A warm hello to all of our friends in our final newsletter of 2012.

What a year of firsts and milestones 2012 has been! This year has seen first birthdays, first swimathons, first volcano climbs, first triathlons, first ‘From Schools, For Schools’ campaigns and our first trip to visit the schools we are supporting.

Being such a small charity, every milestone we reach is a massive achievement for us. Seeing first hand the difference projects like ours can make has made us even more determined to provide these schools with the equipment they need.

Which is why 2013 will be...

The year we go the Extra Mile for Selvin!           

 

2013 will see Vicki and Stu (and anyone else who would like to join us!) taking on events to go the extra mile for Selvin.  So far we will be taking on the challenge of the Paris Half Marathon, BUPA 10,000, the London Marathon, the London Triathlon and a Lands End to John O’Groats (LEJOG) bike ride, clocking up hundreds of miles between us.

You can show your support, and make the long dark evenings of training more bearable by supporting us at our brand new...

BT MyDonate website

From 1^st January 2013, you will be able to donate to us via our Selvin’s MyDonate page (https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/theselvinfriendsfoundation) Not only should this be a much simpler way of making a donation, but we can also claim an extra 25p from the tax man for every pound that you donate in Gift Aid. In practical terms, this means if you were to donate £10.00 to us, the tax man would give us an extra £2.50 on top!

We are Selvin

When we weren’t in school or climbing volcanos in Guatemala, we spent some time making a video to tell our story, and how, thanks to your support, we have been able to make a difference.

You can view the video, called ‘Today we make our difference,’ along with other videos from our trip to Guatemala, by visiting our YouTube page at www.youtube.com/selvinfriends 

Guatemala Update

In Guatemala, only 60% of children who enter first grade make it to the sixth grade of primary school, if they make it to school at all.

Therefore, following on from our visit to Itzapa and Santa Maria in July, we were delighted to hear that the exam results across all six grades in both of these schools were mainly in the 80% region, with some students even topping 90%, meaning nearly all students progressed to the next grade!

Of that 60% who make it to sixth grade of primary school, only 35% move onto to secondary school afterwards.  We were delighted to hear that all 12 sixth graders at Itzapa graduated, and all 12 children will start secondary school in January. 100%, what an achievement!

It is a delight and a pleasure to play some small part in helping these children to receive the education that they deserve.  We hope that every sixth grader for many years to come has the opportunity to move onto secondary school just like this years students.

2013 Nicaragua

After a successful first year supporting Guatemalan schools we move on to our second country, Nicaragua. There are two schools which we will be supporting in 2013. Both schools are considerably newer than the schools in Guatemala, La Thompson (where Stu worked) will be four in March and the sister school in Alexis Arguello is only two years old. 

The schools are situated close to the town of Estelí, which is in the north of the country.

Across the two schools, around 180 children are taught daily, with a mix of pre school and primary school classes. The primary school runs from the first to the sixth grade with an additional teaching function for adults to learn English. There are currently six teachers and two cooks who work full time to ensure the children have at least one proper meal a day.

The families, similar to that in Guatemala, face huge economic struggles. The families who live on the land around the schools have mainly moved close to Estelí as a result economic migration. The land on which they live was essentially a favela, but it is beginning to be recognised as a settlement.

The families provide manual labour to the local tobacco plantations with their children being the first generation to be literate. The majority of the two areas have high illiteracy levels similar to that of Guatemala.

We very much look forward to working with these schools over the coming year to provide much needed school and teaching materials.

Stay in touch

You can keep up to date with Selvin news by visiting the website www.selvin.org.uk, by following us on Twitter (@selvin_charity) or by liking our Facebook page.

And finally...

2012 has been such an incredible year for Selvin, we have achieved more than we believed possible when we set the charity up a year ago.

A huge thank you must firstly go to our friends and family for their continued support.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to us in 2012, you continue to make Selvin and Friends grow into more than we thought possible.

A special mention must go to all of the staff and students at Parkfields Middle School and Biddenham International School for supporting and championing our From Schools, For Schools campaign.

