Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Some of you know that last October (with a lot of help from my colleagues at Reed Smith) I founded The 1973 Club, a network for women working in the private equity industry.

Whilst we were busy with the groundwork for the 1973 launch I met up with Lucy Buck, founder and CEO of Child's i Foundation (“CiF”), for one of her infamous "cups of tea". This came about after I attended a charity event and she made me cry (ahem) during her talk about CiF and its work.

The cup of tea was an opportunity for me understand how I could help (whether it be “time, love or money”, as Lucy calls it). I tried not to bore her too much with describing the day job and mentioned I was setting up 1973. It suddenly became obvious that a partnership between 1973 and CiF was an obvious fit – so through an alignment of the stars (and the power of tea) here we are…

CiF works with children in Uganda. It’s tagline is that it “makes families, not orphans”. The shocking thing is that many children in Ugandan orphanages are not orphans - rather, their families simply cannot afford to keep them and there is nothing in the way of a safety net (financial or infrastructure). Orphanages are also big business, so until Lucy and CiF came along there was little impetus to change the system.

Bit by bit, CiF is changing the system in Uganda, with the provision of social workers to support parents, training people to become foster carers and supporting people to become adoptive parents. They are also looking to repurpose orphanages (which can support, say 100 children) and turn them into community hubs supporting 10 times (or more) children and their families.

You can find out more here: https://www.childsifoundation.org/

We have an initial fundraising target of £30,000 and within 9 months are already over a quarter of the way there. I would love to help get to the halfway mark by the 1 year anniversary of 1973 in October, so will be spending a few good hours trekking further than a half marathon round London from Putney Bridge to Tower Bridge (16 bridges in total). I have a dodgy left ankle and a dodgy right Achilles tendon so I am hoping to hobble round in one piece! So have mercy and please be generous with your sponsorship. 

 The funds go a long way, 1973 in pounds and pence:

*£1973 would pay for a social worker to support 50 women for 3 months

*£197 would buy an emergency bundle for a woman at risk after birth, or struggling to keep her kids. Staples of food, clothes and baby equipment can help her through a crisis.

*£19.73 a month would mean follow up visits from a social worker and support to access services in the local community to provide on-going support.

*£1.97 might be spare change to us, but it will make a big impact. 10,000 UG shillings buys essentials like milk and bread.

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