Team Talk - July Edition
Welcome
“Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” – Nelson Mandela
A very warm welcome extended to everyone as you open this edition of Team Talk. This month we’re all about celebrating milestones and planning for more along the road! Have look in the volunteer opportunities section to find out about our Ramadan, read all about our Climate Change Village in Pakistan in the programmes section, find out about Ambreen’s favourite Penny Appeal experience in the volunteer story section and much more.
Fundraising Tips
“Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!” - Benjamin Franklin
When fundraising over a restricted time period, the odds of you achieving what you set out to do will significantly increase if you spend a few moments planning at the start.
Many of us get caught up in the excitement of fundraising, and dive in head first with a bucket asking anyone and everyone they can for their change. Before you know it, and you’ve hit everyone you can think of and have no clue what to do next.
But there is a better way. Spend a little time at the start, write a list of everyone you know and split them up into “Donors” (People that will donate to your cause), “Helpers” (People that will give up their time and help you in other ways) or “Both”.
Also, write out a list of activities that you’re planning on doing and note down every single task that needs to be done to complete this. Once you’ve done that; get going! Now, you’ll have a list of everything you need to and the people you can contact who will help you achieve your goals easily and efficiently.
Events
A special thanks to all thTeam Orange volunteers who supported our various Eid celebration events across the UK such as Eid in the Square, held at Trafalgar Square in London.
The relatively quiet period after Eid events has come and gone, and there is no mistaking it aPenny Appeal welomed over one thousand supporters at Thorpe Park on the 29th June to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. We are truly grateful to all our guest's support, which has allowed us to continue our Penny Appeal At Home tradition of giving back to our community, by enabling a group of children from Contact A Family to join in on this celebration.
July brings way fo‘The Muslim Nasheedical’, Eid with the Neighbours, in six cities around the UK kicking off in Cardiff on the 5th July. Last year’s shows were sold out and this year it will be even bigger and better. The shows will be a blend of theatrical performances as well as nasheeds throughout, by some of the most talented and energetic performers in musical theatre. With such an interesting storyline, be sure to speak with your local FRs to be involved with this one. London, Birmingham and Bradford will be hosting two showings… Are you ready for the challenge of two events in one day? Let’s do this…
Programmes
Climate-Smart Village – Pakistan
The district of Vehari located in Punjab, Pakistan has a population of over 2.8 million, more than 30% of whom live below the poverty line. The district is agriculture-dependent, meaning that a majority of the population earn their livelihood through agriculture. However, the district is subject to extremes of weather, including high temperatures and heavy rainfall. Smallholder farmers tend to have limited resources and capacity to cope with shocks, and any setbacks in their agricultural production can lead to food insecurity, lack of nutrition and reduced income. There is therefore an urgent need in the district to learn adaptable methods of farming to ensure greater resilience and reduced vulnerability to climate change.
Penny Appeal has leased six acres of land in the district and selected women from three villages to take part in our Woman Open Schools. There are six schools currently running across the three villages, with a total of 102 women participating. The primary aim of the Woman Open Schools is to teach the women the techniques of farming on a small piece of land and how to get the most out of their crops. The women will learn the various developmental stages of their crops through our year long initiative, gaining hands-on experience as they learn through doing. They will be trained right from the beginning of the process, covering topics such as land preparation, seed germination, signs of disease and pests and what to do if this occurs.
As the focus is on cash crops, there will be a quick turn around and the women will be able to harvest their produce regularly. They will therefore be able to fulfil their families’ nutritional needs in a sustainable way, whilst selling the surplus vegetables at the local market, after taking part in our business training. This means that they will have a dependable income, as well as enough food to maintain the nutritional needs of their families. By learning through doing, the women will be able to share their knowledge and experience with others. As the land is in the centre of the villages, other farmers will indirectly benefit as they will be able to observe the new techniques and learn from the experiences of the women.
Housekeeping
We regularly rely on the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and we love everything you do!
We’re constantly looking for more ways to give you an awesome experience and have some amazing opportunities coming up. But to receive the full benefits of volunteering with us, we need you to complete the volunteer registration process. Please make sure you complete the online application at https://pennyappeal.org/volunteers/register and we’ll send you a link to the induction presentation and online test, once you’ve passed, you’re pretty much in! So please get on this ASAP to ensure you’re first to hear about anything and everything we have coming up.
Complete the online application
Volunteer Story
Ambreen Chunara, Service delivery manager for a technical services company
"I joined PA in 2017, I got involved with PA to do something good with my time, to help others less fortunate than myself and to create a legacy in the name of my amazing mum who passed away in 2016. My favourite memory here is reaching the summit of mount Snowdon. After a gruelling 4 hour climb, the sense of achievement was amazing Alhamdulillah and the encouragement from team orange was fantastic!"
Volunteer Opportunities
Your local fundraisers just want to say a massive thank you for all your hard work this Ramadhan. We want to celebrate you! So we’ve decided to put together some local thank you meals just for our volunteers, where you’ll get some awesome food, a certificate in recognition of all your hard work, we’ll give you exclusive insight into our upcoming plans and we’ve got some big things coming just for volunteers. This is something you don’t want to miss! So keep an eye out in your whatsapp chats, we’ll be dropping dates soon.
FIND OUT MORE
We’ve also got a bunch of opportunities in your region, ranging from activities with your local fundraiser, penny appeal at home, our shops, challenges and even our partnerships departments!
You can register to take part in all of our upcoming activities, including our large scale events, networking and sales from our partnerships department, food distributions, why not register some of your time to help us out in our PA shops? Whatever your interest, we’ve got something for you.
Register your interest here and we’ll be in touch soon.
TUESDAY 9 JUL 2019
