Place a bid in our online auction on Ebay.co.uk for our fabulous framed Robert Doisneau prints, including the iconic image 'the kiss'.
See our page for links to all the items in our sale here.
Why support Abene Karantaa?
If you can afford to buy anything on Ebay you have better life chances than the people we are helping in Senegal. Please give your support.
Other ways to get involved...
Go to our website... Sponsor a child or a project... Join our cause on Facebook... Follow us on Twitter...
Sunday 30 August 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
New logo chosen!
We've adopted a new logo. Our pro bono marketing man Holrick Rodgers is putting it together for us - it's an amalgamation of Abene Karantaa trustee Rachel Coleshill's design and Holrick's designer's. I'll show it here as soon as I can, in the next few days.
We're very proud to have a logo soon. Another step in the right direction. But we're not losing sight of what we're doing this for. In fact coming up with a brief and designs has helped us focus our minds further on what we're all about. And coinciding with putting a 2-year plan together we're clearer about where we are going and how we can achieve our objectives of community development in Senegal.
It's a very exciting time to be involved with the planned start of year 1 projects just around the corner. We're still looking for funding to ensure we can deliver. Please take a look at the website to see how you can give your support.
We're very proud to have a logo soon. Another step in the right direction. But we're not losing sight of what we're doing this for. In fact coming up with a brief and designs has helped us focus our minds further on what we're all about. And coinciding with putting a 2-year plan together we're clearer about where we are going and how we can achieve our objectives of community development in Senegal.
It's a very exciting time to be involved with the planned start of year 1 projects just around the corner. We're still looking for funding to ensure we can deliver. Please take a look at the website to see how you can give your support.
Thursday 20 August 2009
Time to choose a logo and work with the US Peace Corps
It was great to see the designs for the Abene Karantaa logo that Holrick Rodgers put forward yesterday. One good one based on African textile designs. But the best in my opinion you'll hopefully get to see soon! I'll keeping you waiting till we make a decision on it. It's a teaser!
I'm going to email the trustees later with the final shortlist of logos for their opinion.
It's all coming together. I had a call yesterday from Margaret from the US Peace Corps in Senegal, giving me further information on one of their volunteers coming to work with us on the projects from January. We're all really excited about collaboration with the Peace Corps. They run two programmes in the area - the Urban Agricultural Program and the Small Enterprise Development Program.
We're hoping to have volunteers from both programmes working with us on a Business Skills training project and in the Community Co-operatives that will be producing fruit and vegetables for sale.
I'm going to email the trustees later with the final shortlist of logos for their opinion.
It's all coming together. I had a call yesterday from Margaret from the US Peace Corps in Senegal, giving me further information on one of their volunteers coming to work with us on the projects from January. We're all really excited about collaboration with the Peace Corps. They run two programmes in the area - the Urban Agricultural Program and the Small Enterprise Development Program.
We're hoping to have volunteers from both programmes working with us on a Business Skills training project and in the Community Co-operatives that will be producing fruit and vegetables for sale.
Monday 17 August 2009
Garage sale over - virtual sale continues...
A steady stream of people and lots of generous donations characterised our day yesterday as the day of the Garage Sale came around.
Rachel and I staffed the sale, with the items looking very nicely presented. She kept people entertained - that's her juggling!
Thank you to everyone who cam along and showed their support. We raised £170 for community development in West Africa.
The sales continues in our virtual garage sale fundraiser - see the slide show of pics to the right for items on sale. All proceeds go to Abene Karantaa. Reserve your item, get in touch to send a cheque, and pick it up when you're next in West Dulwich, or we can discuss collection.
Thank you for your support.
Saturday 15 August 2009
Got a great garage sale ahead!
All sorted for tomorrow's garage sale - got everything prepared. Just hoping to have hordes of people who'll buy everything and we'll raise lots of money for Abene Karantaa projects. Fingers crossed it'll be a success. I hope I've done enough marketing.
Meanwhile, I've had good feedback on the funding bid I've spent hours on. More than just my fingers crossed now.
Thanks to Olwyn for putting together lots of logos to choose from. Now that we've got the company number, as soon as we decide on a logo we can go ahead with printing business cards and get the logo on the website.
Meanwhile, I've had good feedback on the funding bid I've spent hours on. More than just my fingers crossed now.
Thanks to Olwyn for putting together lots of logos to choose from. Now that we've got the company number, as soon as we decide on a logo we can go ahead with printing business cards and get the logo on the website.
