Send a Cow - A confident and thriving rural Africa
Bath, UK
Send a Cow provide seeds, tools, livestock and agricultural training, alongside community development workshops in gender equality, conflict-resolution and farm business skills. Through our unique principle of 'passing on the gift' families we support commit to 'pass on' their training, seeds, and the first female offspring of their livestock to another family in need. In this way the original 'gift' strengthens entire communities as project benefits ripple out and spread our impact far wider than those we directly work with.
“When we first start working with families, we don’t ask what they need. We ask them what they have already got.” Aklilu Dogosso, Send a Cow Ethiopia
Send a Cow doesn't offer a quick fix solution to poverty and rural development - typically working with communities for three to five years to offer a hand-up rather than a hand-out and effect substantial and sustainable change. Within a few months malnourished families are eating regularly and are able to pay for children to attend school. Within a year families are diversifying their income streams to ensure they can survive when food is scarce and when unexpected disasters strike such as drought. Once graduated from Send a Cow families are economically stable with savings to invest and expand their farming businesses.
Despite having helped over one million of the world’s poorest and most marginalised people out of poverty, there’s still more work to do. 220 million people in Africa go hungry every day, with nearly half living on less than 80p a day.
It costs £650 to send a cow to a family in Africa. A cow is enough to provide a family with over 3,000 litres of milk a year. This milk gives nutrition to the whole family and brings a steady source of income every year from the scale of the surplus. In addition, using the cow’s manure on the land makes a huge difference to crop yields.
Lady Margaret School
London, UK
The LMS PTA are working harder than ever to support Lady Margaret School in its Centenary year and enrich students educational experience there. They continue to fund the purchase of vital equipment and the development of the Centenary Garden. The school requested the PTA's help with this project to improve the schools infrastructure after the recent buildings expansion and increase in pupil numbers. This is also a legacy project to commemorate the Centenary to benefit current and future pupils as well as local groups such as Stagecoach Fulham and Music A'll who use the school's facilities.
Individual parents have also kindly organised specific fund-raising initiatives to fund this legacy project including a 100 mile cycle ride to Midhurst Kentm where pupils were evacuated during the war, a boat party this summer and a carol sing a long this December.
We hit our first annual target in 2016 and look on track to do so again in 2017 thanks to the continued support of parents and local businesses.
In addition the LMS PTA continue to help purchase many items requested by Department Heads (these are called teachers bids) which school budgets can't stretch to. These include visualizers, white boards, glass pens, screen printing exposing unit, art materials, lighting (Art), LED projectors, autoclave (Science), CAD/CAM sewing machine (DT), lockers, exercise mats (PE), desks, microscope and lab packs, printers (Geography and History), microwaves, Duke of Edinburgh equipment, mirrors (PE), catwalk (DT), repairs to silk screens (Art), easels (Art), cookers (DT), keyboards (Music), laptops and over £7,000 has been put towards text books and course materials in a variety of subjects.
Large contributions through specific PTA campaigns have also enabled school to purchase larger items these have included a laser cutter (DT) £9,000 and a new grand piano £19,712. Parents also contributed £14,000 towards the Oliver Centre which opened in 2010 and £20,816 towards the installation of a new A/V system in the hall in 2015.
