Four times Olympian for Team GB announced this week on LinkedIn that she is now an official Ambassador for the UK-SVG Friendship Trust.
As a British Vincentian, Donna will continue to use her platform to support our La Soufriere Volcanic Eruption – Recovery Assistance Programme (SVG-RAP) which aims to assist families and friends directly impacted and displaced due to the ongoing eruption.
Our team is ecstatic to work alongside this great champion!
Your donations will help to reach those in need and with Donna’s support, we will ensure that our women, young girls and those living with disabilities are given greater attention.
Remember to share our GoFundMe campaign link and find us on your favourite social media platform by searching for @uksvgfriends.
Overnight, we successfully crossed the £225K mark which means we have achieved 90% of our target. With only 10% to go, we need your help!
You have joined 7000 others who have donated to our cause and we wish to enlist you to find 7000 new donors.
What can you do?
Step 1: Renew your commitment by donating any amount from £1.
Step 2: let’s make the hashtag #Idonated2SVG go viral.
Step 3: Share the news to all your friends and colleagues.
If you recruit one other person then we will achieve our target in record time which means that we can help more of our friends and families in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
We have committed to spending the funds raised in St. Vincent. This ensures that critical supplies reach beneficiaries in a timely manner while also boosting the local economy which has been doubly affected with reduced demand caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
We are seeking to work with local businesses particularly small wholesalers and other enterprises to purchase goods that will be distributed to our partner organisations in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
This week we have helped even more people on the ground including a donation of 1,500 Sanitary pad packs to the Ministry of National Mobilisation, Social Development, the Family, Gender Affairs, Youth Housing and Informal Settlement to buffer their various welfare interventions. This is on top of the 3,000 Sanitary packs and 300 food care packages distributed – you can see images in the gallery above.
But we have also sent off a Shipment from the UK this week including donations purchased by an Amazon Wish List link which was created by Mina, a member of our donor community. Mina was inspired to create the Wish List by Ava Vidal who had previously created a Wish List for another crisis. She appreciated that those wanting to donate would appreciate the ease and wanted to do her bit to ensure that St. Vincent and the Grenadines got the support it needed during this terrible time.
Mina’s Amazon Wish List generated £2,673 worth of much needed donations and the UK-SVG Friendship Trust are very grateful to her for all her efforts to raise awareness and donations for the La Soufrière Volcano Recovery Assistance Programme. You can see some of what was purchased in this video:
These donations have been shipped along with other emergency aid contributions. We would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Waypoint Shipping, SVG High Commission, Geest Line NCSVGA, volunteers, donors and fundraisers once again.
For further updates on how the funds are being spent and where your donations are going, please check our social media links here: https://linktr.ee/UKSVGFRIENDS
Please like, share and comment on our updates because we want to hear from you.
We were very heartened to see the resilience painted across the faces of Vincentians including children who have received direct aid packages from us.
Families who have received care packages have sent pictures and voice notes expressing their gratitude to you the donors. We will not be able to respond so effectively without your continued support.
We want to share the journey with you so please visit our social media platforms and subscribe to all our channels to get daily updates to see the smiles you are bringing to the faces of families across the country.
Yesterday, our team on the ground in St. Vincent provided rapid response that benefitted over 300 persons, majority of whom were women and children.
As we celebrate passing the £200,000 mark today, we are cognisant that the need across the country is growing daily. The campaign must continue and intensify over the coming weeks as the natural disaster shock will have repercussions for household economies in the long term.
Many of our children have been away from the classroom due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which was further exacerbated by the volcano eruption. We will let you know what we intend to do in this regard.
In the mean time, our beneficiaries wish to thank you. You can hear from them by visiting our YouTube channel following the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_gW2VishFvQ-d1_02_oCFg Alternatively, search for uksvgfriends.
Remember to follow us on your favourite social media platform using our handle @uksvgfriends to receive updates, interviews and see the faces of those who are blessed to receive your generous contributions.
Continue to like, share and donate as we work to bring relief to those most in need.
This weekend thanks to your generous donations, we have been able to respond to the urgent need in St Vincent & the Grenadines for female sanitary pads.
The Trust has committed to providing 3000 packs of sanitary pads to Soroptimist International St Vincent. Local representative Darrien Ollivierre handed over the first tranche at the organisation’s operating base. This will make such a difference to evacuees, as well as additional donations planned this week which directly respond to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Government Needs list. Thank you for your support of SVG so far and please continue to check back here for updates.
This time last week the explosive eruption of La Soufrière volcano began its threat on the lives and livelihoods of the residents of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The islands have been left devastated with families having to evacuate, many living in shelters, hazardous ash fall across the island, power cuts, water shortages and the pandemic still to contend with. But Vincy is strong and so is the commitment, love and support of the Vincentian diaspora, Caribbean diaspora and beyond. In an unimaginable week we have come together like never before and raised over £160,000 in funds to support the people of SVG during this humanitarian crisis. Thank YOU! We still have a long way to go, there is a lot to be done but we are committed to the task along with our partners. The work will continue so please keep spreading the word, contact us if you can help in other ways and please continue to donate at https://gofund.me/90dbdc94
24 hours ago Björn and Gemma of opendeved.net reached out to us to offer pro bono support to inter alia develop our website as one of the platforms to get our message out and to communicate with you. We are happy to report that the website is now ready for you to visit at https://uksvgfriends.org/.
At the time of writing, over 3000 donors have contributed to our appeal raising in excess of £125,000. H.E Cenio Lewis is overwhelmed by the response of the Vincentian community, and friends of St. Vincent and the Grenadines who are supporting us on this mission.
The SVG High Commission has been receiving other offers of assistance and in-kind donations which ignite our spirits on a daily basis. On that note, we will be looking for an auditor from our donor community who will be willing to volunteer some time to ensure that we can report back to this community that everything has been done by best practice. We wish to remain faithful to you our donors.
In addition to the gofundme compaign (now at over £120,000!!), we now also have paypal available. If you would like to make a general donation to the Trust, please use the following link:
Great news! We are inching closer and closer to £100,000 and with your continued support, we will get there soon.
However, we are excited that we have received official communications from the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines through the High Commission’s Office that our campaign has been officially endorsed. See photo below! This helps us to focus on what matters!
Thanks to new friends to the Trust like Björn and Gemma who reached out to us today after making a donation, we will be getting a spanking new website shortly to better communicate with you. Björn and Gemma from www.opendeved.net have volunteered their services to get this important work done.
We have heard, you want us to get this right and we promise we are in this for the long haul. #forMother Hairouna!
