Eid appeal 2013

As many of you already know, the vast majority of  people living in Algeria are Muslim and one of the most significant celebrations in the Islamic calendar is Eid ul Fitr, the event which marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.

Eid is a time of great joy and celebration, it is a time when friends and family gather together, people eat delicious sweets and cakes and traditionally everyone wears new clothes-particularly the children.  It is an expensive time for everyone not least the poorer families.

For the past three years, at this time we have given sweets, toys and new clothes to hundreds of children living in Algiers. Last year we gave to just over 700 and this year, with your help we hope to give to even more.

As with previous years we will be distributing the gifts to children living within the community, to those sick in hospital and this time to children whose home is a women’s refuge.

So, how to help?

We need donations of sweets, small toys, balloons or anything else that children love!

You can give your donations in a number of ways:  If you live in London you might like to drop them off, further afield you will need to post them and if you live in Algiers you can phone to arrange a collection/ drop off – all of the contact details can be found here.   Or if you prefer, you can make an online monetary donation through the website or send a cheque.  No donation is too small and every item makes a difference.

*Eid will fall around mid August so donations made in the UK must be received by 1st July at the latest to ensure that they will arrive in time.

Spread a little happiness and make a child smile this Eid ul fitr!

It’s been a while…

It seems such a long time since I posted here, well actually it IS a long time since I posted here!

Lots has been happening to me personally, my family and I are planning a big move in the summer so really, every spare moment has been spent preparing for that. Along with a million other things that just seem to keep coming along……

`Anyway, despite my lack of reporting here, our lovely supporters have been as generous as ever- so many fabulous things have been arriving and the volunteers in Algiers have been working hard at distributing to those in need.

You may remember earlier in the year that we were fundraising for a wheelchair and thanks to your generosity two girls actually got chairs- here is one of them below with her new wheels. The girls and their families were over joyed!

Plans are moving steadily forward for getting the library up and running- the books are being shipped and other equipment is being bought- Exciting times! If you live in Algiers and would like to help with this project please do get in touch.

Details of our Ramadan / Eid gift appeal are just being finalised and once known I’ll let you all know.

Thank you so much for all your help and support.

Have a great weekend!

Emma x

Introductions

You may remember a while back I asked if anyone would like to help us by being a regional co-ordinator in their local area, well I’m very pleased to say that a lovely lady, who has been a long-time supporter of Algerian Action put herself forward to be a co-ordinator for Northamptonshire. So a very warm welcome to Carol- I know you will do an amazing job!

Regional co-ordinators will help us carry out our work more effectively and spread the word about Algerian Action and all that we do. If you would like to volunteer in this way and help where you live please get in touch ( info@algerianaction.co.uk ) and request an application form- we would love to hear from you.

If you live in Northamptonshire and would like to get in touch with Carol the email address is northants@algerianaction.co.uk

I am also very excited to introduce a corporate sponsor of our new travelling library project. ‘My Little Big Town’, a children’s book publisher that produce innovative and fun books for a variety of age groups have generously agreed to come on board and support our work. To find out more about the company please visit their website

Giveaway! ****closed************

As the regulars will know, this month is ‘bake for books’  month: where we are encouraging all and everyone to hold a coffee morning, tea party or any other event that involves cake to help us raise funds for our new library project………….. we are really hoping to buy some book trolleys!

     Anyway, as promised and to add to the fun we will be holding a few giveaways throughout the rest of March.

First up is a fabulous cookbook written by Edd Kimber (of Great British bake-off fame) The book, ‘Say it with cake’ is filled with over 80 show stopping recipes that are sure to delight even the most discerning tastebuds!

Featuring recipes from around the world, he includes, crowd pleasing cakes, biscuits, cupcakes,cheesecakes,meringues, pies, truffles, tarts and buns. The Author also shares several tips on decorating,assembly and presentation to help you make the most of your baking. The book is hard back,  has 192 pages and the most mouthwatering pictures.

To get your hands on our donated copy all you need to do is leave a comment in the box below telling us what your all time favourite cake is.

The giveaway is open to everyone worldwide and closes at 12.30pm (gmt) on Saturday 16th March. The recipient will be chosen randomly by an on-line generator.

So what are you waiting for?!

*UPDATE* …………………………………………….And the book goes to Mariel!!

I can’t seem to get the screen shot of the online generator here but, if anyone would like me to email it to them please let me know.

A fantastic month!

I know we are almost half way through March but, I have been away for the last ten days and didn’t get a chance to round up the month before I went away.  So, here we are a very brief recap on what happened in Feb:

Well, the most fantastic news of all was that we reached our target of 1,000 books! We are now almost in the position of being able to start the library- we still need to get the book trolleys but we are well on target for ‘opening’ in the Summer.

Continuing the book theme, we also participated in international book giving day on February 14th.

