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 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
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