Donations

Donegal Test Donation

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September 07, 2025

We've supported many Filipino street-vendors over the years, and today's entrepreneur is Angelie from Cebu island, which we know and visit. She is 26, married to Teodoro (a welder) and she runs a small, licenced street stall selling drinks and snacks. She gave up work as an employed nail technician to establish her own small business, and is now hoping to open a further stall to save money on the bulk purchasing of stock etc. We support her entrepreneurial spirit and have given her £50 (approximately the total of a day's total daily gross income) to help take the pressure off as she establishes the new stall. If she's successful she'll pay back some or all of that sum (we also cover costs) and we'll give more than 100% of any proceeds to somebody else in a similar situation via Care International.

July 02, 2025

Roth lives in the Bovel district of Battambang Province of Cambodia, that we know and have visited. He's 30 and supports his family as a rice and cassava farmer. Through Care International's local partner we've assisted him to install a solar panel system that will power a well pump. This will allow him to increase his water supply and farm rice twice a year (rather than only in wet season), thereby doubling his ability to better support his family. We wish him well - not least because we've recently moved our office over to 100% solar generation/battery.

June 04, 2025

Mubeen Bibi, 19, is a skilled Salma Sitara embroidery artist in Pakistan. She lives with (working) husband and toddler son. She has built a reputation for high-quality work over four years. Shopkeepers commission her to create in-demand pieces, which she expertly crafts at home with intricate designs. We've given her a month's income via Care International's local partner to allow her to purchase various embroidery materials and accessories such as coloured stones, beads, artificial pearls/diamonds, threads, assorted fabrics, and frames. She is confident that with these essential tools, she can fulfil bulk orders promptly and increase her income. We admire her skills and that she's continuing an important handcraft tradition, and wish her well.

May 27, 2025

Happy to be able to support the Abertawe Festival for Young Musicians today with a small donation (£30). Recent cutbacks have ravaged the classical music scene in Wales, with fewer and fewer opportunities for young musicians to practice and perform - we're happy to support this worthwhile project.

April 09, 2025

Happy to support RSPCA Aberconwy today with a small donation (£30) after learning of their work to provide subsidised veterinary surgery options for those on the lowest incomes in North Wales - helping 2500 animals a year via their Llanndudno Junction base, near several UTT properties. We wish them well in their good work.

March 22, 2025

Hapus i'w cefnogi un o'r perchennog UTT gyda'i prosiect codi arian at elusen dda Crohns & Colit Research UK. Adnewyddodd Ed (a Hedydd) Bwthyn a Hafan Tresinwen ac Awel Deg (yn Abergwaun). "Am wthnos ar ddechre mis Chwefror, nes i reidio fy meic o Ben Strwmbwl i Lundain, gan joio’r daith a chwrdd â llawer o bobl hyfryd. Wen i wastad wedi bod ishe teithio hen lwybr y porthmyn. Gwisgais fy nghrys ‘Crohns & Colitis’ yr holl ffordd. Rwy’n gobeithio y bydd eraill efallai am fy helpu i gefnogi’r elusen ragorol hon. Dwi’n teimlo'n ffodus iawn o fedru cwblhau yr her. Diolch arbennig i'r NHS a'r Nutrition Detectives (Yr Ark, Hwlffordd) am eu help." Happy to have sponsored UTT owner Ed (of Hafan & Bwthyn Tresinwen) with his sponsored bike ride to raise funds for Crohns & Colitis Research UK (from Ed) "For a week at the beginning of February, I rode my bike from Strumble Head to London, via the old drovers route, seeing all the sites along the way and meeting lots of lovely people. I wore my ‘Crohns & Colitis UK’ shirt to fly their flag and hope that others might want to help me support the charity's great research and work. I feel very lucky that I was able to complete my challenge. Special thanks to the NHS and the Nutrition Detectives at the Ark, Haverfordwest for their help."

March 07, 2025

Sales are strong, so we've been able to give £50 today to the “Emprendedoras de Ruta 1” women's co-operative in Delgado area of Asuncion, Paraguay (managed via Care International). They were formed by a group of entrepreneurial women who are friends, neighbours, and in some cases, relatives who share the common goal of improving their quality of life through hard work and commitment to their respective small businesses. Together they’ve built a supportive community that values teamwork, responsibility and mutual success. The funds will assist Armina, one of the members, in buying ingredients to produce the sweets that she sells. The investment will help her maintain a steady supply and expand her customer base, which she hopes will result in greater profitability and sustainability for her business and family. If you'd like to support this/ or other projects managed by Care International then follow the link above and Care will donate £15 to start your account.

February 09, 2025

Ana Lou, 35, runs a small streetside stall in Cebu, Philippines, an area that we know and visit. She's married to Jeffrey, a mechanic, and the couple have two daughters in school. Ana runs her grocery stall from 6am to 6pm, 7 days a week, selling items such as rice, canned goods, energy drinks, and animal feed. We've given her £50 to buy stock in bulk and improve her profit and ability to support her family. This was our 200th loan to entrepreneurs via Care International - each entrepreneur has no commitment to repay, and if they are able then we invest at least 110% of their repayments to others (as well as covering administration costs through the local microloan charity). If the small business owner experiences difficulty we write off the loan - as, for example, we have done with all our Gaza and West Bank loans on principle. The system is also completely open to accepting delays and re-sheduling of payments, unlike loans from banks and traditional lending institutions - and we've found that our default rate is as low as 2% - which just goes to show how banks should be supporting the people that they often refuse to assist.

February 07, 2025

We've given £100 via Care International at the 'La Esperanza' women's' co-opertive organised by Fundación Paraguaya de Cooperación y Desarrollo in Paraguay. The funds will help member Sophia set up a small cosmetics retail business via a stall in front of her home. The money will help with renovations and stock, so that she can better support her family. We wish Sophia and the co-operative well with their projects in Asuncion. Photo - the La Esperanza Co-Operative.

February 05, 2025

Today you've helped Faisal Ali - a 22 years old craftsman who lives in Kasur, Pakistan with his aged parents, three brothers and a sister. His mother and sister manage the household duties, while two of his brothers are looking for jobs and one works in the private sector, earning £57 monthly. Faisal Ali has been creating high-quality shoe uppers from vegan/ artificial leather for the past three years, earning around £39 monthly. He supplies these uppers to local shoemakers, who value his reliable and precise work. His quality and consistency has earned him a loyal customer base, and we've helped him buy more artificial leather to meet the growing demand from shoemakers. We wish him well in his small business.

December 18, 2024

The Children's Society work in Wales and England with young people who have suffered abuse, who have run away from home or are struggling with mental health issues. They look out for young carers and those who are at risk of being groomed by criminal groups. They help refugees who have no one else to turn to in this country. We've donated £50 to support their good work this Christmas.

December 06, 2024

To mark us crossing the £30 000 donation point we've donated £100 today to UK charity ShelterBox that is providing emergency accommodation in Gaza. In many cases they're providing family tents for the displaced and hundreds of thousands who have had their homes destroyed by the Israeli invasion. In other cases they're providing heavy duty tarpaulins, ropes and fixings so that people can temporarily repair partially damaged homes, helping make roofless bombed structures semi-habitable. They also provide mosquito nets, water filters and basic cooking equipment for people to survive. We look forwards to an end to the destruction of Gaza, and the day when those responsible are brought to justice for their crimes against humanity and war crimes. We condemn the UK and other governments for continuing to allow the supply of weapons from UK (and other) manufacturers that allow those war crimes to be meted out, even after condemnation from the neutral International Criminal Court. In the interim thousands of homeless families need rudimentary shelter, and we're happy to be able to support ShelterBox provide refuge.

December 03, 2024

We've given Raing £50 in Battambang province of Cambodia (that we know and have visited) to help with her family small-holding. She'll use the money (along with other funds) to purchase extra land for wet season rice production. Raing is a 29-year-old farmer from Morng Russey district and has been farming rice for over a decade. Together with her husband and two sons, she has built a livelihood growing wet season rice on five hectares of land, yielding about 3 tonnes of rice per hectare each harvest. She sells her rice to a local merchant who purchases directly from her village. Scaling up by adding a field can really help small-holders like this, and we wish her and the family well.

November 29, 2024

We regularly support small businesses in the countries that we have contacts with in SE Asia. Most of them are street-stall holders or tiny village shops. Today we've given £50 to Tinh in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. She runs a small stall/ shop selling everyday groceries. She's 44, has 3 kids in education and her husband works as a labourer. As a small grocery store owner, Tinh faces challenges as she does not have sufficient working capital to invest in her store. Through Care International we're helping her increase her stock, including items such as cakes, biscuits, oil, milk, and sweets to attract more customers and improve her sales and profits to support her family. By helping these small family businesses we help the whole community.

November 26, 2024

We've donated £100 today to the UK Disasters Emergency Committee appeal for the people of Gaza and Lebanon. We're appalled daily by the war crimes in both countries, and the suffering inflicted by the Israeli attacks. With over 16 000 children killed in Gaza alone, schools, hospitals and and refugee camps being bombed daily, and horrific scenes that shouldn't be seen anywhere. The UK & USA governments continue to fund and provide weapons that are used to kill thousands of innocent people. £100 could provide emergency shelter for five families - yet over a million people in Lebanon alone have been forced from their homes. Our assistance is but a drop in the ocean of what is required, and we make it in full knowledge that it can be little more than a token gesture of our support for the many innocent people suffering there.

October 17, 2024

We've donated £100 to the Alsama Project, to help fund a project to bring education to girls in refugee camps in Lebanon. Like everyone we've been appalled by the recent attacks on refugee camps in Lebanon, places which already had hugely challenging living conditions. Alsama is refugee-run, and provides an essential education to children who would otherwise receive none. Fewer than 3% of the refugee children in these camps complete secondary education, and many are pressured into work or even to marry during childhood. We've been impressed by the Alsama project and wish them, and all the people of Lebanon well in these difficult times.

October 15, 2024

We've donated £100 to Pipal Tree, a UK based charity helping educate vulnerable girls in South Nepal. They're currently raising funds for three educational purposes: 1. To provide bursaries to girls from low-caste families to advance in education 2. To pay for female tutors at our non-formal education centres 3. To fund the manufacture and free distribution of reusable sanitary pads and school rucksacks. Girls from low-caste families and marginalised ethnic groups in south Nepal have difficulty in completing even a basic education. Schools are under-resourced and parents, who are often illiterate and impoverished, are unable to offer domestic support. Dropout rates are high, particularly when girls reach puberty as schools have no provision for them when they are having their periods. These dropouts feed into child marriage, which is endemic within the region, perpetuating a cycle of poverty. We're happy to support them in their good work, and wish them well with the project.

October 11, 2024

Merlinda is 48-year-old and runs a flower stall in the Balamban market (Cebu province, Philippines) 7 days a week from 4 am to 8 pm with her husband. We know and visit this area ourselves. We've given her an average month's income in order to be able to purchase stock (as well as wrappings and items for decorative flower arrangements) so that she can increase sales. She's supported through the local microfinance group of Care International. Merlinda's daughter is currently in grade 11, and support such as this means that the family can afford to continue to keep their child in education. We wish her continued good health and success for her family and business.

September 14, 2024

Ruth, 37-years old, is married with two children and runs a clothing stall/ stand in Zambia. She started her 'boutique' with the goal of securing her children's education and building a brighter future for her family. We've given her £50 to help with purchasing more stock and continue her path towards greater business success. Our support is via the Microloan Foundation, Lend With Care's local partner in Zambia which specialises in lending to female entrepreneurs. If Ruth's business is successful and she repays her loan then we'll give all of that money (and at least 10% more) to another small business owner, If the business struggles then she's under no obligation, or if there are losses due to currency exchange rate fluctuations then we'll write off any loss - and in any event she is only committed to repay in small instalments as and whenever funds allow. If you'd like to support people like Ruth then Lend With Care (part of charity Care International) will give you £15 credit to loan to entrepreneurs in developing countries. With an incredible community of over 80,000 lenders, Lend With Care is about having a positive impact together.

