A focus on the Fundraising

In honour of the fact that we are launching our incredible London Fundraising team very soon and are currently recruiting for dedicated volunteers we thought that we'd do a special blog for you all about fundraising.

Now anyone who has been following our work this year must have noticed our rather creative efforts to raise money are ever increasing: we decided as an organisation to start fundraising to buy our own land during our annual general meeting in Uganda earlier this year and so far the support we've had has been tremendous and we've raised over £5000!

This has been raised through a variety of ways: people being sponsored to take on challenges, fundraising events and through people generously donating (either a one off or a regular sum no matter how big or small does make a huge difference to us!).

Two of our most recent fundraising champions Becca and Lucy Fawcett wrote this about their recent running triumph:

Running the BIG half for SALVE

Why SALVE?

After seeing the amazing difference that the S.A.L.V.E. team had already made to street children's lives in Uganda, Luc and Becca wanted to do their bit in support of the great project. Through the sponsorship of Maureen, the Fawcett family has had a glimpse into the day-to-day struggles of the street children in Jinja and the amazing work S.A.L.V.E. does.

S.A.L.V.E's work is particularly pertinent to the girls as the charity was set up and is run by people their own age. It also offers a great opportunity to see 100% of donations go straight where they are desperately needed. As the charity is still small, they can see that every penny raised makes a real difference.

Why the Sheffield half marathon?

As neither sister had ever really run beyond the obligatory (and life-threatening) 1,500 metres at school they decided the Sheffield half marathon would be sufficiently taxing for 2010. For Becca it was a welcome break from the City and for Luc a reminder of what great sights Sheffield has to offer…
The sisters made the decision to run in February, giving themselves about 8 weeks to prepare. At first a grueling 20 minute jog around the block seemed epic, so the prospect of a 13 mile run was inconceivable. The Just Giving page was launched and a target of £500 was set – gradually the sponsorship started to roll in and the project built up momentum.

As the weeks went by a bit of cycling and a few sit-ups were thrown in to the ‘training regimes’ for good measure…in fact Becca and Luc were surprised at how fast they went from loathing to loving the runs. Knowing they had a target to achieve and children to help gave them the extra push to get up on those rainy Sundays to pound the streets of London and Sheffield. The sponsorship monies grew and grew and before long the target was met and even doubled. Alison and Simon Fawcett hosted a “Chili Evening” which was a great (and delicious) success.

Crunch time. The sisters were both feeling nervous as they stood on the track at Don Valley stadium amongst the crowd of very professional looking athletes. The running conditions were looking good: no rain, not too sunny nor too windy - perfect! Even better, another crew of cheery S.A.L.V.E. fundraisers were quickly spotted thanks to the bright yellow T-shirts. The “yellows” shared stories and momentary laughter. However panic quickly followed – if we don’t make it, we won’t have earnt the sponsorship…what then - what about the Jinja kids???

The sisters ran together, both feeling strong for those first six miles; running from Don Valley through the revamped city centre and along the popular Ecclesall Road…mile 11 was the point when they started to get emotional…nearly there! The last lap around the stadium was tough, with people collapsing in the final mile...

The sisters went for “sprint finishes”, Becca finishing in 2hrs 07mins and Luc in 2hrs17mins.

The next day was sore, but absolutely worth it.

THANK YOU S.A.L.V.E. International for motivating us to have such an emotional and exciting experience and giving us such an amazing target.

With generous sponsorship from the DLA Piper Charitable Trust, colleagues, friends and family across the UK, Becca and Lucy raised over £1,500 for S.A.L.V.E.

Do you want to get more involved?

We are always happy to help and support anyone who is interested in fundraising for S.A.L.V.E. and have a fundraising pack full of good ideas to get you on your way: please email caitlin@salveinternational.org for more info!