Mayor of Richmond hosts African Revival's website launch
After many months of work and preparation, African Revival launched our website on the 3rd March. Our event was kindly hosted by the Mayor of Richmond, Cllr David Marlow.
We were so lucky to welcome so many new supporters through the doors, and guests were wowed by entertainment provided by the Afro Caribbean Society at Imperial College, who have selected us as their chosen charity this year.
In the heart of Hampton Hill something amazing is going on. Our small but effective charity is reaching out to children in some of the remotest areas of Zambia, Uganda and Sudan. By building schools training teachers, overcoming barriers to education and supporting communities and parents we are ensuring that for thousands of children every day is a school day. Thanks to us and to the inspirational communities we work with, once derelict classrooms are now safe and dry, children sitting on the floor now have the dignity of a desk and chair, and teachers actually have resources like text books and blackboards.
It goes much further than that though. There's no point investing in infrastructure and resources without also investing in the people who will drive their schools forward. So we train teachers and support them with housing and salaries. We address barriers to education, and most importantly we work with parents and small rural communities to build their capacity to secure the future of their children's education. That means helping them to set up community savings schemes, encouraging them to appreciate the value of education, and training them in simple management techniques such as budgeting and monitoring, so that they have the skills they need to ensure their schools are accountable.
So why is this website so important for us? Well, because it enables us to tell the world about what we're doing at the touch of a button. African Revival isn't a large organisation. We don't believe in spending lots of money on expensive publicity and advertising. Thanks to Digital Potion, who have spent months building our site absolutely free of charge, we now have the ability to communicate with all of you in cyberspace every time we have exciting news to share!
Our charity is only 5 years old but we have already touched the lives of 250,000 people in the world's poorest continent. Watch this space and follow us online - this year we intend to do more than ever before...