A BIG hello to our Mondo supporters and thank you for keeping up to speed with our work in India, Nepal and Tanzania!
Firstly, we would like to welcome our new CEO, Matthew Band and say a fond farewell to Anna Brian, who was at the Mondo helm and has now gone onto pastures new in the charity sector. We wish her every success and would like to thank her for the diligence, care and commitment she has shown throughout her time at Mondo.
Matthew has been in the charity sector for the past 20 years, after a successful business career, having co-founded the educational charity ‘One in a Million’ in Bradford, and has just returned to York from London after 10 years, as chief exec of 3 separate charities.
We would also like to welcome Juliet Osborne to our board of trustees. She brings a wealth of experience as a chartered accountant, charity worker and now as a teacher.
We are excited, heading into our 20th anniversary year, since we were established by our late founder, Anthony Lunch, and will celebrate this achievement and all the people and communities that have been impacted since 2004. We will continue to build on this ‘legacy’ and have plans for increasing fundraising and volunteers, as we head into our 20th Year… more to follow and please keep an eye out if you would like to be involved in Mondo’s celebrations in 2024!
Last but not least, and the reason why Mondo exists, is a brief update on our programmes in India, Nepal and Tanzania and the fantastic work carried out by the teams there, Jimmy in Nepal, Santa in India and Erneth & Glory in Tanzania, who continue to go above and beyond to help the people in their communities through creating quality education & enterprise opportunities:
As we approach the 20th Anniversary of the Mondo Foundation we would love you to share with us your memories and experiences of the past 20 years. We would like to use these to tell the story of Mondo from all the people that have been involved in helping this projects success over those 20 years. Click the link below and send Matthew an email sharing your memories and experiences. Thank you.
SHARE your Mondo memories from the past 20 years with us here!
Nepal
Jimmy circulated an information sheet calling for greenhouse applications, asking the concerned communities for nominations for suitable candidates. Following this, Jimmy had three rounds of meetings with the stakeholders in Talamarang, Bhotenamlang and Melachuar and received recommendations for 26 farmers.
A greenhouse designer was assigned to come up with suitable designs and to orient the farmers on how to do the construction, as well as ordering a number of items in preparation for the greenhouse construction e.g. silpauline, hosepipes, watering can, webbing rope to tie with bamboos, pesticide sprayer and water tanks (250 litre) and will soon finalize the 15 farmers to be selected and will make a cash grant towards purchasing bamboo and hiring labour for construction.
We wish them every success and look forward to seeing the greenhouses in action!
The Saathi Teacher programme is going strong, and one of our volunteers, Alice has just completed almost four weeks of teaching at Bhotenamlang. She also spent two weeks of volunteering at HELP and has thoroughly enjoyed her time in Nepal, saying that it is the highlight of her year!
Jimmy and his team have also just undergone a rigorous evaluation by the Nepal Social Welfare Council, the government’s premier body, looking at Mondo-HELP’s last 5 years’ projects
They looked into the Saathi programme, scholarships, school bags, school reconstruction as well as community building. It took them at least 10 days in the field for which HELP had to delegate a member of a team to go with them and Jimmy personally accompanied one of the team for a few days. It was very detailed and time-consuming, having interviewed all the major stakeholders including the Mayors and the Chairmans of municipalities, interactions with the school headmasters and SMC chairs and interviewed at least 30 past scholarship students. They are currently going through accounts, governance structure and will prepare a report in about 30 days.
India
An Early Intervention project for children with disabilities is being implemented by the BIKASH local NGO in Bankura, West Bengal with funding support from the Mondo Foundation.
In the project they have successfully implemented early childhood intervention services to children with disabilities in the age range of 0 – 6 years, mainly catering to children with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, multiple disability and hearing impairment, and have now extended this to a greater age group i.e. 0 –10 years of age, so that these children with severe disabilities get adequate time and learning opportunities to maximize their potential and become as independent as possible.
Our existing partner, Mondo Challenge Kalimpong (MCK) is working with 12 schools located in different villages of the Kalimpong and Darjeeling Districts focused on:
- Teacher training program
- Education visits (training refreshment program)
- Educational materials (computers and other TLM)
- PTA meetings
- Inter schools quiz competition
- Inter schools sports competition
- Environment awareness program
- Volunteer program
After a testing couple of years due to the COVID pandemic, they have just re-established an office base, and have an MCK board meeting planned, as well as a Head teachers meeting to discuss an annual plan and preparation for different educational activities.
Tanzania
Erneth and Glory from Mondo TZ have been busy delivering Vicoba training, to setup local Community Banks, so that past recipients of Mondo Business & Agriculture Grants can become self-sustaining and facilitate their own loans and allow local businesses to grow!
These have been very successful sessions, well received by the ladies and are proving fruitful in providing sustainable livelihoods for the local families and communities.
Additionally, new Business & Agriculture Grants are being distributed to support more women within the network, so that they start to produce a regular income. The support and training provided by Erneth, Glory and their team is comprehensive, intensive and prepares the ladies well for business start-up with ongoing support provided once the businesses are up and running.
DONATE here to help continue Mondo Foundation’s great work at all of these vital, local projects
LEARN MORE here about where your donations go and the life-changing work it helps Mondo fund
If you’ve got any questions or thoughts on our work, we’d love to hear from you!
Best wishes and stay well.
Matt, Hirsh and all the Mondo Team
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