September 11, 2024

Happy to be able to support a small stallholder entrepreneur in Cebu, the Philippines today. Ma. Diana Rose (32) runs a couple of street stalls with her husband. One supplies general foods (pictured), and the other sells 'ukay-ukay' - which tend to be second-hand clothes imported from other countries (including the UK). It's one of the places where our charity shop clothes donations end up, after they're sold by the kilo if unsaleable in the UK shops. Having a relatively sustainable 'full life' system for the use of what are otherwise 'disposable' fast fashion from the UK high street is essential if we're to minimise the impact of Western buying (and disposing) habits. It's a problem that needs to be tackled head-on - but in the interim, having a secondhand clothing sales system around the globs is at least helping to minimise the impact. These clothes are sold at how lost to low income people in developing countries, and the unsaleable pieces are sold on to rug makers who use the textiles. We wish Diana Rose well with her small business and the good work that she does.

August 11, 2024

Happy to be able to help East Anglia's Children's Hospices today with a donation of £100. Many of our customer donations come with bookings for Trehilyn properties - the West Wales estate renovated by broadcaster and writer Griff Rhys Jones and family. Griff is patron to this charity and closely involved with their good work - we're very happy to be able to support their project with a donation.

July 24, 2024

Happy to be able to support Bristol-based charity Pipal Tree again, with their latest project in Nepal. For 2024> 2026 they have a project in the Kamala river basin of south Nepal, an area that has suffered extreme poverty linked to flooding that is likely associated with climate change. The charity is helping plant rapid-growth forests to help act as flood barriers (as future floods remain likely), and providing tutors in local schools to help with the education of children of the lowest castes. Our donation this time will benefit the charity £100 , and we encourage others to support this excellent charity in their work.

July 23, 2024

Mai is 51 years old and lives with her husband in Quang Thanh commune, a suburban area of Thanh Hoa city in Vietnam. She and her husband are workers in local factory. We've given them £50 towards the costs of materials for their project to build a new toilet, replacing the unhygienic facilities that the family have been using. The pair bring home a monthly combined income of around £466, and although they've renovated much of their home the economic downturn has led to a decrease in orders at the factory where they work, adversely affecting their family’s income, and has left them without the funds to address their deteriorating bathroom, which has become unsafe and unsanitary for daily use.

July 10, 2024

We're avid consumers of current affairs and news (Radio 4 is on in our office nearly all day and evening), and like you, we're alarmed by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We're also dismayed by how little we've heard about the situation from UK politicians in the run up to this week's election. To their credit the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats mentioned Gaza on their leaflets/ media output, but it seems like the two much larger parties (Labour, Conservatives) are deliberately avoiding the issue in their continued project to appear to be 'all things to all men'. Yet infants are dying of dehydration daily, children are having to have limbs amputated with anesthesia and antibiotics. It's utterly horrific, and our small donation of £60 today is but a drop in the ocean of what is required to assist the desperate situation.

July 01, 2024

We're generally cautious of charities that are informally associated with religious groups, but lately have noticed that Vincent's have been undertaking excellent work with refugees, migrants and people seeking asylum, promoting inclusion and integration, including via their Colwyn Bay office. During the UK, French and US election campaigns we've heard so much mis-information (and bile) against immigrants that it felt like the right charity today to make a small donation (just £30 this time, but we'll follow them with interest). We wish them well.

June 30, 2024

Today we've been happy to support Muhammad Shafique and his family in Pakistan, via Care International. Muhammad is a 38-year-old Salma Sitara hand embroiderer, working from home. His income (around £100 a month) supports his wife and five children. Using specialized embroidery frames he meticulously crafts designs on a variety of fabrics, including bridal and formal wear. We've donated £50 to enable him to buy embroidery materials in order for him to help support the business. If he is successful, and able to pay us back next year then we'll donate more than 100% of the sum to another working family. It's great to see these handcraft traditions survive.

