Sage Future Building 2009

Take a look at some photo’s of the school, kids and area.

Nepal Album

When we return we’ll add our personal pics.

For anyone who couldn’t make it along to watch the waxing today, here’s a video.

I think you’ll agree, it shows how brave and selfless we all were…

Either way, it deserves a donation!

On the 18th of July Rachael and I will be setting off to walk the Camino de Santiago- an 800km trek that runs from Southern France to North West Spain. We’re relying on sponsorship and donations to make the trip worthwhile, and we’ll hopefully raise a good amount (not to mention get sunburnt, blistered, and bitten by mosquitoes!).

The Camino de Santiago de Compostella, or the Way of St James in English, is a collection of centuries old pilgrimage routes which cover all of Europe. All these routes have the city of Santiago de Compostella in Northern Spain as their final destination, and have been walked for over 1000 years.

We will be walking the Camino Frances, which is the main route. It runs from the town of St Jean Pied de Port, high up in the Pyrenees mountains, and finishes 800km later in Santiago de Compostella. A typical day will consist of getting up at around dawn, walking 25-30 km before noon and then resting during the hottest part of the day. We’ll be staying in small hostels, called albergues- which are large, communal dorms.

We will be paying for the flights, food and accommodation out of our own pockets, so any sponsorship we get will be going directly to Childreach.

Take a look at the map below to see the route we’ll be taking:

View Larger Map

The bowling night on the 26th was a great success- deservedly won by Kev Dane, who walked away with a very nice bottle of bubbly and some theatre tickets. Tom Stirling came second, winning a meal for two at the world famous Rupali Indian restaurant, and Ross Elliot won a bottle of bubbly for third.

Thanks to everyone who came- here’s looking forward to the next one.

You can check out some highlights from the night in the video below…

This has been postponed however should take place w/c 22nd June!

I’m still not sure that this is the greatest of plans, but along with Adam Clark and Mark Duncan I’ll be getting my legs and chest waxed all in the name of fundraising. 

For any sadistic Sage employees who want to come and watch, this will be happening in the Loft Gym studio on the 28th of May, over lunchtime. Keep an eye on this blog or Let’s Talk for more details. Anyone else will be able to watch a video of the torture.. erm.. waxing after the event as soon as we get it uploaded.

And ALL of you are encouraged to donate whatever you can:

Adam’s Just Giving page

Jan’s Just Giving page

Even if you only donate two quid, it will still make it all worthwhile…

If you’ve already sent a donation to one of the team through Just Giving may have been asked whether you wanted to allow Just Giving to reclaim Gift aid on your behalf.

Well what is it?

Simply put, if you pay income tax in the UK and make a charitiable donation, the charity can reclaim the tax on your donation. This can work out at around 28% extra going to the charity- at no extra cost to yourself!

For example, Mr Bloggs makes a donation of £100 to Child Reach (how kind!):

Donation = £100

Refund from HMRC = £25

Supplement from HMRC = £3.21

Total to charity = £128.21

As you can see, it’s worth using Gift Aid since it can makes a huge difference. For more information on Gift Aid, check out the HMRC website.

Here’s a little bit of information on the charity Childreach, who we are working with on this project, taken from their website:

 Child poverty is inexcusable in our world today! Childreach International supports child poverty alleviation projects and also encourages people here in the UK and the rest of the developed world to take direct action by volunteering, campaigning and donating to the cause.

Childreach International is a Child-centred development charity, but what does that mean in practice? We have always strived to find new and innovative ways of tackling child poverty at the grass-roots level, with great success. As we move forward and build on the success of the past, we are working with communities to ensure that children play a central role in running the projects that benefit them.

So this is the first post of what will hopefully be many on this fundraising blog. We will be using this site to keep track of our fundraising events through pictures and videos. So we can raise enough to make a difference we’ll be shedding blood, sweat and tears. And that’s just the leg waxing… If you like (or dislike) what you see, leave us a comment, and forward this page on to anyone you know who will be interested in helping out.

Speaking of helping out, you can leave us a donation through Just Giving by visiting our donations page. Every little helps!

You can also keep up to date with our progress via our Facebook group or by following our Twitter (still learning how to use this one!)

I’d just like to to say a massive thankyou, from all of us, to Jeff from Infotech for donating the hosting and domain, and getting everything ready so quickly. Thanks to Andrew Jameson for helping with site design too!

Finally, to get us all in the mood, here’s the Nepali national anthem: