Donations

Ibraheem is from Gaza, he is 19 and lives with his family. Ibraheem runs a stationery store. He sells items needed by school and university students and he even has computers for use. Ibraheem estimates that he earns a monthly profit of around $400 despite working in a very challenging economic environment. Through Care International we're helping him increase stocks to better support himself and his family. We wish him well.

June 27, 2022

Hashem is from Gaza. He is 21 and lives with his parents and siblings. Hashem is a men's barber. He runs a small salon where he offers haircuts, styling, shaves, as well as skin care and colouring. Hashem earns a monthly profit of around $300. The economic situation in Gaza is extremely challenging and there are few sources of employment so this is a good business for Hashem. We've given him £100 (and paid admin) to help buy materials like shampoos and hair dryers. He hopes that this will enable him to work more efficiently and also to offer a better service to his customers. The business is particularly important as it is the main source of income for his family household. We wish him well.

June 24, 2022

Abdullah lives with his parents in Gaza. To help support his family Abdullah runs a grocery shop in his neighbourhood. He has been running the store for the past 3 years, since he was 19. He sells essential household foods, as well as cleaning and personal hygiene items and chocolates and crisps. We're helping him buy in bulk, which will entitle him to a discount. Abdullah is concerned that prices are rising and it might become more expensive if he delays, and we're happy to help. He estimates his monthly profit to be around $450.

June 12, 2022

Celestin is 43 years old and lives with his wife and their six children in the Ngororero District in the Western Province of Rwanda. He and his wife are both potato farmers. We're helping him buy seed potatoes and compost to support his family business. Hopefully he'll achieve a harvest of around several tonnes of potatoes, earning enough to continue to pay his children's school fees as well as cover the family food, shelter, education, clothes and health care. We wish him well.

May 21, 2022

Elsa Doraly is 24 years old and is a nursing and pharmacy technician. She is single, has no children, and lives with her mother in a rustic house (made of mudbrick and sticks), located in the district of Huamachuco, province of Sánchez Carrión, department of La Libertad, in the northern highlands of Peru. Elsa Doraly decided to open a small pharmacy in her town during the Covid pandemic, as she has experience as a pharmacy technician. For about a year now she has been running her own small pharmacy from 07:00 to 20:00 with gross monthly sales approximately S/3,500 soles (£740.36) with a profit margin of 35% after paying for the cost of medicines, purchase of materials, and payment of taxes. Via Care International and their local partner we've given her £100 (and paid administration fees) to help her buy further stock for her pharmacy, to hopefully increase her turnover and profitability. These small, locally owned and locally managed pharmacies are a lifeline in developing countries, and deserve our support, We wish Elsa and her mother well with their small business.

May 05, 2022

Andres Geovanny is a smallholder farmer from an area called Rio San Juan in Nicaragua growing basic grains and organic ginger. He is married with two children. Via charity Care International and local partner organisation Doselva, and along with others, we're helping him acquire good quality seeds, organic fertiliser, organic fungicides and tools to plant ginger. The ginger will be planted in an agro-forestry system that maintains the forest canopy and does not contaminate the local environment which is a buffer zone of the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve which is one of the largest protected lowland forest systems in Central America. He will plant between 3-4 acres of land with organic ginger, and we wish him well. Andres is the first farmer/ entrepreneur we've assisted in Nicaragua, and we look forwards to working with others.

May 04, 2022

Happy to have been able to help Jorge Robinson, in the La Esperanza neighbourhood of the Espejo canton, province of Carchi, Ecuador today. Jorge is 29 years old, single and for 10 years he has been growing potatoes on 2 hectares of leased land. His products are sold to merchants and in local markets. His income helps him pay for his household expenses. We're helping him buy agricultural supplies and to hire temporary agricultural workers for harvest, and we wish him well.

April 29, 2022

We've donated £4000 to the Humanitiarian Aid Appeal for Ukraine organised by the Diasters and Emergency Committee. That amount will feed 80 families for a month. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine against the invasion of their country, the multiple war crimes against them, and the hideous destruction of their homes, hospitals, and schools. They are in our thoughts daily.

