Welll done to both the 1 and 2 day riders. We hope everyone will be generous with their sponsorship and look forward to seeing everyone again next year!!!!
2009 Charity Chase photos
A selection of photos to encourage you to join in with this fabulous event for two worthy causes
The Point Foundation was established after the founding members visited some of the poorest areas in South Africa and Rwanda where HIV and orphaned children continue to suffer. They aim to raise in excess of £150,000 yearly to support the many projects in these areas. The Noel Orphanage is one of the many projects.
Noel Orphanage is home to around 634 children, living in the most appalling conditions. The Noel is desperate for help since their major sponsor pulled out in October 2007. The children here are well cared for and loved, but still live in very cramped, smelly and extremely hot conditions, four to a single mattress in non-ventilated dormitories of 50 children. They survive on one meal of gruel a day, and their only possessions are the clothes they wear.
They need to raise £10,000 a month simply for the orphanage to survive as well as additional funds for clothing, medicines, educational equipment, bedding and food aid. By raising these amounts of money the possible help we can provide is:-
£1000 Mattresses, sheets and blankets for 50 children at the Noel Orphanage in Rwanda
£2500 A medical team, teacher and social worker to travel to Rwanda to assess living conditions and commission a report
£5000 A complete renovation of a dormitory to house 40 children
£10000 A full renovation of the toilet facilities
£15000 One month’s worth of food and medical bills for the Noel Orphanage
£25000 One year’s schooling bill for the Noel Orphanage
Southdown Nursery is run as a Charitable Trust. It aims to provide a caring and safe setting for local children between the ages of 2 and 5. Ofsted recently rated Southdown as “Very Good”.
Research shows that children’s development is greatly enhanced through innovative outdoor features. Some of these, like the all-weather patio and covered veranda, are in place. Others require significant funds to bring them to life. A simple measure like secure perimeter fencing with basic display space recently cost £5,000. The new sandpit cost £800 and it will cost more money to keep the sandpit topped up. The near-empty Wendy houses need a large amount of money to provide child friendly, weatherproof equipment.
Southdown’s home is Gervays Hall, an historic building set in wonderful gardens on Jarvis Lane. It was placed in Trust in 1933 to be used by the people of Steyning and the current directors and Trustees are responsible for the preservation of the Hall for future generations.
But being an old building means that it needs to be maintained and kept up to date. The Trust has a long list of site maintenance and structural improvement work which needs carrying out. Our aim is to enhance the facilities already in place and provide the nursery with the resources to upgrade the internal areas of the building. The end result will be to turn the Southdown Nursery building into a fantastic facility that we can all be proud of and which future generations of children can enjoy playing and learning in a modern 21st century enviroment.
The Head of Southdown is working with the Point Foundation to link Nursery with the Noel Orphanage. A number of joint initiatives are under development. They all share a common theme – to give children the best possible start to life, wherever they live.
