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| Hi!
Welcome to your monthly e-news update from AbleChildAfrica.
February has been a fantastically busy month for everyone at AbleChildAfrica, with the opening ceremony of LittleRock early education centre in Nairobi, visits to partners in Kenya and Uganda and even an office move!
This month's newsletter lets you know a little about what we have been up to and brings you updates from our work with our partners in Africa as well as our fundraising work in the UK.
As you know, we really value our supporters and would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support for AbleChildAfrica and all the work we do.
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| Little Rock - Opening Ceremony in Nairobi | |
February was a momentous month for AbleChildAfrica with the opening ceremony of the Little Rock Early Education centre in Kibera, Kenya.
Chris James and Jane Anthony visited Nairobi at the beginning of the month to attend the opening ceremony, alongside many distinguished guests. The ceremony was a huge success and so AbleChildAfrica would like to thank everyone involved who has contributed to this project.
Here is an update on the opening ceremony from Chris James, AbleChildAfrica Programme Officer who was at the event earlier this month:
Back in 2011, AbleChildAfrica and Euromoney Institutional Investors PLC pulled together some of the biggest names in the banking industry to raise a fantastic amount of money to construct a new building for our partner, Little Rock Early Education Centre and after months of incredibly hard work from so many people, the school was officially opened. Special guests from the Ministry of Education in Kenya, representatives from Euromoney, the funding organisations and a host of NGOs working in Nairobi gathered together alongside the pupils, teachers and parents at Little Rock to celebrate.
In true Little Rock style the children took centre stage entertaining with a range of songs, dances, poems and speeches. AbleChildAfrica Director, Jane Anthony, who has seen the school grow since the ground breaking ceremony just under 12 months ago, reflected on the day and the achievement
"Yesterday was an amazing day for Little Rock and AbleChildAfrica. There were so many great moments and memories but nothing beats the look on the parent's faces when they passed through the school gates and saw the new building for the first time or the look on the children's faces when, after sitting so patiently through the ceremony they were released into the new playground. I watched in admiration as one student with mild Cerebral Palsy and motor difficulties slowly climbed the ladder on a slide, her classmates waiting patiently for her at the bottom of the slide cheering her on. That must have been about the 10th time that day that my eyes watered over..."
Little Rock aims to provide inclusive education in a stimulating, innovative and safe environment and the new school building is all of these things. The rooms are big and bright with murals to catch the eye on every corner, the top floor is accessible via a ramp, the school playground sits at the back of a wide open lawn and most of all everybody is beaming from ear to ear! The Director of Little Rock, Lilly Oyare, is an inspirational woman - this is her vision and her dream. However, it doesn't stop there. The challenge now is ensuring that other local schools where the Little Rock graduates go on to are replicating that inclusivity. For now, AbleChildAfrica are proud of their part in shaping this incredible centre that provides inclusive early education to the children of Kibera.
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| The London Marathon 2013 | |
Well done to all our Marathon runners who are doing a fantastic job of training and fundraising in the run up to the London 2013 Marathon in April this year.
This year, AbleChildAfrica has a great team with a mix of people from all backgrounds, some who are marathon veterans but most first timers! All are well on their way to achieving their £1500 fundraising target for AbleChildAfrica, which will go a long way to support our work in Africa, helping some of the world's most vulnerable and marginalised children.
To support our runners on their fundraising journey, each month we are featuring a different runner in the lead up to the marathon on the 21st April.
This month the spotlight is on Iram Hasan who has already raised a whopping £1185 for us and will be running a series of fundraising events in her local area in the lead up to the main event!
My name's Iram Hasan, I'm 18 years old and live in Yeovil. Right now I'm on my Gap Year and I hope to study Medicine at UCL this September. Last year, a friend of mine ran the London Marathon and in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her on TV, I watched the coverage throughout the day. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone was so positive. Seeing so many people come together for one event and watching those runners cross the finish line made me realise that this was something I had to experience at least once in my life.
I remember watching David Weir win for the 6th time and his achievements really got me looking forward to the Paralympics. I knew that they would change people's attitudes towards disability but this made me think about the prejudices that already exist, especially in the developing world. AbleChildAfrica's aims and values really appealed to me as they work to achieve equality for some of the world's most vulnerable children. As a first timer, running the London Marathon will be a big challenge, but having the chance to help these children would make crossing that finish line even more special.
Well done to Iram and all our Marathon Team for their hard work. You can follow our runners and their progress on their facebook page here.
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Mother's Day Flowers
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Mother's Day Flowers
Mother's day is soon approaching on Sunday 10th March, so why not surprise your mum and make her feel special with some beautiful flowers! You can order them online here.
We are featured as their charity of the month, so when you order from them, AbleChildAfrica receives 15% of the price of your gift!!
Go ahead and put a smile on her face!
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| Nightrider - 8th/9th June 2013 | | 
LOVE Cycling? LOVE Fundraising? Why not combine the two?!?
AbleChildAfrica is taking part in this years NightRider Cycling Challenge event. Nightrider is a unique 100km fundraising event where you cycle past iconic London landmarks by streetlight - passing Tower Bridge, a deserted City of London, Parliament, London eye and many more.
We have 7 places left to fill on our team for this years event. So if you love cycling and are looking for a great way to support our work, then this could be it!
You can register for a place online here.
There are limited places so reserve yours soon to avoid disappointment! If you want more information, don't hesitate to get in touch with Amber - amber@ablechildafrica.org.uk.
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| News from the office | | A quick update on what we have been doing in London this month!
AbleChildAfrica have finally moved office this month, to a lovely, airy new space just down the hall from our old office. We are really happy to be up and running in our new office which now has good disability access and great views of the building work outside!
This means that we now have more room to accommodate our two Vodafone world of difference volunteers, Anthony and Anas, who will be joining us in early March. We are really looking forward to having them join us to work on some really exciting projects - Anas will be researching and drafting mainstreaming toolkits and Anthony will be working on our schools outreach program. More information to come from them in next month's newsletter!
Thanks for your continued support!
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