March 29, 2022

It's difficult to know where to start in supporting the good people of Ukraine against the current invasion by Russian forces. We've considered the good work of the Red Cross, the Disasters and Emergencies Committee, and the many Polish based charities working with refugees there. In the end we thought we'd reach out to the people we know in the Ukraine to ask them about the situation on the ground, and we've decided to help a family that we know well. We've visited Ukraine a couple of times and have very good friends in the central Cherkasy region. Fortunately, being rural, it hasn't seen the worst of the attacks to date, but we're told by our friends that the air raid sirens are constant, that food is hard to get (and that they're running low), that shops have been marauded, and that they're too scared to travel on the empty roads for fear of being shot. They've no car (or driving licence) and there's no public transport that could take them out of the country. We've made an initial donation of €100 to help, and once we know that the transfer system is working OK to their local bank (and that cash is available) we'll consider further support.

March 03, 2022

Gina is 48 years old hardworking woman living in Cebu (which we know well) in the Philippines. She is married to Fernando. The couple have two sons and two daughters. Two of her children are already married and live separately while the other two are still studying in college and in high school. She lives with her family in Cebu Province and her husband works overseas sending income home. Gina is a the owner of a small groceries store stall. She has been running her business for over 10 years. Two of her children help her in running the business. She offers retail and wholesale prices for her customers. She also gives special prices to her regular customers. Her store is open every day from 5 am and closes to 9 pm. Her average gross sales are 6,000 pesos (£86.41) a day. Her estimated working capital is 35,000 pesos (£504.10). We've given her approximately 10% extra working capital to add more stock to her store in the hope that she may better meet the needs of her customers, create more profit and employment, and income to support her family. We're very familiar with small roadside stalls like these, and the important service they provide, including temporary interest-free loans, small-batch product sales (eg washing powder for one wash), and food purchased on the day of consumption. We wish Gina and her community well.

February 15, 2022

Jhonny Jheison is 28 years old, he is a professional photographer in Trujillo, Peru , and we've been supporting him foe past year. His partner is Kelly and they have two children. Their children are studying at a national school in the city of Tumbes. He lives in Barrio Los Jardines, located in the district of Tumbes. Jhonny Jheisonstudied professional photography and currently has a photography business set up in his family home. He has various photography equipment such as reflectors, lights, panels, cameras, furniture, clothes for photo sessions, among other things. His photo packages are from S/10 soles to S/350 soles (£1.92 to £67.36), depending on the type of work and the time it will take to complete the customers’ requests. His main clients are people who want to capture and preserve an important memory of their lives such as: marriages, baptisms, pregnancies, birthdays etc. In addition, he also provides services for companies: product photography and digital marketing services. For these services, he generates approximate monthly income of S/4,600 soles (£884.79), with a profit margin of 75%. Jhonny has his own motorcycle, which he rents out, generating approximate monthly income of S/560 soles (£107.71), with a profit margin of 80%. We're helping him improve his photographic studio, installing new spaces and more themes for photography sessions. He hopes to continue growing his business so that he can employ one or two people who can help him in photo sessions. He wants to attract more clients and create more jobs. With the profits obtained he will be able to provide a better quality of life for his family and continue to develop himself every day in his area of business. We wish him well!

February 02, 2022

Mahmood Shabbir is 24 years old. He lives in Lahore, Pakistan with his sister and parents. His sister is a college student and his elderly parents stay at home. Mahmood Shabbir is the only breadwinner in the family and he works as an auto-repair mechanic. He has been doing this work for the past five years, after finishing his education. He repairs all car models and is apparently very good at his job. Recently Shabbir and his family have been experiencing hard times, so we've given him 6 weeks income to use to support his family and purchase spare parts used for repairing cars, to keep his business afloat and successful. We wish him well.

January 26, 2022

After the recent, terrible Typhoon Rai (Odette) in the Philipinnes, we were minded to support an entrepreneur again there. Clarita is married to Tomas who works as a pipe fitter. They have three sons all going to school: 4th-year college, grade 11, and grade 6. Clarita reports that thankfully her house was not damaged by the recent Typhoon that devastated so much of her area on 16 December 2021. Clarita has been operating a small roadside 'sundry store' business for about six years now. It is a tiny one-room 'shack' retail store that carries a wide variety of goods, including groceries. Her fast-selling items are bread, cold and hot drinks, hygienic products, rice, and vegetables. She sells around 1,500 pesos (£21.56) gross of goods a day, and we were impressed that she allows credit to workers who work in construction sites near where she operates her business in exchange for small weekly installments. We've given her £50 to help with maintaining stocks that she'll be able to sell to keep her kids in education and maintain a reasonable standard of living. We wish her and the people of Cebu well - we've spent months living in the area ourselves, and know well the warm-hearted and good-natured people that live there.

