen first hand the shortfalls in educational supplies in the local schools in the region. A huge thank you and good luck to you both!  In true Selvin style, Stu will also be taking part in the run to lend our support.

Vicki will be completing two final runs in 2011, the British 10k in July and the Adidas 5k Woman’s challenge in September, both a little friendlier on the legs than Edinburgh!

A special thanks

We would really like to express a huge thank you to all of our friends and family who have so generously supported us. Since we have officially launched we have raised a huge amount of money for the local schools we are supporting in Guatemala. 

We are well on our way to our fundraising target and following the Silverstone half marathon and Edinburgh events we have raised over 95% of our target!

We are well and truly speechless. Your kind generosity really is appreciated not only by us but also the schools that we are supporting.

News from the Schools

The schools in Guatemala that we are supporting this year are run by the Phoenix Project. We asked the project leader, Dom Williams, to share some of the positive achievements that have been seen in the past year to give you an idea of just why projects like these are vital for supporting local children’s education.

‘In 2010, the results from the children’s national school exams have seen a significant improvement for children in San Andrés Itzapa (pink pin), culminating with all the children, bar six, passing their grades in Primary school, the majority with very high scores. The advances seen in Maths and Sciences were especially noticeable. All bar one child in 6^th grade Primary School passed their exams, and will start Secondary school in 2011.

Similar results were witnessed in Santa María de Jesús (green arrow) with many children scoring high with just a handful not passing the grade and having to repeat. Sciences and Maths again saw an upturn. Due to the work starting Santa María later than Itzapa, we have yet to have the children pass through to Secondary school, which will be starting the next two years.’

The Phoenix Project has enjoyed many successes during the past year, most notably:

• Over 34,000 teaching hours have been completed by volunteers to almost 600 children in both San Andrés Itzapa and Santa María de Jesús, from kindergarten through to 3^rd Level Secondary School and college.
• 98% of the children passed the year in both Primary and Secondary levels.

Visit Us

Don’t forget you can find more information about the Selvin & Friends Foundation along with the latest blog updates on our website www.selvin.org.uk

Contact Us

If you have any questions, ideas or want to get involved, you can get in touch via the website, Twitter or Facebook accounts or emailing us info@selvin.org.uk

Gracias amigos de Selvin!

A special thank you...

... must go to James Dunham who ran the Edinburgh half marathon yesterday morning, raising funds on our behalf.

James finished the course in an amazing 1:49!

Congratulations James!x

So long Edinburgh...

When I signed on to run the Edinburgh marathon around six months ago, I knew it was going to be a daunting task. I trained for many months, come rain or shine in the hopes that I would make it around the 26.2 mile course in one piece.

Yesterday was the day I had spent so long preparing for, both physically and mentally.  There were around 10,000 runners taking part in the full marathon, some running for charity, some running for personal reasons and others simply for fun. I always find the line up to a race the worst part, mainly due to the anticipation of knowing what lies ahead!

The course itself mainly comprised of a coastal path meaning lots of amazing views. On the down side, the course goes quite a way out of Edinburgh meaning many mile markers had very few supporters, but when they were there, they cheered the runners on and provided much needed water and jelly babies!

I hit a little bit of a wall at 16 miles, mainly because my legs were pretty tired, but the last 8 miles were the hardest as each one was running into headwinds, making the effort needed to take each step that much harder.

Getting to mile 25 was a turning point, knowing the end was in sight gave me one last push, and with Tom cheering me on to the finish line, I completed my first ever marathon in 5hrs and 27minutes.

For now I will be hanging up my running shoes, well for a week or so before I start training for the British 10k in July!

Thank you to everyone who wished me good luck and sponsored me – it really did keep me going when I thought I couldn’t possibly take one more step!

Run Forest Run!

If you ask friends that I went to school with, they will most definitely agree that running is not my forte! The mere mention of cross-country around Tiddenfoot Pit would make my heart sink!

And yet, I now find myself training to run a mammoth 26.2 miles in approximately 4 weeks time at the Edinburgh marathon! This day has been a long time coming, over the past four years I have been building up my distances, from 5k to 10k and last year I ran the Silverstone half marathon. Each year I say I won’t be running a further distance, and I can safely say that after this year, this statement will be true.

I have now been in training for 6 long months and am up to the 20 mile marker so I am pretty sure I will make the full distance in one piece! You can help me on the 22^nd May when I am slogging it around Edinburgh in the name of charity (and madness) by donating via the Paypal link on our home page (www.selvin.org.uk).  Any donation will be gratefully received and will make a huge difference to the schools we are supporting – it will also keep me going when my legs want to give up!

Much love,

V

X

How you can help!

The smallest donation can make a massive difference in these schools, your generosity through donations will allow us to buy locally sourced items to not only support the delivery of education but also the recreational time of these children.