June 28, 2024

Uzma Ghafoor is a 39 years old resident of Lahore. She is unmarried and lives with her six brothers. She manages to earn around £40 monthly, through her home-based clothing business. She sources various seasonal fabrics and sells them to customers from her home. We've given her the equivalent of a month's income via Care international/ LendWithCare to help her source new fabrics and stay competitive, hopefully to help her increase sales and develop her small business. We wish her well.

June 05, 2024

We've donated £100 to UK charity 'Just like Us' that supports LGBTQ+ teens in schools, through their Pride Groups network. We've been dismayed by the thinly veiled anti-Transgender language coming from both the Conservatives and Labour in their electioneering of late, and want to help counteract the general trend against the rights of and support for young Transgender and non binary students.

May 28, 2024

Happy to give a £90 to Hosbis Dewi Sant to help support their good work in giving palliative care in communities across North Wales. They work across Conwy, Ynys Mon and Gwynedd supporting people and their families in one of the most challenging phases of life.

May 19, 2024

We've donated £100 to Cerebral Palsy Cymru to help them with their support project for families whose children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The charity supports around 300 children a year in Wales, providing 1:1 advice and counselling for parents and play sessions for the kids. A great charity, that deserves our support!

May 14, 2024

You know when you donated sweaters and woollen good to UK/ Irish charity shops, they often get exported to developing countries. Some get purchased by the kilo and sold 'as is'. Damaged ones get dumped, or the 'lucky ones' get sold off cheaply to yarn extractors, or (more rarely) machine processed. Razzaq Sahib is a 43-year-old resident of Kasur in Pakistan. He lives with his wife, three sons and a daughter and works as a yarn extractor to support his family. Razzaq acquires old and discarded sweaters as well as woollen garments and uses a specialised tool to manually extract yarn from them - unwinding the knitted goods we discard. He buys these items from thrift shops or factory outlets where damaged and used products are available at low cost. The extracted yarn is then sold to factories and manufacturing plants to be reused for making rugs, carpets, scarves, and sweaters. He earns approximately £70 per month - and we've given him a month's income via Care International to enable him to increase his stock of sweaters and woollen items, which he can extract yarn from and sell later when the demand for wool is high next winter.

April 25, 2024

Happy to have been able to assist Ceiniogi'r Coed / Stump Up for Trees with a £100 donation. This community-led charity in the Bannau Brycheiniog / Brecon Beacons works with landowners to help plant native woodland, and to help diversify farms with mosaic planting, field corner planting etc. A recent project has been to install a solar-powered water pump for their tree nursery that helps nurture the local seedlings for later planting across the National Park. We wish them well!

April 24, 2024

We've donated £100 to the British Heart Foundation. They support people living with heart disease across Wales and the UK, and have invested over £4million in research grants to Welsh Universities including Cardiff and Swansea where they've been undertaking detailed research into heart health of babies in prenatal and neonatal environments under Dr Lisa Hurt

April 21, 2024

We've donated £100 to Buglife Cymru to help them in their project to help save rare invertebrates from extinction in Wales. Their current project will raise awareness of the plight and importance of our invertebrates to communities, carrying out research to better understand their needs, and restoring habitats to provide safe havens for threatened species. This project will benefit four species, including Fen Raft Spider (in Wales only found near Swansea) and the stonefly Scarce Yellow Sally (in the UK only found in the north of Wales). We love bugs (we've kept a few as pets over the years!) and wish them well in the project.

April 19, 2024

Marivic is a mother of three who runs a small street food stall/ cafe in Cebu, the Philippines - a place that we know and visit. She's been running her restaurant business for 18 years, opening 7 days a week, with around 30 items on the menu. Her monthly rent is 15,000 pesos (around £213) and she uses profits to pay school fees for her children as well as meeting household expenses. We've given her £50 to buy stocks of cooking ingredients to support the business, via Care International. We wish her well.

