Supported Charities
Exeter Vacation Project - The Gatehouse - Jacari - Oxford Adaptive Rowing - Emilie's Charities
| website | Registered Charity Number 1088158 | President: Jo Williams |
The city of Oxford provides the most perfect and unique backdrop to the university experience - the overwhelming string of black tie events, its plethora of theatres, bars, pubs and parks, create our ‘Oxford bubble’ from which, realising how lucky we are, none of us seem to venture far. However, a ten minute bus journey from the centre puts into perspective the worries of essay crises and early-morning lectures. Each Easter, sixteen Exonians follow on a tradition of giving up a week of the Easter vac to take 32 under-privileged children from Oxford’s suburbs away on holiday just outside Windsor, and the juxtaposition of the two worlds is shocking. Exvac’s aim, ironically, is to forget these differences and spend the week having as much fun as possible, kids and leaders alike, and this is infallibly custom essay accomplished! This year’s timetable included swimming, ice-skating, bowling and painting, in between trips to the cinema, London Zoo and Legoland, which one could be forgiven for thinking would tire them out, but leaders invariably find themselves nursing piggy-backed out shoulders, being kept upright by pure caffeine in their veins whilst reading ‘just one more’ bedtime story or judging sleeping lions at midnight!
ExVac is a charity created, maintained and funded entirely by the students of Oxford University, and something Exeter is particularly proud of as a college. The incredible achievement of Exvac is to allow kids to be kids, if only for a week. Essential to our success is to have leaders run around constantly in the garden at Eton Dorney supervising a group of children hanging upside down on monkey bars and challenging each other to push higher on the swing and not consider all that we know about them from our social services files. For that week they’re not young carers, or victims of domestic violence, abuse, bullying, or poverty, but 6-11 year old children. In treating them as such we realise that fundamentally they are just kids, they fight over who gets the bigger piece of chocolate cake or whose turn it is on the swing, they have of course been through some unbelievable experiences that we can never understand, but we don’t have to, we take them away to have fun and that is exactly what each one of them – and us – do. This is the huge contribution that ExVac offers. We don’t fix the problems, of course we can’t, but we can and do provide an escape, however short, and memories that serve as hope.
| website | Registered Charity Number 1002741 | Project Director: Andrew W. Smith |
A basement room in the centre of Oxford has become renowned among local homeless and vulnerable people as a place of safety and refuge. Simple food - sandwiches, cakes, tea, coffee and soup in the winter - is shared and served by volunteers, many of them from the local churches or colleges. The Gatehouse started as a winter daytime shelter in November 1988 and quickly developed into something more: newspapers, second-hand clothes and board games are provided, as well as an outstanding library of books. Lap-top computers provide wireless access to the internet. Just as important is the social contact provided: it helps the marginal guests to connect with their own community and the wider world. The doors are open six days a week and no charge is made for any of the services provided. The project is staffed mainly by volunteers of all ages who are supported by one full-time and three part-time workers. As many as 200 serve regularly, and at least as many prepare food which is delivered nightly. An average of about 90 guests attend during a two-hour session, but on occasions this can rise to over 100. There are eight trustees, a management committee of twelve and a group of volunteer co-ordinators which meets monthly. The aims are stated to be: "To welcome the homeless and lonely, and to provide a place where companionship, dignity and refreshment can be found in a warm and safe environment".
The Gatehouse is dependent on grants and donations from the local community, none of them guaranteed to continue. Rather than pursue funding for eye-catching new projects or trying to create additional posts, the management committee's priority is to secure resources for our core work.
| website | Registered Charity Number 1108827 | President: Zoe Sprigings |
Jacari is one of Oxford’s oldest and largest student charities and is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year with more than 600 members and official charitable status. It matches Oxford student volunteers with children who do not speak English as their first language, often from refugee or immigrant families, who are consequently disadvantaged at school. They give up at least an hour a week to visit the children at home and provide language and subject support. Jacari is about much more than just teaching English, as its activities help to build bridges across town-gown and cultural divides.
