It’s not often you get 6 year-old cheerleaders and David Dickenson supporting your cause but Kimberly Pryor managed it!

A BIG thank you to Kimberley Pryor, Ed Bowers and the Bay Stormers Cheerleaders for showing your support for Child’s i in such a special way.

I’m Matthew Knight – head of the technology group at Child’s i Foundation. I’ll be talking to everyone at the meetup this evening, but if you’re not able to make it, or weren’t listening, here’s the basic gist of what I’ll be saying.

My role is to support the charity’s activity when we’re looking to do things online, or where digital tools are involved. From the very start, we’ve been a charity which makes full use of available digital tools – as many are free and cover a great deal of our needs.

We also create our own tools and work for the charity to support or create new campaigns. There are a number of digital projects we’ve developed in the last 18 months.

Firstly this website, which was originally built upon Wordpress, a simple but flexible blogging tool. We recently relaunched an updated version of the website which allows to add custom functionality when needed. Involved in this were designers, developers and writers, all working together to create the site.

We also built the ‘Buy a Brick‘ campaign, which involved a team of designers, developers and project managers creating bespoke code. The campaign has raised so far over £10,000 pounds for the charity. We’ve also had a number of charities contact us wanting to use the wall for their own campaigns.

All the work we create within the group, we aim to open source the code once it is completed. This means that we put the code back into the public domain, so other charities and developers can make use of the effort we’ve put into Child’s i, so other organisations can benefit from the work we’re doing.

The team currently is relatively small, we have an amazing developer Patrick who built the bulk of the work for the Buy a Brick, Rory and Ronan who developed the front-end of the Wall animation and interaction – but everyone involved is giving their time voluntarily, and as they’re such talented developers, they’re also in great demand from their jobs or other clients.

We’re hoping to speak to more developers and designers who want to get involved in the group, working collaboratively on projects like Buy a Brick so we’re not reliant on any one person.

As the code is open sourced, I think the projects we create are attractive beyond just the initial challenge of creating something which works well and is fun or engaging for the people to use it – its an opportunity to really help lots of people.

We’re looking for developers and designers, people who know Ruby on Rails, HTML, PHP, Actionscript and Flash, Javascript, Photoshop, illustrator, anyone who has a bit of experience in creating digital work would be really welcome.

We’ve got a number of projects which we’d like to talk to people about, which if you’re interested, come and chat to me after this.

- Continued development of the Wordpress site over the next 12 months
- Continued development of the Buy a Brick app. We want to make it ready for open sourcing, add some reporting tools, integrate it with our databases, and add a few new bits of functionality.
- Creation of a Shopify shop for the Baby Shower. We’ve created a shopify install which needs some design love, and some data entry and testing.
- We’ve recently purchased a database to keep track of our activity called CommonGround. We need people to help with the structure and maintenance of the database, as well as creating tools to automatically update the database from campaigns like Buy a Brick.
- We’d also like to create a Totaliser on the website, to help people keep track of how much we raise each year.
- We want to develop some tools for the Undress for Uganda events
- And generally, we want new ideas and suggestions to how the website and anything we’re doing digitally could be improved or work harder.

So if you or any of your friends or friends of friends are developers and designers, I’d love to hear from you. Come and find me afterwards, and we can chat about how you can get involved.

If you’re shy – my email address is matthew@childsifoundation.org, so drop me an email, or pass it on if you think others would be interested.

Thanks!

I met Lucy almost a year ago now, after hearing about Child’s i Foundation through a friend. I have volunteered with various charities and been interested in development issues since I was a teenager and I’d dreamed of visiting Africa – so I was really excited when I thought that I might be able to volunteer and use the skills I’d been developing through working in TV to help support a charity like this one.

So going to Uganda was a true privilege and one I will never forget.

It is an amazing and welcoming country – and despite only intending to stay for 3 weeks, I ended up staying for 6. And I’d go back right this second if I could.

The people I met and things that I learnt in that time have changed the way I see the purpose of charitable organisations completely. What Child’s i are planning to set up out there is truly extraordinary. Supporting new mothers in their moment of crisis is about empowerment as opposed to aid. Stopping institutions from replacing the family.

I met young mothers-to-be who were able to dance despite the adversity that life had given them and laughing children who didn’t realise that they were living in poverty. And they didn’t seem to feel any self-pity whatsoever. Just the desire to wake up every day and lead a happy life.

And it was then that I truly understood the importance of the approach that Child’s i Foundation seek to take.

I realise now, more than ever, how fortunate I am to have a mother like mine. For she alone is reason enough to get up every morning. And it is because of her that one day I’ll be in a position to love and support my baby in exactly the same way.

Every child, throughout the world, deserves the same.

If you’re interested in volunteering or want to ask me any questions, please email me claire@childsifoundation.org and if you’d like to see the videos from my time with Child’s i Foundation go to the Child’s i YouTube channel.

