Prizes to be won...

The raffle ticket selling is in full swing! The ticket books have been purchased (our only expense in this fundraising effort and one which will come entriely out of our own pockets) and the prizes have been kindly donated!!

Each ticket is £1 or 5 for £4! Every penny will go to Menelik Education for the materials we will use in the DRC.

If you would like to purchase one but don't think you'll be able to see me in person, please contact me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk to arrange payment and I will email you your e-ticket. We will keep the hard copy for the draw which will be on 1st July!

The prizes to be won are:

The University of Birmingham Monopoly Board

£20 cash

1 of 6 'University of Birmingham' T-Shirts

A 19 Gales Farm Shop cake

A House of Fraser bracelet (womens, gold-coloured)

A Booby Prize

...with more to come!


If you win we will contact you in the afternoon of 1st July to arrange collection/delivery of your prize.


Thankyou!!

Raffle!!!

As I said in my last post, one of the possibilities for raising money next was a raffle!

Niamh Quille (a fellow volunteer for this summers trip) and I have been busily writing letters and posting them to try and gather donated prizes for our raffle. As Menelik Education is a non-profit organisation, we are conducted our raffle in the same way - all prizes will be donated and all profits will go towards the summer project.

We have begun by posting letters to all of the businesses that have a shop on campus, and Zest (the University's official clothes shop) has already donated 6 'University of Birmingham' t-shirts to us!

We're hoping to send out letters to more businesses in the next couple of days before starting to sell tickets!

If you would like a ticket for the raffle please email me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk and we can arrange payment and your raffle ticket can be esent in the mail to you. We will also make a note of your name and phone number so that when the winning tickets are picked we can send your prize to you! The tickets will cost £1 each and all profits will go towards teaching aids and supplies for this summers trip only.

Thank you x

Plans for the trip so far...

Things have really been moving forward in terms of planning and bookings for the summer trip!

Visas have been sorted, money is being changed into dollars (the most common currency out in the DRC, they also use the Congolese Francs), immunisations have been endured (I'm not a big fan of needles) and I have my flight itinerary.

Tomorrow the team and I travel to the Menelik Partnership offices in Cambridge to talk about activities when we get to the DRC and other information such as safety.

From now on, I will still be advertising for sponsorship and donations but a lot of my efforts will be going towards the group fundraising. The money raised from these efforts will be going towards materials such as schooling equipment to use when we are in the country as well as paint and other DIY materials to try and improve the environment the children have to learn in.

In these activities we will be pushing ideas such as a calendar that includes photographs by Laura Rainsford, a volunteer who travelled to the DRC last summer. Also we are looking at organising a raffle with prizes donated by any local or non-local companies that wish to be involved in helping to raise the money. Any money raised from these activities will be used solely for the purpose of buying materials that are needed out in the country (as I have mentioned paint and schooling aids and may even go towards computing equipment and other such items if we raise enough).

If you or your company would be interested in donating prizes to the raffle or any equipment we could take to the DRC to improve the lives of the children, please email me at j_prinelle@hotmail.co.uk, we welcome any aid that anyone is willing to give. If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket when we have fully organised it, please email the above address. I will post a further post with the list of possible prizes and cost of tickets at a later date.

To find out more about the organisation - Menelik Partnership - please click here. Further, if you are interested in being a volunteer, the work that volunteers do and the costs that are incurred by such a project, you can email Theodore (the organisations founder) and he will be happy to answer any questions, his email address is on the 'Contact Us' tab on the Menelik website. Or you can email myself at the above address.

This blog remains a place to make a donation to my personal costs of the trip (including costs of immunisation, flights, visas, travel and food). If you would like to donate please click here.

Thankyou.