Lots and lots of fabulous items were also donated including toys, toiletries, blankets and clothing and craft materials, below is just a small selection of things given by our supporters in February.

As always, huge enormous thanks for all of your help and support. Have a marvellous March everyone!

We did it!

 

I am so pleased to let you all know that we have now exceeded the target for our book collection. In just two months we have managed to accumulate a massive 1,023 books all of which are of excellent quality and fabulous condition.

Huge, huge thanks to all of you that have contributed!

It’s amazing to think that we are almost ‘there’: we have the books and now just need to buy some book trolleys before we can get started. To aid our fundraising efforts we are holding a ‘bake for books’ event throughout March and are requesting that as many people as possible hold a coffee morning, cake sale, afternoon tea …….basically anything cake related. We will also be holding a number of give-aways so do look out for some fab cookery books that will be up for grabs during March.

 

Today is International Book Giving Day 2013!

 

This year we are participating in International book giving day by distributing books to children staying at the El Ketter Hospital in Algiers.

The day is all about getting books into as many hands as possible, a family member, stranger, local group, friend or charitable organisation it can be whoever you wish.

Along with distributing books to sick children we are also collecting them for our travelling library project: we are just 77 away from our target of 1,000! So if you are looking for someone to gift a book to then, look no further- we would love to have it! Our Amazon wish list can be found here or you can send new or gently used books to the usual address.

 

We also need to buy some shelving for the library so, to help with our fundraising efforts we are selling some original ‘one of a kind’ bookmarks that have been made from vintage books. There are only 100 available, they are priced at 50p each with an additional 50p (for however many bought) for uk postage and £1 (for however many you buy) for the rest of the world.  There are two styles to choose from but obviously the  image / wording on each will be different. You can buy by sending a cheque/postal order made payable to Algerian Action or via paypal using the email algerianaction@london.com Please remember to include details of how many you want and if you would like style 1 or 2.

Style #1

Style #2

 

So really all that’s left to say is: Have a great day!

Fab. Feb.

So far February has been a fantastic month for donations!

Lots of books have been donated and we are now less than 100 away from our target, which is a brilliant achievement in such a short space of time…

Some absolutely fantastic toys were also donated which will be perfect for the women’s refuge playroom.

There were also some rather lovely baby clothes too including some super baby packs aready made up………

So far February seems too have been a very busy month with lots of planning going on, which is fun! -I hope you’re all enjoying whatever it is you’re up to!

Emma x

P.S. It’s international book giving day tomorrow so check back then and see what were doing to spread a love of books!

Just a week to go!

As  mentioned before,  Algerian Action will be participating in this year’s International Book Giving Day. For full details of the event take a look at their website where they have loads of info and a few snazzy book plates which are free to download.

We  will be joining in and spreading our love of books by distributing Book packs to children in El Katter Hospital (Algiers). Each pack includes a reading book, a colouring book, stickers and crayons.

To raise funds for our Travelling Library project we will also, FOR ONE DAY ONLY, be selling some unique, one of a kind bookmarks made from vintage books.

Lastly, we will be encouraging our supporters to donate books to our Travelling library. At the start of the year we had a target of 1000 books and after just a few short weeks we have almost reached it. We have just 124 more to collect- wouldn’t it be great if we could do that on International Book giving day. All books that are new or gently used are very welcome, we even have an Amazon wish list to make things easy!

Thank you so much for your support-hope to see you here in a weeks time!

January round up

January was a been a super busy month!

Our book appeal has really taken off and in just one month we have managed to collect almost 700 books of superb quality. We have a target of 1,000 which we need to reach before the summer when the library is due to open so, there is still a little way to go .

Below are just some of the books received in the last week or so.

Fab clothing has also been donated this month, including some lovely things for our baby pack project. The warmer weather will soon be here in Algeria so we are now starting to collect t.shirts, shorts ect so that it can all be shipped over in good time.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this year we will be assisting a women’s refuge. So far we have already given some toiletries, underwear and other essentials. The refuge  has a number of children there and a small play area has been created. We plan to develop this further and supply the organisation with a number of things for the children that live  there. These donated toys will help us make  a start.

  We have recently started working with a school in Baraki, Algiers and it is through them that we heard about the disabled teenager that had stopped going to school because her father was unable to continue carrying her in. Thanks to your generosity in just a few days we were able to raise enough to buy her a wheelchair.

During the fundraising campaign we were contacted by someone who wished to pay the whole amount, at that time the total had almost be raised so, it was suggested that this person could instead pay for a wheelchair for another, younger disabled  girl who attended the school. The supporter happily agreed, so January also saw two disabled girls become more mobile (pictures to follow). It seems that there are several children in need of this type of assistance and we are now looking into the best way we can try and help.

As always huge thanks for your tremendous support!

Have a fantastic February!

Emma x