Dear friend of the Mandala Trust,
We hope this finds you well and you are finding ways to resource yourself in these often turbulent and uncertain times. As many studies have found, when we are generous and kind, and when we remind ourselves of our interconnection with others, it helps to sustain our own wellbeing, as well as helping to create the kind of world that each of us would like to live in. So, we hope you can take time to fully appreciate how your support for the Mandala Trust is transforming the lives of many children and young people around the world. On their behalf, we thank you!
The Covid pandemic continues to have a major impact on many of the communities and organisations that the Mandala Trust has supported over the years. Sadly, some projects have not yet been able to get going, or have had to be revised or reduced in scope – but we are humbled by the determination of our partners to find ways to overcome challenges and give hope to the young people they serve.
So, we’d like to say a big thank you to our supporters, volunteers and donors for making it possible for us to continue our work of supporting children and young people in vulnerable situations around the world, and to update you on our activities.
Annual Appeal 2021
The Yucatan Kindness School
This year’s annual appeal is raising funds to help our local partner Operation Kindness Mexico to build the Yucatan Kindness School – a youth education and permaculture project based in the Mayan community of Tekax.
Built using local ecologically sound materials and traditional Mayan techniques, the Kindness School and permaculture project will act as a centre for the children (and their parents) from the communities of Tekax and Oxkutzcab to learn permaculture practices which can then be used on their own land (these communities have plenty of land, but currently lack the knowledge and equipment to cultivate it). The centre will also continue to offer the kind of projects OK Mexico has already been providing for a number of years, including early childhood development, mindfulness sessions, kids’ yoga classes and breakfast clubs. In total, five communities will be involved and they will share the harvests/produce.
We therefore invite you to join us in supporting this wonderful grassroots community project. You could make a donation yourself, or maybe you might consider organising your own sponsored event with your family, friends, workplace, faith or community group?
You can find out more, make a donation, or create your own personalised fundraising page for a sponsored event, by visiting our JustGiving page HERE
- The Mandala Trust is delighted to have continued working with the volunteer organisation Helping Refugees in Jordan in its excellent projects to provide high quality, compassionate education for traumatised Syrian and Iraqi refugee children throughout this difficult period. After months of lockdown, the Hope Centre was able to run summer schools this year, preparing children for when schools reopened in late August. It was also able to provide fresh, healthy food for pupils, as typically 90% arrive at school without having had any breakfast. For regular posts on HRJ’s work, visit their Facebook page.
- This year we piloted a mentoring scheme, bringing together a member of our International Advisory Group with a new project partner in the same country. We hope that this kind of support from a mentor who understands the specific cultural and geographical conditions and challenges will be highly valuable for new projects in their early development, and encourage/perpetuate a support network between grassroots projects.
- One project that continues to be stalled by the pandemic is the installation of solar power for a primary school in an Indonesian island community, as part of a mission to make online learning accessible to the pupils in a sustainable way. As soon as it is safe for the islands to receive visitors, this will go ahead.
- Change4Change, an inspiring new youth project in Mfuleni township, Cape Town, South Africa, ran into difficulties. Funds from the Mandala Trust were used to acquire and equip some simple premises which would provide a safe and supportive space for the young people in their community who face many challenges including poverty, lack of opportunity and violence. However, unanticipated local opposition resulted in the materials being impounded by the police, and the project also suffered from a lack of managerial and accounting experience. The Mandala Trust has reviewed what went wrong, and has been working with the project’s initiator to see how it might support him in realising his vision, in particular by enabling him to develop the skills needed for managing a community project successfully.
We have continued to develop the role of our International Advisory Group (IAG), consisting of representatives of some of the organisations which have previously partnered with, or received support from, the Mandala Trust. You can meet the IAG group members here.
This year, the IAG worked with the Trustees to revise our Funding Application Form, to make it easier for potential project partners to provide the information we need when considering their application. We also used what we have learned from projects that have run into difficulties to get a clearer understanding of the possible problems that new grassroots projects might encounter.
Transforming young lives
After much deliberation and in discussion with the International Advisory Group, we have decided to give the Mandala Trust a new `strapline’, changing it from `Simple acts of kindness’ to `Transforming young lives’. This, we feel, gives a clearer sense of our vision, focus and intentions. We hope you agree!
Get Involved!
As a small charity run entirely by volunteers, our priority has always been to use our resources to enable and support grassroots projects that would struggle to obtain mainstream funding. As a result, we don’t use any of our resources for marketing, and this means that we rely entirely on our network of friends and supporters to keep this work alive. With this in mind we would welcome your continued support in 2021/22, and there are a number of ways in which you might help:
- Spread the word! Please let your friends, families and networks know about the Mandala Trust.
- Consider organising a fundraiser in your local community, school or workplace. It’s a fun way to support the Mandala Trust and build awareness of our work. If you like the idea but don’t know where to start, please contact us and we will be happy to offer advice and support.
- If you have skills that you think might help us in our work why not consider becoming a volunteer? As an entirely volunteer-run organisation we welcome all the help we can get, so please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.
- And of course you can support our work financially. Every donation, of whatever size, helps to support the simple acts of kindness that our world so desperately needs right now, and particularly the children and young people growing up in these difficult times. You can do this very easily, by either making a one-off donation, or setting up a regular standing order, online via the donate page on our website.
With love and best wishes,
Di, Brigid, Kathryn, Pam, Isla and Matt
The Mandala Trust Trustees