We are relocating to Zimbabwe for 9 months from June 2010 to volunteer with Smile International. Smile have been working in Zimbabwe for approximately 7 years. They administer child and widow sponsorship and run a feeding programme every day for 1,800 children in 4 schools.

We are very excited to be able to join Smile to help people become self sufficient and help with their educational and social needs in a country with 90% unemployment and huge numbers of AIDS orphans. We can't wait to get stuck in and we will be working on two key areas:

a) Investigating ways of providing microfinance (very small loans) to help people start small businesses to support themselves and their family and enable them to move away from dependence on others.

b) Building projects of various sizes at the schools

Smile have some funds for these projects, but more money is needed. We are raising money for use specifically on the projects we will be involved in. We are fully funding all of our own costs and living expenses so all donations will go direct to the work of Smile.

 

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Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.