Jacari has doubled each year in the last two years, and this trend looks sets to continue. While this is great news for the volunteers and their pupils, it means that Jacari desperately needs more funds. They would be used to provide educational trips for the children (to places like the Ashmolean and the Oxford Story) and for teaching resources in the library. They would fund teaching skills seminars for the volunteers, to ensure that they provide the highest standard of support to their children. They would also go towards the more mundane, but crucial, day-to-day expense of running Jacari: photocopying application forms, printing achievement certificates and maintaining the office as a centre for volunteer support and resources.
| website | Registered Charity Number 1088072 | Vice Captain: Rachael Lunney |
Oxford Adaptive Rowing Club runs weekly sessions from the City of Oxford Rowing Club, with the aim of teaching those with disabilities to row recreationally and competitively. We have a range of equipment that provides a more stable platform than conventional shells, so that those with both physical and learning difficulties to enjoy the sport. With a sizeable body of coaches, mainly local students, we provide a one-to-one coach-to-athlete ratio on the water and therefore offer a safe way for almost anyone take part and with the attention they require.
Emilie's Charities
| Registered Charity Number 1108537 |
Emilie Harris was in her third term at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, when she was tragically run over by a bus when cycling along Cowley Road in May 2004.
Emilie had just been elected as a Charities Rep for the Catz JCR the week before the accident. Emilie had previously spent five months in South America in 2002, several of which were spent working in an orphanage in Bolivia. She was very moved by her experience where she saw first hand the issues of the orphaned children, both when young, but also when making the step of moving away from the institution, when often no further support was available and the girls were particularly vulnerable. She also saw the plight of poor children in Ghana when she visited there two years before.
After Emilie’s accident, students from Catz got together with Emilie’s parents to set up Emilie’s Charities to raise money for causes that Emilie would have supported. Taking this into account, Emilie’s Charities has principally sought to support projects involving under-privileged children and young adults in developing countries. Funds have been raised via activities centred both at Catz and Emilie’s home town of Winchester. A number of projects have been supported to date and these are summarised below. We are continually adding to the list, dealing directly with the benficiaries, which have in many cases been identified through people who have worked as volunteers with the projects, wherever possible.
Below is a summary of projects identified to date that will benefit from contributions from Emilie’s Charities:
Bolivia // San Ignacio Home
San Ignacio is both a home and a school. It is a home for 58 children, almost all of whom were abandoned rather than orphaned. This often means that not only do they lack parents, they have no relatives whatsoever. The girls of San Ignacio Home must leave at age 18 to make way for new children. Emilie’s Charities has set up a scholarship which will allow one of the students, Silivia, to go on to further education at the end of this year with the objective of her being able to live independently afterwards.
Bolivia // ANET (Amigos de los Nińos Excepcionales Tarija)
ANET is a home for disadvantaged children with disabilities. One of these is Rene. Rene was born blind in one eye and by the age of 13 he had lost his sight completely. Following a stringent rehabilitation program, he returned to his secondary school studies which he completed with honors before matriculating at the local university to pursue law studies. The contribution from Emilie’s Charities will ensure Rene's continued success in meeting his personal and professional goals.
Bolivia // Maria Christina Orphanage, Cochabamba
The Maria Christina orphanage is the one at which Emilie worked during her gap year. Emilie’s Charities has paid for the construction of a ‘conejero’ (a large covered rabbit enclosure). This may seem a small gesture, but it has given an interest to the girls who have very little to look forward to on a daily basis and also given a potential source of income from the selling of future young rabbits (if the girls can bring themselves to part with them!)
Bolivia // Children’s Village, Cochabamba
Emilie’s Charities is sponsoring a child called Nestor at the SOS Children’s Village in Cochabamba. Nestor is seven years old and orphaned. He had a very difficult start in life. The Emilie’s Charities sponsorship will allow Nestor to live and go to school in the village.
South Africa // Holy Cross, Cape Town
The Holy Cross sisters in Cape Town, South Africa look after orphaned girls (the parents of whom in many cases died of AIDS or in drug related murders) from the townships. At 18 the girls leave the orphanage and the Holy Cross Sisters run a house to look after them and give them a chance for further education. This is all financed by voluntary donations. Emilie’s Charities is sponsoring the further education of a 17 year old girl called Andrea with the objective of giving her a foundation to live independently in the future. Andrea contacted us at the beginning of this year to give us the news that she has passed her latest exams.