Friday 14 August 2009
WooOOOOopeeee! We're official!
We're so excited to be official. Rachel phoned me yesterday with fantastic news. She saw an officious looking letter from Companies House on her doormat. At last we have our number! We're now registered as a company limited by guarantee.
That golden number we've been waiting for is none other than 6987264. A lovely number isn't it?! We're over the moon to be on the path to becoming a registered charity too!
That golden number we've been waiting for is none other than 6987264. A lovely number isn't it?! We're over the moon to be on the path to becoming a registered charity too!
Thursday 13 August 2009
Logo on the way and funding bid coming along
Holrick Rodgers, our pro bono marketing man and Olwyn Rutter (joining us from across the pond in Canada) are getting to work on a new logo for Abene Karantaa. Working on the brief from Holrick has really focused me mind as to where we are going and the image we should portray; as well as who we should target. A good experience. It's an exciting project and I can't wait to see what both teams come up with.
A rap on the knuckles for me this morning for not cc-ing Rachel in to the emails that have put Holrick and Olwyn in touch. Three heads will hopefully be even better than two!
Rachel is putting up an advert of our imminent fundraiser garage sale (on Sunday 16th - see www.abenekarantaa.org/garagesale on Facebook as we speak. And on Gumtree too. She'll be helping me manage the swathes of supporters eager to support us in exchange for a silk cushion or coffee table book.
I'm working hard this morning on putting together a funding bid for a trust that I hope will be supporting us in the future and playing a key part in the success of the projects. Following my meeting with the Chief Executive of Beatbullying on Tuesday, I am incorporating lots of good points she raised.
Wish us luck!
A rap on the knuckles for me this morning for not cc-ing Rachel in to the emails that have put Holrick and Olwyn in touch. Three heads will hopefully be even better than two!
Rachel is putting up an advert of our imminent fundraiser garage sale (on Sunday 16th - see www.abenekarantaa.org/garagesale on Facebook as we speak. And on Gumtree too. She'll be helping me manage the swathes of supporters eager to support us in exchange for a silk cushion or coffee table book.
I'm working hard this morning on putting together a funding bid for a trust that I hope will be supporting us in the future and playing a key part in the success of the projects. Following my meeting with the Chief Executive of Beatbullying on Tuesday, I am incorporating lots of good points she raised.
Wish us luck!
Wednesday 12 August 2009
Action Planning, painting and marketing
So many meetings yesterday- all very useful. Started the day with Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying, who shared her experiences of starting up a charity from scratch. BB have since won lots of charity awards and are getting bigger and bigger. She gave me the benefit of her wisdom with 3 golden pearls of advice - what she wish she had known before. 1. The benefit of getting a fundraiser on board early on - even a fundraiser on commission. 2. Get a good mentor from the start. And 3. Create a 3-year plan.
In the second meeting of the day I secured pro-bono marketing work from Holrick Rodgers. Many thanks to him for his collaboration with us. Although he will take a global look at the organisation and put together a full marketing plan, the priorities are to make the most of our imminently getting our company registration number by preparing a logo, business cards and letterheads. Watch this space to see what comes next.
The rest of the I spent gloss painting my mum's windows, until 11pm no less. She wanted me to 'prioritise' the painting, so I had to squeeze it all in. Now we're working on choosing colours for the walls. It's never ending, but at least is a diversion from the phone and laptop.
It's full steam ahead for the garage sale we're having this Sunday in West Dulwich, SE21. All proceeds going to Abene Karantaa. I've been out delivering a flyer on it this morning in Dulwich village and got good feedback from the people I spoke to in the street. I hope to get a good turn out on the day. We'll see what the weather is like - fingers crossed.
I'm dashing out the house now for a friend's leaving do.
In the second meeting of the day I secured pro-bono marketing work from Holrick Rodgers. Many thanks to him for his collaboration with us. Although he will take a global look at the organisation and put together a full marketing plan, the priorities are to make the most of our imminently getting our company registration number by preparing a logo, business cards and letterheads. Watch this space to see what comes next.
The rest of the I spent gloss painting my mum's windows, until 11pm no less. She wanted me to 'prioritise' the painting, so I had to squeeze it all in. Now we're working on choosing colours for the walls. It's never ending, but at least is a diversion from the phone and laptop.