January 21, 2022

Diana Lizet is 31 years old and a single mother to two young children. She lives with her children in the Las Flores Human Settlement of Trujillo, Peru. Diana is described as 'an enterprising, strong, loving and kind' woman. For four years, she has dedicated herself to the retail sale of groceries such as rice, sugar, noodles, oil, cans of fish and eggs. She has a small store in her house, for which her business hours are from 07:00 AM to 07:00 PM, and her main clients are her neighbours. His approximate monthly gross income is S/8,960 soles (£1,702.83). We've helped her buy groceries for her business, such as bags of rice, bags of sugar, oil and eggs. When she sells them the profit will improve her household income, which is the only support that Diana has for her children. We wish her well.

January 19, 2022

Loness, 50, makes her living from selling vegetables and farm produce in Dedza district in Malawi. She has five children. We've given her £45 (and paid fees) to buy maize to better support her family this winter; she'll resell it on at a profit. We wish her and her family well.

January 12, 2022

Mrs. Khanh is 59 years old and married, with three grown-up children living in Cam Thuy district, a mountainous area of Thanh Hoa province in Vietnam. Agriculture is the main business activity in her region. Her husband is a manual labour in the village. She has been selling dried food, vegetables in the local market for over 10 years. Mrs. Khanh sells potatoes, shallot, garlic and other vegetables to local people in her area. Since the pandemic, the financial burden has set on her shoulders because her husband's work is unstable. We've given her £100 (and paid costs) to allow her to purchase shallots and garlic to resell on the market to support her and her husband.

January 11, 2022

Thanks to your support, that we've match-funded, we're able to donate £1000 to the Afghanistan Crisis Appeal organised by the Disasters and Emergencies appeal (link above). Children are dying in Afghanistan this winter from cold and starvation; thousands of desperate families caught up in the political turmoil that they played no part in. We're fortunate to be in a position to help in a small way to provide healthcare and winter 'warmth' kits, and thank you for your support- we've noticed many UTT bookings now coming in with £5 (rather than the £2) donation box ticked - it all helps. We're blessed to have a dry roof and a warm home, enough food in the larder this winter, and wish the same could be said for all.

December 15, 2021

Happy to give £50 to Save the Children - remarkably this sum can feed a family of refugees in Yemen for an entire month - a sobering thought given we regularly spend a similar amount on dining out, just one meal. We admire the work of this charity and wish them well.

December 09, 2021

Mr. Chen Yorng is a 31 year old married man with two sons aged 9 and 4 years old. The family live in Battambang Province and he works every day as a construction worker in Battambang town to provide income for the family. We know the town and area; our own son was born while we were living in Cambodia. Mr. Chen Yorng has been a construction worker for the last 10 years. He earns $8 per day from this work. He has no motorised transport, so, along with others we're helping him purchase a Imotorbike to help him travel to work, to improve his transportation flexibility and to hopefully get more work to support his family. We wish him well.

November 30, 2021

Zaldy is a 37 year old single man, living with his parents in Cebu province of the Philippines that we know well. Since 2017 he's been self-employed running a small stall/ shop selling cable television packages and accessories. He also offers services like lamination, photocopying, printing, computer repairs and ID printing from his open-fronted stall on a main road in a village. Daily wages in Cebu are around £6 per day. If you've been to the Philippines you'll know the kind of stall he has - just a few metres square, directly open onto the road, open seven days a week for at least 12 hours a day. We've given him £100 to improve his stock of eelectronic supplies, headsets and microphones from Cebu city. Having more stock will mean he can sell more products and better support himself. We've spent months in the rural Cebu/ Philippines and know how essential this small IT stalls are for keeping the communities connected and online. We wish Zaldy well.

November 24, 2021

Plant Mewn Angen - Children in Need Happy to have been able to help Children in Need with a donation today, as so many others are doing. We wish them well with their work with UK charities and community groups assisting children and young people in poverty, with disability and those experiencing trauma.

November 19, 2021

Muhammad Nazir is 39 years old, and married. He lives in Lahore with his wife and four children, all of whom are in education. Muhammed is a skilled cobbler/ shoemaker currently working in a workshop on daily wages. He earns around £91 monthly, which is not sufficient to meet his family's household needs. Along with his local partner Akhuwat we're assisting him to start up his own small shoe-making workshop and to buy soles, adhesive solution, buckles, and shoe uppers. We wish him well in his new enterprise and thank everyone who has helped support us with their donations when booking holidays Under the Thatch.

