Sunday, December 16, 2012

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 1st 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 EstelĂ­, 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 EstelĂ­ 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

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