April 17, 2024

We've given Marife in Cebu, the Philippines £50 to help improve her small family farm. She's a 47 year old with seven daughters, five of whom remain at home and in education. She is a farmer, growing Chayote, Onions, Squash, Cabbage, and Pepper, as well as banana and coconut trees. Currently their household weekly income ranges from about 4000 to 6000 (£56 to £84) according to the crops harvested, and the funds that we've provided will enable her to cultivate empty land into vegetable production and increase the family income. If she has a good harvest and returns the no-obligation loan we'll pass at least 100% on to other entrepreneurs via Care International.

February 28, 2024

We've made a donation to the Seven Sisters co-operative that employs around 40 women in the central Ourika valley near Marrakech in Morocco. The co-operative produces a range of argan oil products, and cleverly brings the argan nuts down from the coastal belt where they grow, to the Berber communities of the Ourika valley. The valley is a popular daytrip for tourists from Marrakech as only an hour from the city. The Berber communities there have been hit by earthquakes and floods recently (we met many families still living in UN-provided emergency tents a year after the last quake and saw houses that had been washed away by floods in recent weeks) and saw extreme poverty in some of the outlying villages. Tourism is everything to the economy of the Ourika valley, and traditionally the breadwinners have been the men of the household who work as hiking guides (it's famous for waterfalls) and in the many riverside restaurants and shops, though often they only find enough work for one or two days in a week. What we liked about this co-operative was that it brings money directly to the women of the community who work from home shelling the nuts to produce the oil and sell it direct, often to tourists paying what would be considered good prices, thus cutting out any 'middle men' in the process. Here's one of the women in the co-operative showing our son the process of de-shelling the argan nuts.

February 20, 2024

Carmela, a widow residing in Cebu province of the Philippines, is 55 years old and lives alone. She has two sons and one daughter, all of whom are married and live independently. She is a resilient entrepreneur and runs a small roadside stall/ cafe on her own, as she has for over 35 years. Carmela's stall is strategically located in front of a school, drawing a majority of her customers from college and high school students. She cooks a diverse menu of 11 items daily, including snack items like sweetcorn and pancakes, along with a selection of cold drinks. She sources her ingredients daily from local markets, and opens the cafe seven days a week from 4 a.m. to 8pm as the sole employee of the business. We've given her the equivalent of a day's income (£50) to help her renew some essential kitchenware, such as kettles, plates, spoons etc. We visit Cebu, and know this type of small street stall and how hard their owners work, seven days a week. We wish her well.

February 07, 2024

It's the small things we do on a regular basis that can make the most significant difference. At the moment we're looking out for Palestinian sourced goods to try to get help to those who need it most - a surprising amount of Olive Oil sold in UK/ Ireland and the rest of Europe is grown in Palestine, as are things like delicious Medjool dates. We particularly liked the design on this tin, in solidarity with the farmers of the region, who, despite the humanitarian crisis, continue to provide for their families. 100% of profits from this particular brand go to provide food and water for those forced from their homes, to aid orphans created by the invasion and to provide medical care.

February 05, 2024

We're a company founded by, and run by archaeologists, so happy to make a donation of £150 this month (via the Hurtigruten Foundation) to the The Kon Tiki Museum/Thor Heyerdahl’s Research Foundation for their project to return archeological material from the Kon-Tiki Museum to Rapa Nui. You may be familiar with the famous Kon Tiki expeditions of Thor Heyerdahl from 1947 onwards. Between the 1950s and the 1980s Thor was probably the guy that did more than anyone to popularise understanding about Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and the famous moai (monolithic statues that we have come to associate with the place. He was the first non-native to 'discover' hundreds of smaller artefacts and sculptures stored in caves on the island. With the best intentions, he purchased over 900 items for his famous museum in Oslo. Things have changed since the 1980s, and we now understand that it's not culturally appropriate to buy or take archaeological items that are fundamental to living indigenous cultures. We support the project since 2019 to return the items to Rapa Nui where they can be housed in a local museum. If only the British museum (and others) would follow such good restitution of important cultural items. The photo shows some of the items.

February 03, 2024

We've donated £100 to support the 'Guardians of the Kelp' project via the Hurtigruten foundation. We're huge fans of kelp (anyone that loves it as we do can come diving off our Donegal shoreline into the kelp beds that the local grey seals love so much). This project is helping to maintain and restore Atlantic kelp beds and their important ecosystems, and we wish them well in their good work.