Thank you to The Phoenix Project, Dom and Doreen Williams, Moli Griffin and Sarah Riggott (who was also kind/mad enough to take part in our volcano challenge with us) for their hospitality and support during our trip to Guatemala.

Selvin has always very much been a team effort and all of this wouldn’t have been possible without your support.

The only thing left to do is wish you all a very merry Christmas and all best wishes for 2013.

Gracias amigos de Selvin

Vicki and Stu

x

An update from Itzapa, Guatemala

When we saw the update below, we were incredibly proud to be supporting a fantastic project and such amazing children! Brilliant news of what can be achieved when the opportunity is available. Education is a right not a privilege.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you know only 60% of Guatemalan children who enter first grade actually make it to sixth grade of primary school...if they make it to school at all. Of that 60% only 35% move onto to secondary school afterwards.


In Itzapa, last Tuesday, all 12 of our sixth grade class graduated and all 12 will start secondary school in January...100%...can't wait to watch them grow into young adults!

(Courtesy of The Phoenix Project)

2013 Going the extra mile for Selvin...

This is how 2013 is looking so far...

Paris Half marathon, BUPA 10,000, LEJOG, London Marathon and London Triathlon...thats a lot of miles for Selvin! 

Final run of 2012...

Completed!

'Tri'-ing for Selvin!

On Saturday 22nd September, I completed the second big Selvin event of 2012 (following the Volcano Challenge in July), by finishing the London Triathlon.

After initial concerns over the weather (it was rainy and cold all week!) the sun came out on Saturday and provided perfect conditions for the swimming, cycling and running course!

After picking up my swimming hat, it was over to the swim meeting point to wait the ok to get into the water...

Then it was time to do the one thing I was dreading, getting in the water! I don't know if its the cold, or not being able to see what's underneath me, but open water makes me panic! I had practiced beforehand but an additional 465 people swimming in the same area made it very different on the day!

But I stuck with it, and somehow managed to complete the 750 metre swim unscathed!

Then it was onto the bike for the 20k cycle (I like to think this was the 'easy' bit as you get to sit down!!)

Before the final 5k run...

This was my first triathlon and I really didn't want to put too much pressure on myself time wise. I set myself a target time of 2.5 hours as that seemed quite reasonable, so I was pretty happy to cross the line 20 minutes ahead of this!

Challenge complete, what a great year for Selvin (not so much for my feet, I have lost two toe nails, ouchie!!)

Thanks for everyone's support, and everyone who told me I could do it when I was having self doubt! And my ever present cheer leader, Tom, who managed to capture the whole event in pictures for us.

V
x

Today we make our difference!

When we weren't in school or up a volcano, this is what we were doing...!

The Selvin & Friends August 2012 Newsletter

Guate a way to end Year 1!

A little over a year ago, we launched The Selvin & Friends Foundation on a sunny March morning at the Silverstone Half Marathon. We had no idea what to expect. We hoped that our friends and family would support us and help us to raise our aim of £1000 each year. We hoped that we would be able to reach our fundraising total, which would enable us to buy much needed school and teaching materials for schools in Central America.

Fast forward to the 21 July 2012, when we boarded a plane to Guatemala, the support of our friends and family had gone far beyond everything we could have ever hoped for.

Over the past year we have raised in excess of £5000, this enables us to not only support our initial three schools in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, but allows us to extend our project to support schools in Peru and Ecuador.

We have only been able to achieve this through your generous donations and the incredible efforts of friends and family, including new friends we have made along the way, who have taken part in a vast number of fundraising activities.

We hope this newsletter shows you what a huge difference your support has made, and we are proud to share this milestone with you all.

Selvin & Friends head to Guatemala

From the beginning, we were adamant that Guatemala was the first country we wanted to support for one simple reason, it was where the little boy we are proudly named after was from.

School visits

We were delighted to spend time in our supported schools Santa Maria and San Andreas Itzapa during our trip to Guatemala.

We spent a day in Santa Maria where we were able to supply the school with 615 workbooks, 10 dictionaries, 70 textbooks and enough plastic laminating sheets to cover and protect the books! What’s more, we popped into the local stationer to buy all of these products meaning that the money stayed in the local community and benefited a local business.