November 16, 2021

Today we've donated to help Polish charity Fundacje Ocalenie (that we know, and trust) with their work on the Polish border. You may have hear of the humanitarian disaster on the border between Poland and Belarus, with thousands of refugees and immigrants trapped in sub-zero temperatures. Kids are literally freezing to death, and most have few or no winter clothes. Most are apparently too scared to even light a fire to protect themselves as they are batted daily between Polish border guards (refusing them their right to EU asylum) and the Belarus authorities. It's a hideous situation, and nobody even knows how many bodies are out in the forests. The polish rescue charity that we're supporting provides all manner of assistance to refugees and immigrants in Poland, and is working in this emergency to try and save as many lives as possible.

November 12, 2021

Olga Lucia is 36 years old, single and lives in the Motilon sector of the Bolívar canton, Carchi province in Ecuador. Olga works in the cultivation of granadilla and onions on a hectare of family land. Her crops are sold in the markets for 12 dollars a box. We've helped her buy onion seed, farming inputs and wages to pay to harvest her onion crop. We wish her well, and thank those who have assisted us in making this donation.

November 11, 2021

Abdul Rahman (34) lives with his wife and two infant children in Lahore. He is the sole 'bread winner' in his household , his wife takes care of the household and their children. Abdul iss a rickshaw driver. He has been self-employed for the past 12 years or so. He drives a loader rickshaw, carrying goods and items from one place to another. He earns the equivalent of about £81 per month. He sometimes struggles to pay for the food. His rickshaw is in a poor state, and we've given £100 (plus covered admin) to help him purchase a new rickshaw, which will allow him to work more efficiently and carry more goods. We wish him well.

November 08, 2021

Hapus cefnogi prosiect Yr Urdd heddiw gyda £100 Dros y misoedd nesaf, mae’r Urdd, ynghyd ag asiantaethau eraill yn cefnogi teuluoedd o Affganistan sydd wedi ffoi o’r wlad. I helpu’r teuluoedd setlo, bydd yr Urdd yn cynnal amrywiaeth o weithgareddau ar eu cyfer, o chwaraeon i addysgol. I gyfoethogi’r profiadau hyn ac i’w cyflwyno i ddiwylliant a thirwedd Cymru. Happy to have been able to support charity Yr Urdd today with a donatin of £100 to support them in their project to inrich the lives of Afghan refugess who have recently moved to Wales with daytrips to understand the rich heritage and culture of our nation. Every £1 helps if you'd like to support this project - follow the link.

October 20, 2021

We've donated £1000 to Refugee Kindness, North Wales to help them continue the great work that they do. They're a Welsh charity based in the Wrexham area that supports displaced refugees and asylum seekers locally by providing household goods and support. With the distressing scenes this week in Afghanistan, we felt that this week was the right week to make a significant donation to recognise the plight of refugees and the good work that many do to support them. Take a look at their Facebook page to see how they're supporting refugees to help themselves - eg by providing training and sewing machines for individuals like Rokaya to start small seamstress/ sewing businesses. We've been really impressed by the suppor they give, and we encourage others to visit their page, make a donation/ buy a raffle ticket etc.

August 20, 2021

Evelyn is a 43 year old married with four children in Cebu, the Philippines that we know and have visited. Three of her children live with her and attend school. Her husband is Alexander, a policeman. The family all lives in Cebu province. Evelyn set up her own small cafe - 'Cafe Meal Ya'. We've given her £100 (and paid admin) to help her grow the business. 'Cafe Meal Ya' means family members eating together. Evelyn rents the space, hires one cook and two helpers and is open from 6 in the morning to 8 in the evening. She brings in around 5,000 pesos a day before costs (£71.43). Our assistance will allow her to buy fresh ingredients needed in her everyday cooking as well as a contribution towards the cafe renovation. We wish her and her family well.

August 15, 2021

Mrs Hoa is 26 years old and married. She lives with her husband and their two young children in Thieu Hoa district, a rural region of Thanh Hoa province. of Vietnam. Agriculture is the main business here. Her husband is Ky and they are both farmers, growing rice and vegetables for their own consumption and for selling in the market for profits. Mrs Hoa has also set up a small business selling clothes in the local market. We're assisting, along with others, through the Thanh Hoa MFI to help her buy more clothes to resell. She hopes the investment in her business will do well, and we wish her and her family well.

