Story
Thank you for visiting our wedding donation page! James and I are very lucky to have already lived together for a couple of years and so didn't want to go down the traditional wedding gift list route. We are very excited to be able to support such a wonderful cause with our marriage instead!
A little on the background of why we have chosen Friends of Alalay:
Friends of Alalay is a UK based charity which was set up by our family friend Annie Syrett-Jones.
Annie is a family friend who used to walk me to school from the age of 4, and so we have followed her progress with Friends of Alalay closely, and it is truely a deserving cause.
Friends of Alalay supports a Bolivian charity, Alalay, which aims to get Bolivian street kids off the streets and provide them with the life skills to live independently. They do this in 4 stages:
1. Street workers talk and play with them on the streets, building up trust and a relationship with the children and encouraging them to come to Alalay.
2. The children can choose to enter a “welcome house” in the city, where they will learn life skills such as washing, wearing shoes, looking after belongings (they may never have owned anything before) and so on. Depending on each child, they may stay here for just a few weeks or in some cases many months, and may also attend a local school.
3. When ready, they move to the aldea (a centre about 40 minute’s bus journey outside town) where they will go to school, continue developing useful skills and begin to lead a more “normal” family life.
4. Aged roughly 15, they return to the welcome houses to continue schooling and start vocational training – previous courses have included: car mechanics, computer programming, nursing, beauty, business and management, woodworking and textile work. They are encouraged to seek jobs or go on to further education such as university.
Please see their website for any further information here:
Friends of Alalay is unusual amongst charities in that ALL of the money raised goes directly to help the children – nothing is spent on administration.
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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.