Village Education Project Kilimanjaro

We've been hard at work planning our latest Christmas windows over the last month or so.  Longer actually, but you know how these things go!  The window I'm most excited about is one featuring the Charity Box, our beautiful Christmas gift box with Charity Pot, Fairtrade Foot Lotion, Nutts, Karma and the Olive Branch in.  Basically, it's packed full of things to make you feel good and also feel-good items, if you see what I mean?  All products that are especially ethic, even by Lush standards!  

For this window, I've been contacting the groups we've supported over the last year or so,  asking them for updates on their projects and just finding out how they're doing.  The Village Education Project Kilimanjaro (VEPK) in particular made me smile with this lovely photo.  If I seem to be focusing quite heavily on the educational aspect of our charitable giving, fear not, I'll be talking about a variety of groups over the next few days / weeks.  

VEPK is a charity working in primary education in Tanzania funding building and renovation projects, sending volunteers to give teaching assistance, conducting in-service training for Tanzanian primary school teachers and head teachers as part of its long-term programme to improve the quality of education.  

Petauke Community Forests

Petauke Community Forests is situated in the Petauke District in the Eastern Province of Zambia.  It takes up all the areas of Chief Nyamphande, Chief Sandwe and Chief Mumbi.  It covers hundreds of square kilometers of once forested lands.  PCF have been planting trees in the area, working with Community Schools that are located in the area.  The main goal for its creation is to empower the people to take control of their environment as well as striving to help communities achieve sustainable lifestyles from agro forestry.  

As well as running reforestation programs, one of their big focuses is on equipping community schools with crucial supplies and blackboards.  There are 50 community schools in the district, servicing about 10,000 pupils between grade 1 and 4.  These schools are community funded and there is a real need for education at a village level, especially for girls.  26 blackboards had been put in 13 schools, but a big priority for PCF for 2008 was to supply blackboards to the remaining 37 schools.  Lush Charity Pot funds were used to fund the outstanding blackboards, of which 30 have been delivered to date, with the remaining 44 to be distributed over the next few months.  

The work of PCF is being driven by Garry Brooks, a retired businessman from Victoria, BC.  He is working with the Traditional Leaders and communities to do their part in meeting the challenges of everyday life as well as providing education on reforestation, global warming and climate change.  He's spent the last 5 years volunteering at village level as a community developer and has the following message for Lush customers and staff:

"I am overwhelmed!  We have a saying 'talk is cheap, it takes money to by whiskey!'  Those community schools will have blackboards.  The teachers, PTA's, students and Traditional Leaders are so grateful to Lush for your funding.  From the bottom of my heart, Thank You!"

A recap

Things have gotten off to a busy start in 2008, so I thought I'd start the year with a recap of the groups that have received Charity Pot funding to date. The idea is that I'll then go into more detail about each group as well as the projects supported.  

Thanks to every individual that bought a Charity Pot, we were able to raise a brilliant £145,216.05 by the 31st of December.   We've been able to support 33 groups so far, with more projects waiting in the wings.  Now, without further ado, here's the definitive list of Charity Pot recipients for 2007:

• Reprieve 
• Julia’s House 
• Seeds for Change 
• The Lotus Trust 
• Captive Animals Protection Society
• BirdLife International
• Village Education Centre
• South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth
• Bristol Friends of the Earth
• Jericho Community Boatyard
• Waste Watch
• Transport Solution for Lancaster and Morecambe
• Road Block
• Transport 2000 – now Campaign for Better Transport
• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
• Birmingham Friends of the Earth
• Plane Stupid
• Sumatran Orangutan Society
• Save the Valley
• Abana
• Road Sense
• Dinedor Hill Action
• Marine Conservation Society
• Derby HEART
• People for Animals
• Kipungani Schools Trust
• SLAP – Stop Luton Airport Plan
• Norwich and Norfolk Tranport Action Group
• No TRAG – No third runway action group
• Protect our Woodland
• Swindon Climate Action Network (SCAN)
• CALM
• Stop Harlow North

Let's start at the very beginning...

Doing 'Charitable Giving' in an organised / pubic way is quite a new thing for us here at Lush. Although we've supported various causes privately, it was only in the last couple of years that we introduced a more systematic approach to it.

Originally, we'd committed to donating between 1-2% of pre-tax profits per year, which came to approximately £200,000 for the 2006/2007 financial year. Now, £200,000 sounds like a substantial sum; and of course it is. But the more we thought about it, the more it became apparent that really, it wasn't enough. We wanted to be able to do more, GIVE more. And what better way to do this, that by doing what we do best? Create a beautiful, handmade product, give our customers the chance to buy it and then donate all the proceeds, bar the VAT (which must go to the government), to a selection of worthy causes. Which is how the Charity Pot came about.

We decided to use the money generated through the Charity Pot to fund projects with small, grassroots charities, non-violent direct action groups and other worthy causes where relatively small donations make a huge difference. In the months until the start of November, we have raised more than £100,000, which has been used to support 37 groups to date.

I hope to use this blog to keep our customers and supporters up to date with the Charity Pot initiative, as well as providing an insite into how we research and select groups. I'll be posting details on all the projects we've supported to date, as well as giving updates on the projects you as customers have helped to fund.

If you would like to recommend a charity for Charity Pot funding, or have questions regarding our charitable giving, send me an email at charitypot@lush.co.uk .

Night for now

Gabbi