August 14, 2021

Maram Abdul Haq is married with two young children. She lives with her family in the town of Nablus in the West Bank where she runs a store selling women's clothes. She has had the business for more than a decade and runs it with her husband and mother-in-law. We're helping her buy in new stock from Turkey for the summer season, specifically lingerie, clothing for weddings, and pyjamas. We're happy to be able to support the people of Palestine to help themselves through such small business ventures.

June 24, 2021

Liliana Cujilema is from the small town of Pasaje in southwestern Ecuador. She is self-employed selling cosmetics, and her husband works as a full-time labourer at a local banana plantation. They have a son who is 7. Due to the ongoing health pandemic he currentky has only online classes. Liliana sells perfumes, deodorants, creams, shampoos, and makeup and makes around 365 USD a month in profit. She keeps the items at home and makes sales and deliveries to her customers each day. Liliana actually started the business around 11 years ago when she was just 18 and was studying part-time. We've given her £50 to help buy some more stock (ie bringing her around £50 of profit) to help support her family during this pandemic. We wish her and the family well - small-scale entrepreneurs like Liliana are the foundation of the world economy.

June 23, 2021

Mr. Hieng Heng is a 32 year old married man with two sons aged 10 and 2. The 10 year old attends school. The family lives in the Sangke District of Battambang Province where he farms short-term rice each year as the source of income to support the family. Mr Hieng Heng grows short term rice and with this variety he can get two harvests per year. All of his crops are then sold to a local middle-man who buys direct from his farm. He now wishes to take the next step and expand his farm to the next stage by purchasing an additional 5000 square metres of paddy field land, which should increase his crop by two tons of rice per hectare and thereby increase the family income. Along with others, we're helping him make that purchase, and we wish him and the family well.

June 19, 2021

Geovanny Abad is from a rural community called Entierros which is located in southeastern Ecuador. We've given him £100 (and paid administration) to help him with his coffee smallholding. Don Geovanny has doubled his land to two hectares, and we're helping him buy a coffee pulper and a water tank. We wish him well.

June 12, 2021

Mr. Kanha Chea is a 37 year old married man who lives in the Morng Russey District of Battambang Province of Cambodia that we know. He and his wife farm wet season rice each year as their source of income. Mr. Kanha Chea has been a farmer for over 10 years, farming wet-season rice each year on his four-hectare paddy field and getting a harvest of 3 tons of rice per hectare. In order to maintain the current crop levels we've given him £100 (and contributed to administration costs) to help with ploughing and harvesting costs. We wish me and his family well.

May 26, 2021

Ángel Benito Escobedo Rojas is 24 years old. Single, he lives with his parents in their home built of rustic adobe material, located in the Cajabamba district or Trujillo, Peru. With the help of his mother, Angel opened a small stall selling soft drinks (water, minerals, juices and yoghurt drinks). His business hours are from 07:00 am to 7:00 pm and his average sales is around S / 10,000.00 soles (£1891.35) with a profit margin of c25%. Life has been tough in Peru during the Covid pandemic, and we've given him £100 (and paid admin) to help him restock/ bulk buy to help keep his business running and to help carry him through to the post-Covid world. We wish him well.

May 17, 2021

Jhonny is 28 years old and he lives with his partner, Kelly in Tumbes, Peru.They have 2 children and live in a house inherited from Kelly’s parents. Jhonny is a professional photographer and has a studio set up in his house. He takes all kinds of photos in his studio, at home, in the field, on the beach or any other place that his client requests. Jhonny attends 2 events away from home on a daily basis and the rest of the work is done at home. His partner supports him in the business by applying make up on clients for a more professional quality of the photos. Jhonny has various outfits for women, men, children and babies which people use to get dressed up in. His average monthly income is S/6,140 soles (£1229) with a 70% profit margin. With the support of IDERCV and Lendwithcare, he has been able to get ahead and re-dedicate himself to his main business as he has been selling groceries during the pandemic to make money. We've given him £100 to decorate his photography studio. He wants to be able to fulfil his customer requests, increasing his income and in turn the popularity of his work. Jhonny wants to continue to add more services and with the profits generated to be able to cover the expenses of education and household services. We wish him well.

