Win a Mini First help a child in Zambia.

Last year our raffle to win a Fiat 500 helped to raise over £800 for our work – with no outlay and a brilliant prize. This year our Car draw is back and you can win a Mini First – tickets in our drawer are just £2. For every £2 ticket sold £1.90 will go to our work to support children.

Mulenga is just 3 years old. She has never known freedom. She was born in prison. Mulenga is a victim of the circumstances. Her mother was caught stealing to feed her family – now locked up she looks after Mulenga who was born in prison. For just £10 All Star Kids helps children like Mulenga by providing her with food, clothes, toys and some basic education.

NOW CLOSED

SUPPORTED BY:

The FSI. Registered Charity Number: 1123384.

Licensed by the Gambling Commission www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

Licence numbers: 019816-R-302937-001 (remote) and 019816-N-302938-001 (non-remote)

Promoter: Pauline Broomhead, The FSI, Level 2, Ingestre Court, Ingestre Place, London, W1F 0JL

The FSI. Registered Charity Number: 1123384.Licensed by the Gambling Commission www.gamblingcommission.gov.ukLicence numbers: 019816-R-302937-001 (remote) and 019816-N-302938-001 (non-remote)Promoter: Pauline Broomhead, The FSI, Level 2, Ingestre Court, Ingestre Place, London, W1F 0JL

An example of the type of pump All Star Kids installed

Canzee Pump Project, Mumba Day Care Centre, Mpongwe, Copper Belt, Zambia.

During the trip to Zambia in November, Mark Frain had the opportunity to help the community in Mpongwe by providing them with clean water. This is his personal account:

It is not often that I say what a truly fantastic 100% successful project this has been and yet I can say it here. Every now and then you come across someone that gives you hope, makes you do a double take, lifts a giggle in your heart and makes you wonder at how the human mind can come up with solutions in such a simple efficient and sustainable manner. Mr Richard Cransdale did this to me nearly six years ago; I should not have been surprised as men working in their sheds are the back bone if not slightly eccentric heart of British ingenuity. I was introduced to Richard by my cousin James Francis Olivere who works for RTC North who are based in Sunderland Tyne and Wear and were at that time helping Richard on some technical web site stuff that is beyond me.

Richard has spent many years developing, refining and enhancing a water pump initially brought into existence by Mr Owen in New Zealand.

Please go to the links provided to get the full story and to see the great work that Richard has been doing.

Richard supplied two Canzee pumps to us and we shipped them out to Zambia so that during our visit at the end of October this year we could install them in a rural area of the Copper Belt called Mpongwe helping support a wonderful lady; Hilda Mulenga and the Mumba Day Care Centre which she has established in order to help women and children overcome the many difficulties they face. A lack of food, lack of income, lack of safe drinking water, lack of education, lack of health care and a lack of a positive future.

The local community dug two 8m deep wells to reach the water table before we arrived with the pumps. I then ran what to me seemed a very short training session with four of the centres members and either I am a very good teacher, my instructions from Richard were excellent or the guys I trained were just very good at understanding and interpreting Richards simple schematic drawings! I like to think it was down to my teaching but I rather suspect that it had little to do with my input.

The end result of my trip to the Copper Belt was the successful installation of two working pumps that will supply many families and a school of over 400 children with clean safe drinking water.

These pumps are designed in such a way that they can be repaired by the same people that installed them and Richard kindly supplied enough spare parts to last the pumps a great many years of service.

Now how can we stop at two pumps, we need to get funding for many more pumps and at an unbelievable £280 per pump shipped out and installed, including the concrete capping I am sure we can find support to develop our Canzee Pump project. If you are interested please go to our donations section and remember every penny counts and every penny makes a real positive difference to the people we are in partnership with.

During the trip to Zambia earlier this month, Danny and Chris spent some time meeting some amazing guys who have ended up fighting for survival on the streets of Lusaka.

Guided by a project worker from Fountain of Hope, who himself was a former child living on the streets, Danny and Chris went to see a group based behind Soweto Market. At 9:30pm on a dark hot evening, this probably was not the safest place for two British guys to go. Added to the fact that this is the place a large group of young guys high on glue call home. However as time went by the group of guys sat down and listened to what the team had to say. All Star Kids is working together with Fountain of Hope and our project workers Japhet and Charley, to provide opportunities for these young people. The conversation showed it is simply that, these young people have been

The best way to sleep at night to keep warm on the streets.

denied the opportunity of growing up in a safe loving environment living in a place only the toughest can survive. But as you speak to these young people and you hear them telling you they have “potential” and have plans for the future of being shop keepers, farmers, business managers you realise someone needs to give them a chance.

All Star Kids is starting to do this, but we need you to help them have a chance. Your donation of just £25 could help our project worker begin to give children like these an opportunity or education and skills training.

Many of the children that All Star Kids support miss out on opportunities… one of those is the opportunity to be a child and to play.