February 02, 2024

We continue to be shocked and alarmed by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the failure of many countries (including the UK) to call for an immediate ceasefire. We're appalled that thousands of children are being killed, and that there is catastrophic food insecurity and risk of death from disease in the camps created by Israeli attacks. We've donated again to the Red Cross Disasters and Emergencies appeal in the hope that there can be some relief to this terrible situation.

January 31, 2024

Happy to say that we've been able to donate £100 to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (via the Hurtigruten Foundation). RSPB do great work connecting the general public with our native birds, helping identify them, educate and conserve them. We're particularly glad of the work they do in Wales with puffins and island sea birds, and we wish them well.

January 20, 2024

Happy to support the Happywhale project with a donation of £100 for help them develop an Artificial Intelligence application to assist with their project to identify, track, and protect various species of whales around the planet. Happywhale is a website where members of the public can submit images of whales that they've seen (anywhere) and the system helps see if that particular whale is identifiable, and the information used helps develop whale science overall. Our donation was made in conjunction with the Hurtigruten Foundation, who we've travelled with to follow our interest whales in Northern Europe. We're also active members of our local marine life rescue, available to assist should any marine mammals be stranded in difficulty on the local coast.

January 14, 2024

Happy to help Article 25 this Christmas with a £100 donation. This charity does great work as the UK's leading Architectural NGO working in the Global South - connecting UK architects with aid projects in impoverished communities. They train and use local builders, and provide funds to construct schools, hospitals and housing. We were particularly impressed by their work constructing a child counselling unit in Lesotho using local materials and thatch. Often when external architects 'parachute' into a project they bring with them external designs and materials - but not here. Great to see the vernacular traditions of Lesotho reflected in this project - often the simplest and most affordable materials are those that are readily to hand (clay, thatch etc). We've visited Lesotho and been amazed by how the thatch tradition conditions there in an unsentimental and practical way - thatch is affordable, sustainable and often the right choice.

December 16, 2023

Today we've given £100 to the Samroang education centre in Cambodia, managed by charity Children of the Mekong. It's an area that we know and have visited, and that we're keen to support. Physical access to school is difficult in some rural communities in Cambodia, with the cost of transport or the number of walking hours proving dissuasive. The Samroang project provides boarding and day schooling facilities for children from some of the poorest communities in Asia. The Centre provides full boarding which includes accommodation, tuition, extracurricular activities and various types of material support, to enable disadvantaged students to pursue secondary education. They have 68 boarders, and around 160 pupils in total. We wish them well!

December 06, 2023

Been happy to be able to support the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust again this year, with a £100 donation towards the rescue of Port Lockroy - one of the most remote heritage buildings in the world. Heavy snowfall has caused partial collapse of the roof, and urgent repairs are required. It's expensive even getting to a location like that, and not easy to do the work given the weather conditions. We wish them well, and support their aim to conserve the early heritage buildings of Antarctica.

December 05, 2023

We've today donated £100 to the UK charity Pipal Tree that helps keep girls in education in the poorest parts of Nepal. The charity does great work, providing tutors, backpacks and sanitary products to girls in the Dalit (so-called 'untouchable') community. Something as simple as lack of access to sanitary pads is often a reason that girls drop out from education at puberty there. They also run a small social enterprise and support deaf women who'd otherwise find it difficult to access training and education. We wish them well in their good work.

December 01, 2023

We've donated £1125 to the Medical Aid for the Children Gaza Appeal organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians. With your donation, you have helped provide life-saving medical care to young children experiencing extreme trauma. On behalf of the children of Gaza, thank you for investing in their future and giving them a chance of a childhood. We've been heavily criticised (via abusive emails, people cancelling holidays and asking for refunds) because of our support for humanitarian charities supporting the civilians of Gaza - there's likely a whole lobby out there attacking companies who donate to any charities that assist Palestinian people. We remain uncowed, and increased our donation for every vile email received. Hate will not win.

November 29, 2023