Our dedication and passion for finding loving Ugandan families for our children is something that resonates with every policy maker, official and probation officer in Kampala. When we talk about our prevention programme, eyes light up because there is currently very little support for mothers to try and stop baby abandonment happening in the first place.

Last week, we spent a couple of days at Mulago Hospital, where 100 babies are born every day. We have been there with the incredible social work department – Faith, David, Barbara and John – who, between them, look over the whole hospital. No easy task when you consider that, as the main government referral hospital in Uganda, Mulago has over 740,000 patients seeking treatment every year.

Here I met someone who totally embodies why we are out here trying to change things: a 24-year-old mother, starving and suffering from malaria, was watching her 8-month daughter, Olivia. Olivia weighed 3.4kg – the same as a newborn child – but instead of sitting, crawling and babbling, she was lying still, too weak to even move. This mother doesn’t want to abandon her baby, but unable to feed her, she is slowly watching her die.

Although they do everything they can, Mulago’s social work department resources are stretched so thin they do not have the funds to help her and all the other mothers in a similar situation. If her baby is ever healthy again, she will go back to her village, but without any money or skills, she’ll probably be back in a few months.

On a tour of the ward, we met a three-year-old girl who had returned here a number of times She was listlessly standing by her bed, just staring at us; her aunt was lying on the floor. An hour later, she was dead. She had walked to the end of the ward to get milk, where she vomited, collapsed and died. Her poor young body had been through so much it could no longer cope.

They took her body away, the cleaner cleaned up and the aunt left to go back the village. In one hour, she had been forgotten, but we were left haunted by the notion that earlier intervention could have resulted in a completely different outcome.

If we could provide support to young vulnerable mothers, empower them and give them the skills to earn money so they can afford food and shelter, they will not keep returning to the ward, or be forced to abandon their children or helplessly watch them die.

This project is huge and the only way we are going to succeed is if we find partners to outsource the work, so it gives me great pleasure to introduce Oasis Uganda. Their ‘Bambeja’ programme teaches girls skills to enable them to support themselves financially and keep their children.

How did you get involved with Child’s i?

Lucy Buck (the founder of Child’s i Foundation) and I met in the way that an increasing number 21st Century friendships are kindled – on the internet. I found out later that the internet plays a big part in connecting people people with Child’s i. One aim of the charity is to make films both in Uganda and the UK to show supporters around the world exactly where their money is going.

At first I wanted to get involved because, rather selfishly, I’ve always wanted to combine traveling with film making and video production. Filming in Uganda sounded like an excellent opportunity and I wanted to go out there and be part of the team.

I went along to a meet-up in London and after seeing the passion and love the Child’s i Foundation team are giving to such a great cause, I wanted to do more to help. I emailed Lucy suggesting Child’s i Foundation set up an abseiling event to raise money, and she emailed straight back. The rest is history .

Sam in action at the 2009 abseil

How have you been showing your support?

The great thing about Child’s i is that anyone can get involved and put their skills to good use. I work in television production and have been helping to film, photograph and organise events. The abseil is the main event I’ve managed but I hope to take on more. In fact we’re setting up an abseil for July 2010, so get in touch if you’re interested in taking part email me at: abseil@childsifoundation.org

How do you inspire others to get involved?

Once the event is underway most people are keen to get involved whether it’s helping with organisation or getting sponsorship to do something silly like dropping 450ft attached to a rope. If people are inspired by the work of the charity then they’ll help in any way they can.

Please come along to our next meet-up on 26th January if you want to find out more about Child’s i Foundation or to get involved.

We smashed our initial fundraising target, thanks to your time, love and money. From abseiling, running marathons and cycle rides, to speed dating, putting on UFU’s and cake sales, your efforts have meant that, as a worldwide community, we have raised a staggering £50,000 so far. Our Supporters page is truly the most wonderful in the world – it so perfectly captures our community and shows just how many people care about helping our babies have a future.

There have been so many amazing highlights for us in 2009, including:

Vodafone making me a World of Difference International winner and paying my salary for the next year, enabling me to get out to Uganda.

Endemol UK making us their charity of the year and raising over £7000, as well as donating filming, editing and computer equipment, and designing our logo.

Our tech team, Kirsty Stephenson and Matthew Knight, building our beautiful wordpress website for free and Julia Bellis, Patrick Sinclair, Chris Thorpe, Ronan Rafferty, Rory MacDonald and Ghaz Hamdan designing our virtual brick wall. So far we have raised £8673 and the messages of support mean everything to us. We have just added a Christmas brick and it would be amazing if we could reach £10,000 by the start of 2010n (hint, hint!!)

We have also written 100 blogs, produced 50 video updates and done almost 2000 tweets to keep our supporters updated and allow you to have a say in where your money is going.

Four very generous Founders all committing £10,000 each over the next 2 years to safeguard the future of our project.

The Amateurs Trust kindly giving us a grant of £10,000.

We also have our first UK employee – after nearly 6 months of volunteering, Perle is on board as the UK fundraising coordinator, and will be responsible for overseeing fundraising activities while I am in Uganda.