We believe that just because a child is on the streets, or has lost their parents, or ends up on the streets they still should have people who are concerned about all of their needs. So, when Lukwesa, Danny, Mark, Chris and Chandre visited Zambia in November they organised a trip for 30 children. There were a mix of children from Fountain of Hope and some boys who live on the street that our team Japhet and Charley are working with. The day was a trip to Adventure City – a fun water park in Lusaka and a BBQ. This is a place these children would otherwise have no access to.

Lukwesa bbq'ing lunch!

The children were so happy to have a chance to have fun and to be believed in. A simple day out with family and friends, good food and someone to listen to you. It costs just £10 to give a former street child an opportunity to play – please help make a different today.

The idea of the All Star Kids Mobile School is becoming a reality. The project is changing to fit the need of the children we are working with. This fits with our motto – See me, Listen to Me, Believe in me. We have seen the need for supporting children on and of the streets (and former children who were on the streets), we have listened to what they want us to do and as a result we are believing in them by changing our practice to fit their needs. As a result our project workers Charley and Japhet are now based out of Fountain of Hope Lusaka.

All Star workers Japhet and Charley in their new office

They are working with a small group of boys from the streets and developing a programme with them. This is initially working on building their trust and working closely with one of the workers from Fountain of hope.

Fountain of Hope is a drop and residential centre for children. Each day the centre works with over 400 boys and has 40 children who are resident. Over the years Fountain of Hope has built a fantastic reputation working with former children from the streets. However they need a lot of support to develop the facitlities of the centre. For example when Chris and Danny “tested” the toilets they were shocked at the complete disrepair they are in. Similarly when looking into the dormitories where the children sleep  they were dark, dirty and most of the windows were broken.

Dormatories at the start of the week.

Therefore the initial steps during the visit were to see how we could help the centre, this initially invovled in the team buying lots of paint, brushes and showing the young people how to repaint their own rooms! Take a look at the photos and see the difference this simple transformation made. Also the team purchased Mosquito nets for every child who is staying at the centre.

Dormatories at the end of the week

It may sound like simple cosmetic help, but over time we are planning to get more invovled in helping with many of the other infrastructure projects including helping the centre become self sustaining and more.

The mobile school is taking shape, the team now also have their own office based at Fountain of Hope they are working with children there, children on the streets and soon will be working with children born in prison.

Without your support though we cannot continue to do this, we need your support to help us fund our amazing workers who are making and every day improvement to the lives of some amazing young people. Please make a donation today.

THANK YOU!

On behalf of the many children of Zambia we helped during our trip, now and in the future… THANK YOU!

For those of you you who donated toys, clothes, toiletries, books and everything else…. THANK YOUwe shipped it all out – almost 3/4 ton and distributed it to children on your behalf. It has been great to partner with you to make this happen and help children. We were so fortunate to see the smiles, the tears and the joy which were for you… from the babies, the children, the mothers and the grand mothers.

We want to keep on working together with you to ensure we listen and believe in children who have no voice. The website is being updated each day this week with news and photos from the trip so why not take a look www.allstarkids.org.uk

The area is around 5 hectares located just on the outskirts of Lusaka in a rural community. (See map for a rough location of where it is). The community are keen for All Star Kids to develop some work locally. There are hundreds of families here support by just one borehole for water and one primary school. There is no electricity or running water and most people survive by subsistence farming. There is a lot of clear poverty. Families are struggling to survive and there are many issues with orphaned children.

As the team looked around it became clear that through a partnership with the community All Star Kids could develop some work to improve the lives of the local community and develop a sustainable project for children. Initially this could include advice and skills training to improve the local farming. For example the land is currently watered by drawing water from wells in buckets – this is a long and difficult task on a daily basis. We are trialling some canzee pumps in other regions of Zambia, it could be these cheap and efficient pumps could be introduced and made locally. Not only would this help the community with their farming it would also provide skills training for young people.

Lukwesa Burak and Mark Frain trying out the local borehole

During the visit it became clear how dependant the community were on the one borehole. As the team were trying themselves to see how much effort it takes to get water the borehole broke. This would mean that literally thousands of people would be struggling to get water until it was fixed.

The team came away realising there is so much potential for this to become a showcase project for All Star Kids and a fantastic opportunity for the community. The initial step is to purchase the land which will cost just £4000. Please consider becoming a partner with us and the local community and making a donation towards this work today. We have seen the needs of the community, we have listened to what they want, we now want to make the step of believing in them by making this a reality – please join us.

View Larger Map

Stay tuned!

All Star Kids trustee and volunteers took to the ropes on Sunday 20th September in an abseil challenge. The location was the Marquess of Anglesey in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – and as well as a long name the venue was also a massive 30meters high with spectacular views across Angelsey, Menai Straights, Snowdonia and North Wales. The Marquess of Anglesey’s Column is a very impressive venue for an abseil, perched high a rock which was a hillfort in ancient times, and now surrounded by bluebell woods.

The event was a sponsored fundraiser which will go towards our work with children in Zambia. If you are looking for an adrenaline rush why not join the intrepid team in their next adventure… more details coming soon!

It is sad to see the number of children born in the prison increasing. With your help we can ensure they are given a better chance in life as they grow up.