The ACE Project is running an art auction to raise money for the Za Foundation. Local artists will make work in response to artworks created by some of the children the foundation helps. These will be exhibited side by side and then sold.

Za Foundation is a local charity based in Portishead near Bristol, but works exclusively in the Nkomazi region of South Africa, with a long established partner charity called Thembalethu. Za Foundation works to support, educate and inspire young people in Nkomazi, in order to provide a path out of poverty. One of our projects is our After School Club where we support 300 orphans and vulnerable children every day with a vital nutritious meal, educational support especially in Maths and English, counselling for grief and trauma from a qualified Social Worker, crucial life skills including dramas on HIV, hygiene, bullying, sewing, cooking, gardening and a safe place to just be a child.

“This is the second year we have worked with UWE students as part of the ACE project and it has been so inspiring for the children in our After School Clubs to take part. Not only do they get to use a talent or discover one they didn’t know they had, but we also ensure they see pictures of the UK exhibition. It is exciting for them to see what responses the students have done to their artwork but also that their own art has been seen by hundreds of people in the UK.

All of us that work at Za Foundation do so as volunteers, so all the money raised from this exhibition goes directly where it is most needed, which is to these vulnerable children in South Africa. We could not provide all the much needed support for these children without the support of people like the UWE art students, and we thank them all. It really does make such a difference to the lives of our children.” - Kate Birnie, Za Foundation Director.