Children of Songea

For small overseas development charities like Children of Songea Trust - with no promotional budgets – unsolicited donations are pretty rare. So we were more than a little surprised to receive a call from Gillian Fergusson of High School of Glasgow informing them that £3,000 had been raised by students for the charity – particularly as there was no relationship with the school prior to the fundraising taking place.

Gillian said “The pupils of Bannerman opted for Children of Songea Trust because they wanted to support a children's charity in particular. In addition, they wanted to support a charity which had less of a 'high profile' in the media. The pupils felt that there was a real connection between the charity in Scotland and the people it helps in Tanzania, and the older pupils especially liked the fact the support was sustainable and longer term.”

The main fundraising event was the 'Sleepover for Songea' where pupils had a sponsored camp-out in the gym hall overnight with sleeping bags and told stories round a (fake!) campfire. They also organised a sponsored 'Live Like a Tanzanian for a day' event, where pupils gave up all their electronic gadgets (mobile phones, iPods etc) and walked to school (some of them took over an hour to do so). In addition, the school had a Tanzanian meal supplied on that day by the school caterers, who donated part of the profit from that to our fundraising. There was a 'Tanzanian Tucker Trial' where pupils from the school were given the challenge of eating very unusual food in front of the rest of the school who paid an entry fee to come and watch.

Gillian added “The point of the fundraising was obviously to support the charity in the form of raising money. However, the pupils of Bannerman House are committed to making others (and themselves) more aware of the needs of others, and of how fortunate we are in our situation to have what we do. Therefore we wanted to raise awareness about the work the charity does, and we did this through a presentation to the school in Assembly. Our House motto is 'Not just a house, a home' and we hope that the Trust is now part of that home!”

All the trustees would like to express their great appreciation for the work of the pupils and staff at Glasgow High School for their incredible fundraising efforts.

Many thanks to all who came along to Gifford Village Hall to find out about our progress with Phase One of Kijiji Project. Over 20 people were in attendance and we raised £88 from a raffle and donations on the night.

Howard Liddell, took us through photos and movie clips of the 3-week project in Songea, which took place last October, and answered questions from the audience. There was a great deal of interest in the project, and feedback was very positive.

We are now planning an event to take place in Edinburgh to further raise the profle of the Kijiji and to gain some momentum with our fundraising efforts. We hope to finish Phase One by October this year, but need to raise around £20,000 if we are to be successful with this.

Trust Chairperson, Adam Caldwell, and Edinburgh Fundraiser, Steph Holmes, proudly show off their medals after completing the Chris Hoy Edinburgh Half Marathon in the pouring rain on Sunday 18th April.

Together they raised around £800 for the trust.  Thanks to everyone who sponsored them.

December Joyce Mathers (Trustee) and Jean Cochrane (Dundee fundraiser) were invited by the High School of Dundee to the p4-p7 Nativity play. The collection at the end of the play was divided between two charities and the Children of Songea was one of those chosen. The total raised over the two days was £1200.  Joyce and Jean were then invited along to the p4-p7 assembly in February where the cheque of £600 was presented.  Many thanks to the High School of Dundee for all their good work.