We were able to spend some time in the classrooms with the children, and got to see the textbooks in use! These valuable tools are used to help the children with their basic sounds when combining vowels and consonants.

We were also lucky enough to spend two days in San Andreas Itzapa, which is the school Selvin attended, and it was great to see his classmates and just how much they have progressed.

The money was spent slightly differently at this school. We were able to purchase 14 national curriculum books, which the teachers use to plan their lessons and are therefore able to follow the curriculum in much more detail, aiding the children’s education.

 Due to the incredible support we received this year, we were also able to support the teachers in Itzapa by purchasing a computer. This will give teachers the opportunity to research topics they are teaching, plan their lessons, and will offer additional learning materials to the children.

We still have around £200 to spend per school. This money will be used in November when the new school year begins. This allows us to purchase the most up to date materials for the children.

Selvin’s volcano challenge

During the trip Vicki and Stu took part in Selvin and Friends first (and possibly last!) volcano challenge. The original plan was to climb Acatanango and Fuego, two volcanoes that are in close proximity to both the schools that we are supporting. Sadly nature decided that we could not climb Fuego as it became increasingly active and was deemed unsafe to climb.

Instead we opted to climb the two peaks of Acatanango. The climb took us through various stages of maize cornfields, forestry, the dead forest and finally, after 4 and a half long hours, the summit.

We faced an extreme change in temperature during the climb, the start being t-shirt weather before we had to put on our thermal hats, gloves and scarf’s as the temperature plummeted! While we were at the summit we were often submerged in cloud, which parted briefly for a fantastic camera opportunity.

Please do not be fooled into believing that as we only took on one volcano that this was an easy challenge. Painful blisters, sore feet and bruised toes tell a different story!

We had an amazing response from our friends, as ever, with a total of over £700 raised for the challenge.

A big thank you must go to Sarah who climbed the volcano alongside Vicki and Stu. This was a great way to end our Guatemalan trip.

Thank you cards

During our time in San Andreas Itzapa, we held an art class and provided the children with coloring pencils, confetti and glitter and let their imaginations go wild! As a result, we selected 6 of the amazing designs, which we shall now be using to say thank you when we receive donations.

You can see more photos from our trip on our Facebook page and on our blog via the Selvin Website (www.selvin.org.uk)

The Small Print!

The entre cost of our trip, including flights and accommodation were paid for personally. All money donated to The Selvin & Friends Foundation is used to purchase school and teaching material only.

We are also aware of the impact our trip had on the environment, and in order to off set our carbon emissions, we have personally paid for two trees to be planted in the Caledonian Forest through Trees for Life (www.treesforlife.org.uk).

Nicaragua

We are pleased to announce that we will be supporting schools in Nicaragua in 2013. We will be providing school and teaching materials at the beginning of the year, as this is when the school year starts in Nicaragua.

Selvin’s YouTube Channel

We are in the process of creating a Selvin and Friends YouTube channel. This will give us the opportunity to share videos from the schools and the volcano challenge, along with the video’s we have used in our ‘From Schools, for Schools’ campaign.

Triathlon

We still have one major event this year to complete. Vicki will be taking part in the London triathlon on 22 September. She is currently hoping her volcano injuries subside so she can resume her training!

Thank You!

We want to say a huge thanks to the following people for their support over the past year.

Firstly, we want to thank our incredible friends and family whose continued support always amazes and humbles us both. We, quite simply, could not do any of this without you.

Secondly we want to thank our friends in Guatemala; Dom and Doreen Williams who allow us to work with their schools, provide a constant support and were fantastic hosts during our trip to the schools in Guatemala, and to Sarah and Moli for their hospitality and support during our trip.

Gracias amigos de Selvin,

Vicki & Stu x

Itzapa, Guatemala

In Pictures: Itzapa, the second school, we are supporting in Guatemala.

We were able to provide this school with a computer to allow teachers to plan and prepare their lessons, and provide each teacher with a copy of the national curriculum with further supplies to follow later in the school year.