It's full steam ahead for the garage sale we're having this Sunday in West Dulwich, SE21. All proceeds going to Abene Karantaa. I've been out delivering a flyer on it this morning in Dulwich village and got good feedback from the people I spoke to in the street. I hope to get a good turn out on the day. We'll see what the weather is like - fingers crossed.
I'm dashing out the house now for a friend's leaving do.
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Really good meeting last night
We had a great trustees meetings last night. Thank you to the Indigo Hotel, Paddington for giving us a nice table in their brasserie. Indeed it was a nice and quiet space for us.
We had so much to catch up on at the meeting and covered all the latest fundraising and operational plans, taking decisions and having good discussions. The trustees got to meet Hawa Touray my new colleague in Senegal on the ground. Hawa will be facilitating the English for Children and Adult Literacy in English projects with me. It was a great opportunity for them to meet each other for the first time.
I'm on my way out the house now to catch a bus up to Crystal Palace and meet Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of children's charity Beatbullying, for her advice on starting out. I've got lots of questions for her and hope to get the benefit of her experience founding Beatbullying.
More later.
We had so much to catch up on at the meeting and covered all the latest fundraising and operational plans, taking decisions and having good discussions. The trustees got to meet Hawa Touray my new colleague in Senegal on the ground. Hawa will be facilitating the English for Children and Adult Literacy in English projects with me. It was a great opportunity for them to meet each other for the first time.
I'm on my way out the house now to catch a bus up to Crystal Palace and meet Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of children's charity Beatbullying, for her advice on starting out. I've got lots of questions for her and hope to get the benefit of her experience founding Beatbullying.
More later.
Tuesday 4 August 2009
Brushing up on business skills and chatting with the Doc
I had a really useful training session on Monday (thanks to my borough council funding it) in book-keeping. Sounds really dry, but I learnt a lot, apart from when my head was almost popping off. Hopefully I will now be able to put together accounts that won't scare our pro-bono accountant Abdul. I wasn't doing too badly before, having been self-employed for some years in Spain, but I've learnt some good tips.
Why was I putting myself through it you may be thinking? I've actually signed up for a few of these training sessions, the next being on sales on Monday next week. I want to arm myself with as much info as possible on how to run a successful business before I head back to Senegal so that I can pass it on to members of the local communities in Abene, Albadar & Diannah.
We're planning on investing in local community co-operative initiatives. The profit of which will provide long-term sustainable funding for the projects we're setting up. Local people will take greater ownership of the projects, they won't be there one day and gone the next and the initiatives will provide employment and skills in an area of poverty and high unemployment.
I've been painting my mum's house today, but the morning was spent on medical stuff - getting anti-malarials from my GP for 9 months away, phoning up a zillion travel insurers for quotes and also researching aspects of a more intimate side of our health, that I won't go in to here, suffice to say it's worth being prepared and planning ahead. It's quite tricky to get insurance cover for 9 months teaching abroad. I never had to think about insurance when I was living and working in Spain, as an EU country.
The bit of West Africa I'm going to spend the best part of the year in has the deadliest form of malaria - P. Falciparum. Not nice. I learnt today from my Doc that once you've had it it can reoccur throughout your life (or words to that effect). So it's best to avoid it completely. I was lucky to be given Malarone -arguably the best -for my last trip, but this time I'm switching to Larium - more suitable for long stays and taking it year after year.
I've also been to the optician and the dentist, though not all this week! I'm planning ahead so I'll have everything covered for a good while.
Tomorrow is Rachel's birthday - one of our trustees. She's celebrating it playing in the band 6 Day Riot. Happy Birthday to her! It's been a busy week for birthdays amongst our trustees - it was Shirley's birthday on Sunday. Happy birthday Shirley (again!). I hope you're having a good time away at camp.
Why was I putting myself through it you may be thinking? I've actually signed up for a few of these training sessions, the next being on sales on Monday next week. I want to arm myself with as much info as possible on how to run a successful business before I head back to Senegal so that I can pass it on to members of the local communities in Abene, Albadar & Diannah.
We're planning on investing in local community co-operative initiatives. The profit of which will provide long-term sustainable funding for the projects we're setting up. Local people will take greater ownership of the projects, they won't be there one day and gone the next and the initiatives will provide employment and skills in an area of poverty and high unemployment.
I've been painting my mum's house today, but the morning was spent on medical stuff - getting anti-malarials from my GP for 9 months away, phoning up a zillion travel insurers for quotes and also researching aspects of a more intimate side of our health, that I won't go in to here, suffice to say it's worth being prepared and planning ahead. It's quite tricky to get insurance cover for 9 months teaching abroad. I never had to think about insurance when I was living and working in Spain, as an EU country.