Peru // Bruce Peru Chiclayo Centre
One of the main activities of the Peruvian-based volunteer organisation ‘Bruce Peru’ involves working with the street children in big cities. They go into the ‘barrios’ and feed, heal and arrange education for the children, many of whom are abandoned, or semi-abandoned. Currently the organisation’s main centre of this type is in Lima, Peru. The Emilie’s Charities contribution has gone towards the setting up of a similar centre in Chiclayo, which is the fourth largest city in Peru and has proportionally more poor children than any other city.
Peru // Children’s Village, Cusco
Emilie’s Charities has sponsored a nine year old girl called Sorayda at the SOS Children’s Village in Cusco. Sorayda is an orphan who has been living in the village for the last six years. The Emilie’s Charities sponsorship will cover her living and education costs.
Rwanda // The Amizero Project, Nyanza
We learned about this project via a friend, Amy Whiddett, of Emilie’s cousin Katie. Amy had worked in a school in Rwanda (Le Christ-Roi School in Nyanza) during three years voluntary service overseas (VSO) and was very disturbed by the plight of the children there and the fact that many of the children (most of whom were orphans (either because of genocide or AIDS)) had to stop going to school because of lack of funds. She therefore sought sponsorship from the UK to allow the children to stay in education. Emilie’s Charities sponsorship to date will cover the costs of the studies of six or more children in the coming year.
Nepal // Children Welfare Association, Pokhara
The Children Welfare Association is a home for orphans/abandoned children in Pokhara, Nepal run by a couple who care for nineteen children, including their own three who live with, and are treated like the others; the home is like an extended family. This project was brought to our attention by Amy Beaumont, a Human Sciences student at St Catherine’s College Oxford (Emilie’s College), who had worked in the home the previous year. The sponsorship from Emilie’s Charities will provide food and schooling for two of the children, Puja and Kamal for the next year.
Russia // Baranovo Project
We learned about this project from a friend of Emilie’s, Simon Lewis, who was at Winchester College and later at St Catherines and who had worked with the children at The Baranovo Institute. The children at the institute are there for various psychological reasons ranging from mild autism to severe problems. Many are orphans and those who are not usually come from families that broke up. Without education even the children with the milder cases will probably remain institutionalised for the rest of their lives. The Baranovo project looks to educate them with the objective of their being able to stand on their own feet (and for the more severe cases to develop them). Emilie’s Charities is sponsoring two children at the institute.
Uganda // St Catherine’s School
Emilie’s school, St Swithun’s, has a project to give aid to a school, called St Catherine’s in the north of Uganda. Emilie’s Charities, in liaison with St Swithun’s, is sponsoring a child who is currently 11 years old. The sponsorship will cover her schooling costs for the next five years.
Malawi // Children’s Village, Mzuzu
Malawi is one of the ten poorest countries in the world; more than half the population are illiterate and life expectancy is around 40 years, with a high rate of infant mortality. With the increased incidence of HIV/AIDS, it is estimated that over half a million children are orphans as a result. Mzuzu is a large town in an area where there are no facilities or care provisions for destitute children. Emilie’s Charities is sponsoring a ten year old girl called Esnat. Esnat’s mother died and her father was not able to look after her. Our sponsorship will allow Esnat to live and go to school in a village being run by SOS children.
Mali // Sanankoroba
Mali is the second largest country in West Africa; nearly one third of it is part of the Sahara desert. Life expectancy is low and many people suffer from bilharzia and river blindness. Emilie’s Charities is contributing to the sponsorship of a SOS Children’s village at Sanankoroba, 30 kilometres south of Bamako, in 1987. The village has a kindergarten and a primary and secondary school, all of which are open to children from the neighbourhood. The school has capacity for 800 pupils and includes workshops for vocational training. A small clinic provides medical care for both the SOS and local families. The village has 2 hectares of agricultural land where vegetables and fruit are grown to supply the village. There is also a youth home in Bamako itself where young people from the village can learn to take their first steps towards independence while continuing their education.