The last twelve months have been an adventure for all us here at The Cape Verde Foundation. The year began with our last drive to collect donations following the launch of MELIÃ Llana Beach Resort & Spa and TUI Sensimar Cabo Verde in December 2016. The Christmas party was a great achievement and we carried on the cause into 2017 to continue to give people a chance to donate to the children of Cape Verde.
Throughout the year, we have made monetary donations to various causes and organisations. Donating over €9,000 to the Santa Maria Football Club, €500 to the Association of Professional Secretaries, and support also going to the Feast of Santa Cruz festival, The Foundation has tried to help many different members of the community. Working with local government, we have orchestrated donations to the value of £16,380 through the City Halls on Boa Vista and Sal, with the Kindergarten Chã de Matias, School of Pretoria, School of Santa Maria and May’s Women Month all benefitting by receiving an additional €22,000 worth of donations. Not forgetting the University, The Foundation also made contributory donations of just over €7,000 to help furnish and equip an additional learning space, aswell as helping the sporting organisation, Apoio Associação Académica Praia with a €5,000 contribution.
In May, the Foundation announced that the Summer School that had been such an overwhelming success story would return to Sal this year. It was met with joy from the parents and children who attended in 2016 and was, yet again, an extremely popular course.
Shortly after, some of our loyal supporters, namely Kevin Thornton and Stuart Campbell, came to Cape Verde to deliver the football kits they had collected for the children over the past few months in the UK. Heading to local schools, the team handed out 200 football kits to a crowd of very excited children.
Next up, was a trip to the Viveiro Botanical Gardens for an educational day amongst the flora and fauna. For 170 children, this was a day of fun and facts as they walked around the gardens and zoo, learning more about biological science.
July saw the start of fundraising fun from The Resort Group. Each department was allotted a month and we couldn’t wait to see what they would come up with. It was an amazing show of support from the team, with nail painting, auctions, a barbeque, leg waxing, smoothie making and Halloween antics. The total raised between the teams was an incredible £10, 178!
Soon enough, the Summer School returned to Sal’s shores. In August, the law firm GPA, with the support of the Foundation, coordinated and taught at the very popular event. The children learnt basic English and took part in extracurricular activities, all of which resulted in a diploma at the end of the course. We expect it will be just as warmly welcomed next year.
We called for healthcare donations in September as a part of our drive to improve the hospitals and clinics on the Island. While the institutions are clean and professional, the doctors and nurses were desperate for much-needed equipment and we wanted to do something to help. Thus began the campaign, organised by Foundation director Mandy Galley, for private and public healthcare providers in the UK to donate what they could and the response was fantastic with a variety of larger and smaller items contributed.
The Kusasa Project was another collaboration we were involved in and the end of September saw the Foundation help the football team head to Sweden for the Gothia World Cup. We were very happy to assist the charitable organisation in making the children’s dreams come true.
In October, we launched our competition to win a holiday to Cape Verde. The winner will soon be catching some sun on Sal’s famously beautiful beaches. If you aren’t the winner this time, you can still purchase our 2018 calendar and the best part is that all the proceeds go to the Foundation.
Following the opening of the University of Cabo Verde in May, the Rob Jarrett Scholarship was announced in November. The new University, which is located in the country’s capital Praia, is a part of the bid to improve educational facilities on the Island. The Foundation will fund 20 scholarships per year to help young adults in the local community maximise their learning potential by giving undergraduate applicants an opportunity to take their knowledge to the next level.
Our big donation at Santiago Island’s hospitals and clinics arrived in December. The delivery included all kinds of medical equipment, from x-ray machines and MRI scanners to plastic gloves and sharps bins and was worth approximately £270,000. It is the start of a huge push on behalf of the Foundation to contribute to the improvement of healthcare in Cape Verde.
As we came close to the end of 2017, we became aware that a local Bible School was in need. It was our pleasure to help Escola Bíblica Infantil Galileu with clothes, school materials, toys and books, especially as the school takes care of disadvantaged children. It is a matter we are particularly motivated by and that will continue into 2018.
To finish off a fantastic year, we recently held our annual Christmas party and it was another resounding success. Santa was there to make the occasion complete and the guests were treated to a special performance of Peter Pan. What a way to start the festive season!
We are so happy to round up all our work in 2017. The new year is only around the corner and we can’t wait to see what the Cape Verde Foundation will do in 2018.
For more information about the Foundation, get in touch with the team via our contact page.