And the best thing about 2009? Finally getting out to Uganda and setting up our Baby Abandonment Project. We promised supporters weekly video updates, and thanks to Claire Ratinon, we have our 3rd video update to show you. We are planning our prevention programme and we have a huge undertaking on our hands.

Thank you for all your continued support, we truly couldn’t do it without you. I just can’t wait to see what 2010 brings – see you there!

Love Lucyxx

How did you get involved with Child’s i?
I discovered Child’s i during one of those ‘between contract’ times of the year in my job as a Production Co-Ordinator. I heard about a TV meet-up they were holding, so I went along to mingle (and hopefully get a job!). It didn’t take long, however, before I was swept up by Lucy’s passion and drive, so I decided to put my free days to good use by joining the community.

How have you been showing your support?
After helping Lucy co-ordinate the April planning trip to Uganda, I moved on to arranging the London Meet-ups (although this was soon somewhat hindered by my relocation to Liverpool!). Not wanting to stop helping, I offered to start getting people running races in order to raise funds.

How do you inspire others to get involved?
Well i’m planning the first really big event which will be the inaugural Brighton Marathon on the 18 April 2010 – a first for Brighton, and for us. Things are going well – we’ve signed up and registered half our team and even started planning the after-party.  But we’ve still got 5 places to fill, so if you want to run or know anyone who does, please do get in touch. All the facts you need are at the bottom of this post. We’ll also need support from volunteers to join us on race day to cheer the runners on, and assist with tasks on the day, such as handing out water and stewarding, so we’d love to hear from you.
But don’t worry if you’re not quite ready to run a marathon just yet! There a lot of races of varying lengths all over the country you can enter, so please do get in touch and we can sort something out together. After all, there’s no better way of sticking to that “get fit” new years resolution than having a target to meet – and knowing you will be helping others just makes it even easier.

You can contact me at nerys@childsifoundation.org

Brighton Marathon: 18th April 2010

Entry Fee: £50

Minimum fundraising amount: £500

http://www.brightonmarathon.co.uk

Some big thank yous

Thank you to TV Production company, Endemol and organisers Bryony Weaver and also Nic McNeilis,  for raising a massive £5000 with their innovative Christmas party “Endemol’s got Talent”. Presented by Nathalie Pinkham, hundreds of Endemol staff had the grueling task of choosing between a number of acts. “Fur Coat, No Knickers”, below, were crowned winners at the end of the evening.

Thanks also to Jess Thompson and Emma Blake for organising The Ice Party in Tunbridge Wells. 60 people turned up for sparkly festive  fun raising a wonderful £453.20.

We also had some A-list support from our favorite Tweeter the legendary Stephen Fry who bought a brick for £100 – do check our festive Christmas bricks for those last minute Christmas purchases for family and friends. Or alternatively if you would like to donate the Child’s i Foundation project in Uganda this is our perfect gift for Christmas.
Happy Christmas Everyone!

Megan Howard our Head Social Worker arrived from Australia and I am very excited that she has joined her team, Meg has spent the last 2 years volunteering in Uganda – working in schools, homes and coordinating the foster placements at Families For Children. Megan’s expertise is family placement, children in care and child protection and will be a real asset to our team.

This week Christine, our CFO, has been running around Kampala gathering documents to submit to the NGO Board. Before we do anything charitable, we need charity status here and the Board only meet once a month to decide on whether or not you get charitable status. The amount of paperwork and letter of recommendations fill an A4 file but I am beginning to realise Christine does possess some form of superpowers as she did it in a week!

So after a week of meetings with government ministers, our project has been very well received by the Government of Uganda because it seeks to prevent abandonment in the first place instead of the common practice of long term institutional care. I just hope we get the NGO status so we can kick off our prevention programme in the new year.

Merry Christmas folks and thank you for getting us here. 2010 is going to be a very exciting year for us.

How did you get involved with Child’s i?
I used to work with Lucy Buck at Endemol and she told me about Child’s i. I actually ended up going to Uganda to volunteer with other organisations for 4 and a half months this year, but when I got back Child’s i was the obvious choice to give my time to here – it means so much to me now.

How have you been showing your support?
I organise the London meetups and also recently held the Undress for Uganda (UFU) in London Bridge, as well as helping in Uganda for the recent planning trip.  The UFU was great fun – and a really good night out for everyone! Being with the team in Uganda was eye-opening, seeing the horrendous problem with child abandonment first-hand made me realise just how important the Child’s i Foundation is.

How do you inspire others to get involved?
I’ve bought a brick and inspired others to do so. I also have my own small crafts business, which donates money to the Child’s i Foundation, by being out at craft fairs I can spread the Child’s i word to all that buy from me and inspire people if they want to get involved in the UK.  I also opened up the Undress for Uganda to a lot of friends and family who will hopefully be holding their own in the not too distant future.

Lara in Uganda