April 26, 2021

Marivic Quindao and Jimel live in the village of Cantuod, Balamban in Cebu province that we know and have visited. Living with them are her four siblings and one nephew. Marivic rented a space near the main road in the village of Buanoy where she sells various food items such as vegetables, spices, food seasonings, noodles, dried fishes and some grocery items. Marivic has been renting the space for 6,000 pesos (£89.06) a month. Her store is open around 5 in the morning until 9 or 10 in the evening. She mostly manage the business alone but in the afternoon after her siblings are done with their work, they helped in the store. Marivic purchase her stocks in the town's public market almost everyday in order to replenish her lacking products. Her daily average sales is 4,000 pesos (£59.37) but she earn more during weekends. We've helped her with working capital for her business, to restock her store with food items in order to help her family. We wish her and her family well.

February 26, 2021

Idaneth Subong is 44 years old and married with six children, five of whom live with her in the village of Abucayan, Balamban in Cebu province. We know and visit this area. She is married to Rolando, employed by a local firm. Idaneth runs a small general store business and she also has a shop/stall where she sells different kinds of health, beauty and hygiene products. Because of the economic impact of Covid 19, some of her customers are experiencing difficulty in repaying what they owe for their purchases. We've given her £100 (and paid fees) to help save and develop the business, and tide her over to more stable times. These small stalls/ shops are the life-blood of the rural Filipino community. We wish her and her family well - and thank the UTT guests that made this possible.

February 22, 2021

Mrs. Phandy Heak is a 47 year old farming widow with four children ranging in age from 27 to 10. The older two children now have their own jobs while the younger two still attend school. The family live in the Phnom Srok District of Banteaymeanchey Province where she farms both rice and cassava each year as a source of income for the family. We've visited this area. Mrs. Phandy Heak has been a farmer for over 20 years farming wet season rice on a plot of land 1.5 hectares in size from which she harvests 3 tons of rice for sale through a local merchant. In addition, she also has a separate plot of land, also 1.5 hectares in size, which is used for growing cassava and from which she gets a crop of 10 tons of cassava root. Along with others we're helping her buy and plant a further half hectare of cassava to help better support her family. We wish her well.

January 27, 2021

Llangranog has a special place in Under The Thatch’s heart and so we were happy to help fund the creation of a community orchard in the seaside village. The project will plant about 20 trees including Welsh Heritage fruit trees where possible and these will be mixed with cherry trees and hopefully some young grafted trees from local stock. We wish the community well in this fantastic project, although we can’t imagine anything more beautiful than the village already is.

January 11, 2021

Shahbaz Ali is a 23 years old resident of Bhasar Pura, Kasur in Pakistan. He has a family of five members that includes himself, his parents and two brothers. One bother is in education, another earns £45 a month and Shahbaz supports the family with his £75 a month. He sells 'ready to wear' women clothes on the roadside or in makeshift stalls, and also sells fabric. As it is time for the winter season he wants to have fabrics and clothes to sell for the cold season, and we've helped him restock. Covid-19 has caused hardship in communities like this, and we're happy to be able to support Shahbaz and his small business.

December 26, 2020

Mubeen Majeed is a resident of Jalal Park, Lahore. He lives with his parents and five siblings. Mubeen offers washing, dry cleaning and pressing services to the people of his locality. He has been running this business for 2 years and earns about £89 a month. Mubeen wants to buy a washing machine and spinner to expand his business further. We're helping him and his father purchase the new machines; Covid numbers were high in Pakistan and we're happy to be able to assist such small family businesses get back on their feet.

December 20, 2020

Rowell Ofqueria is 35 years old and lives with his partner called Reabie. They have a 7 year old child and the family lives in the village of Suba, Bantayan in Cebu province that we have visited. They live a simple life on a small island, using solar panels to light their home. Rowell fishes and farms seaweed to support his family, actively cultivating seaweed on a 45 day harvest cycle. Small seaweed plants are grown in bamboo blocks that he makes himself, and once harvested it is dried in the sun. The dried seaweed is then sold to traders. We've donated to allow him to grow and harvest further seaweed 'plants' to better support his family.

December 18, 2020

Cindy Nicole Chávez Cando is 19 years old and lives in Ibarra in Ecuador. For the past two years she has been selling fruit and vegetables at wholesale and retail markets. She would now like to grow vegetables for sale and we've helped her buy onion seeds, tomato plants and pepper plants to grow, and later harvest and sell direct at the markets. Cindy works with her aunts who buy agricultural supplies and sell them to local farmers to generate extra income. She will sell her own harvested crops to diversify her production to help her business. We wish her well.