Below is an example of how your donations could be used to benefit these schools:

£2.50 could buy pencils for an entire classroom

£3.00 could buy notebooks for a whole class

£4.00 could buy a pack of paper for a whole class

£4.00 could buy 45 footballs for recess

£16 could buy 16 chairs for a classroom

£20.00 could buy 5 tables for a classroom

£30.00 could buy pencils for an entire school

£36.00 could buy a white board for a classroom

Stu's Guatemalan Experience

With the Selvin & Friends Foundation now up and running, I thought it would be a good opportunity to go back to the start, and tell you a little more about the area we will be supporting this year.

San Andreas Itzapa is about a 45 minute bus ride from Antigua, which is a world heritage site. The transformation as you leave the town and approach Itzapa is painfully obvious as the general state of the land and towns diminish. The school itself is located on the edge of the town, close to the farmlands where the vast majority of the children live, and sadly work.

With school starting at 8 in the morning, a good percentage of the children, both boys and girls ranging from 5 years old up to 14, will have spent the morning working in the fields with their families to generate something to sell, but mostly just for something to eat.

They arrive at school often still covered in the dust from the fields but possess the drive and the will to learn. You arrive at the school to be mobbed by a gang of children who want to hug you, it’s hard to tell if this is out of excitement, or the relief that they can be children for a portion of the day.

The hard graft that they have put in before school soon disappears as they get the chance to act their age and to be simply be children. The children really seem to appreciate the opportunity the school presents them with.

The children have a close bond to the local figurehead at the school, Elena. Elena has to make the school’s toughest decisions, from the general running of the school to determining which families benefit from the education. The schooling offered is free, the only requirement being that the children regularly attend school, but with the work needed to be done on the land; this is often difficult for the families of Itzapa. She is also extremely welcoming to the volunteers who assist in the school and in no time at all you are one of the family.

The school itself acts as a booster to the state school. With well over 35 children to one teacher in the state schools and each class made up of a mixture of grades, the education standard is sadly low. The school offers the opportunity for everyone to get a better chance at a basic education, with classes of up to ten children to a teacher, but perhaps most importantly, aimed at the correct grade levels.

Sadly what the school possesses in terms of opportunities for these children, it lacks in terms of equipment.  The pencils, paper, text books and rubbers are just used at the same level as any normal school, but as the supply of the equipment is reliant on donations, levels can often be low.

This is where your support can make a difference; every penny we receive will go to ensuring the schools have a decent supply of stationary and school materials.

Capturing the children’s imaginations is never a challenge; they just want to learn and want to delve into the wonders of the core subjects Numeracy, Literacy and Science.

  

The children amazingly pleasant, they sometimes just need the care and attention that a child so vitally needs. Sadly it seems they are often seen as working hands rather than given the opportunity to explore the wonders of being a child.

It is amazing that in a region of such hardship and struggle that in testing times, something as small as a school can have a huge impact on so many, starting with the children. It is also wonderful how the school manages to act as a haven, not only for the children but also for those who work there.

Like anyone who has witnessed others whose human rights are lacking because of where they come from, you feel the need to try to make a difference. Sadly, Guatemala is not just around the corner to help every day, but we have a chance through the Selvin & Friends Foundation to make a real difference to these schools and local communities.

Your kind support as a friend of the Selvin & Friends Foundation has already made such a big difference and will continue to do so. For this my thanks will never be demonstrated enough, but from the bottom of our hearts, Vicki and I are eternally grateful.

Your friend,

Stu

A special thanks...

To the incredibly talented Tom Dunn for building our amazing website, its safe to say we wouldn't be where we are today without his hard work!

You have brought our little charity to life, thank you xx

We are up and running!

This time last year, Stu was volunteering in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua and saw first hand the shortfall of teaching and school supplies in local schools.

When he returned, we decided that we would like to do something to help the children in these schools and by raising funds we seek to support the delivery of education through providing much needed teaching and school materials to assist with the delivery of education for those who need it the most.

After many months of hard work, The Selvin and Friends charity was born. Our aim has been to create a small friends and family charity that seeks to raise £1000 in 2011 through taking part in a number of fundraising events


Why Selvin?

Whilst trying to decide on a name for our charity we heard the sad news that one of the children Stuart taught in Guatemala had passed away.

We decided that it would be a fitting tribute to name our charity after the bubbly bundle of energy that was Selvin, and everything we achieve will be Selvin's legacy


How you can help!

We will be raising funds by taking part in a number of activities throughout the year including the Edinburgh Marathon in May and the British 10k in July.

We kicked off our campaign on a cold Sunday on 6th March when we both took part in the Silverstone Half Marathon. Stu finished in an impressive 2:12 whilst it took me a rather more modest 2:26 to complete the 13.1 mile course.

I am now battling through sore legs to continue training for the Edinburgh Marathon, a prospect that makes me a little nervous!

We can only achieve our target with your support, any amount you are able to sponsor us for completing these events will make a huge difference to the communities we are supporting. If you are already taking part in an event and would like to fundraise for us, that would be amazing! Please speak to either myself or Stu if you would like further information on this.

We have also had friends offer to raise money through other fundraising ideas such as selling cakes, this is both extremely generous and much appreciated.

Together we can keep Selvin's legacy alive by providing children in some of the worlds poorest areas with the materials they require for a meaningful education.


Gracias amigos de Selvin, Vicki and Stu