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