December 01, 2020

Mr. Chet Choy is a 27 year old married man with two children; a daughter of 6 who attends school and a son aged 1. He lives with his wife and family in the Ek Phnom District of Battambang Province of Cambodia that we know and have visited. He has been a farmer for the last 5 years. Mr. Chet Choy and his wife are farmers growing wet-season rice on their one-hectare plot of land from which they get 3 tons of rice per year. In order to increase their income, after the rice has been harvested, they use the same land for growing watermelons and these also are sold to market through a local middle-man. In order to cut down on costs as well as optimising the farm we're assisting him to purchase a walking tractor so that he can plough the land on time as well as saving the current rental costs for hiring a walking tractor. We wish him and his family well, and thanks those who have donated when booking holidays Under the Thatch.

November 22, 2020

Eva Gamboa is 51 years old, married with eight children. Five of her children have graduated college while the remaining three still attend school. Her husband is Miguel who works as a seafarer. The family lives peacefully in the village of Luray I, Toledo city in Cebu province of the Philippines, that we've visited and know. Eva has been operating a small cafe in a rental unit near the main road in the village of Sangi, Toledo for the past two years. She decorated the cafe herself to make it more attractive and customers can dine-in comfortably inside the cafe. She serves breakfast to lunch and closes when all their dishes are sold-out. During the pandemic months her cafe was closed and she was only allowed to open her cafe in September. She employs one full time colleague who has been working for her since she started the business. Two of her sons are also helping in the cafe. Together their daily average sales is 5,000 pesos (£78.20). We're helping her pay the tuition of her three children; one child attend 2nd year college while the other two are senior high students. Her children in turn help in the cafe during their vacations. We're also helping her purchase cleaning materials like floor disinfectants and hand alcohol during this pandemic. We wish her and the family well.

November 21, 2020

Rubila Sarabeth Vasquez Castro is 55 years old and divorced with three adult sons. She lives in her own house in the district of Trujillo, province of Trujillo, department La Libertad, in the north of Peru. Rubila has a small general store that she has run for 15 years. She purchases everyday items in bulk in wholesale markets and rents a market space, open from 6am to 2pm. Her sales per month are around S/730 soles (£158) with a profit margin of 20%. She also has an additional income from renting out rooms in her house. We've helped her diversify her stock as some of her best-selling items (toys) are no longer selling well post-Covid 19. Now she's building stocks of rice, sugar, kitchen utensils, cleaning products, disinfection cleaning items, hand sanitizer etc. We wish her well.

November 01, 2020

Jacinta Romero Villanueva is a small-scale businesswoman in Huamachucho - Sanchez Carrion - La Libertad - Peru. Jacinta is 25 years old and married to Virgilio. Her husband works as a motorcycle taxi driver. They have a 1-year old son. Jacinta's lives with her family in her parents’ house. Her parents gave Jacinta some of the ground floor of their home to open a small store two years ago. She set up a general store/pharmacy, selling mostly to her neighbours. She works daily from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm with monthly gross sales of S/5000 soles (£1072.58) per month with a profit margin of c35%. We've given her funds to help improve the working capital of her small store. She will use the money to buy milk, oil, tuna fish, eggs, energy drinks, rice, sugar and noodles. The profit from her business will go towards contributing towards her family’s household economy and provide a better-quality life for her son. We wish her and her family well.

October 25, 2020

Today we donated to the Irish Blue Cross as we admire and value their good work. It's been a tough year for charities like the Blue Cross as they haven't been able to get out and fundraise in the usual ways - so happy to help them in a small way.

September 30, 2020

I'm sure many of you are aware of the dire situation in the Greek refugee camps as they head into winter, and in particular the awful fire that destroyed the makeshift homes of thousands on Lesvos this week. Thousands of families are living on roadsides, in fields, even graveyards and have lost all their possessions. We've found a small way to help - by sending personal hygiene items via a UK collection network (thanks to Yorkshire Aid who will collect our Amazon parcel). We're sending a few hundred nappies, and 'hotel size' shower gels, soaps and toothbrushes. You can help too - details at https://www.facebook.com/chooselove/ Although we often provide these 'hotel cosmetics' at cottages we've always had an uneasy relationship with their environmental impact - but here, in this use, they can be life-savers in maintaining good hygiene.

September 11, 2020