The bit of West Africa I'm going to spend the best part of the year in has the deadliest form of malaria - P. Falciparum. Not nice. I learnt today from my Doc that once you've had it it can reoccur throughout your life (or words to that effect). So it's best to avoid it completely. I was lucky to be given Malarone -arguably the best -for my last trip, but this time I'm switching to Larium - more suitable for long stays and taking it year after year.
I've also been to the optician and the dentist, though not all this week! I'm planning ahead so I'll have everything covered for a good while.
Tomorrow is Rachel's birthday - one of our trustees. She's celebrating it playing in the band 6 Day Riot. Happy Birthday to her! It's been a busy week for birthdays amongst our trustees - it was Shirley's birthday on Sunday. Happy birthday Shirley (again!). I hope you're having a good time away at camp.
Saturday 1 August 2009
Finally! Just been to the post box...
I'm relieved to have finally sent off the papers for registering as a company limited by guarantee (a charitable company), which is the first step to being a registered charity.
I had the papers almost ready months ago, when I handed them over to Shirley, one of our trustees as I was leaving the country to go to Senegal for the three-month assessment in March. But form-filling is no easy task, necessitating many phone calls to Companies House, so they hung around for a while.
After meeting each of the trustees this week, each on a different day, I have got all the signatures needed. I spent this afternoon checking through the Memorandum & Articles and printed them out.
Fingers crossed I haven't made any mistakes and we should have our registered company number in ten days. The next stage after that will be to post the papers to the Co-operative to open a bank account with them in the name of Abene Karantaa. For that I need the company registration number. I've got a few cheques to put in when we get the bank account.
I've also made some updates to the website - have you seen the new gallery of photos and the slightly revised new look? Check out www.abenekarantaa.org.
I'm also working on putting together a book of the blog from my 3-month trip to Abene, including lots of photos, an introduction from trustee Rachel Coleshill and Foreword from trustee and journalist Desmond Davies. Desmond is also very kindly editing it for me. Hopefully he'll have time this weekend as I know he is quite busy during the week.
A complimentary copy of the book will be given to donors who give £500 or more. I hope to have it published within the next few weeks.
I had the papers almost ready months ago, when I handed them over to Shirley, one of our trustees as I was leaving the country to go to Senegal for the three-month assessment in March. But form-filling is no easy task, necessitating many phone calls to Companies House, so they hung around for a while.
After meeting each of the trustees this week, each on a different day, I have got all the signatures needed. I spent this afternoon checking through the Memorandum & Articles and printed them out.
Fingers crossed I haven't made any mistakes and we should have our registered company number in ten days. The next stage after that will be to post the papers to the Co-operative to open a bank account with them in the name of Abene Karantaa. For that I need the company registration number. I've got a few cheques to put in when we get the bank account.
I've also made some updates to the website - have you seen the new gallery of photos and the slightly revised new look? Check out www.abenekarantaa.org.
I'm also working on putting together a book of the blog from my 3-month trip to Abene, including lots of photos, an introduction from trustee Rachel Coleshill and Foreword from trustee and journalist Desmond Davies. Desmond is also very kindly editing it for me. Hopefully he'll have time this weekend as I know he is quite busy during the week.
A complimentary copy of the book will be given to donors who give £500 or more. I hope to have it published within the next few weeks.
Back blogging
So much has happened since I've been back from Senegal - see the three month blog at http://www.abenekarantaa.blogspot.com/ - that I've decided to come back to blogging to keep a record of the experience of setting up and running a charity.
I'll try to do a catch up now of the last few weeks and from now on blog regularly.
We're fundraising to reach our target budget for our first 12 months, from October 09 to August 2010. And we're getting organised in preparation for the year ahead.
I'm in London for the summer - what summer those of you reading from the UK will ask! And I'm going back to Senegal to implement the programme and facilitate to projects in 2 months time - the end of September. In the meantime there's lots to do...
I'll try to do a catch up now of the last few weeks and from now on blog regularly.
We're fundraising to reach our target budget for our first 12 months, from October 09 to August 2010. And we're getting organised in preparation for the year ahead.
I'm in London for the summer - what summer those of you reading from the UK will ask! And I'm going back to Senegal to implement the programme and facilitate to projects in 2 months time - the end of September. In the meantime there's lots to do...
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