The African Pulse

Our hard working and charismatic facilitator/ coordinator is working wonders in the Eden District alongside a very supportive district Department of Education Office.  The Eden District is populated by mostly rural and farm schools and the African Pulse is pleased to say that Feroza’s Story is being adopted incredibly well through the training and interventions led by Carmen in the region.  Almost 50 schools have now been trained and by report the children and teachers are enjoying and drawing great value from the programme.  Reports and photos to come!

The African Pulse has been invited to conduct training with 100 schools in the Vryheid district of the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.  UNICEF are supporting this intervention which will involve using our educational package of multi-media resources to empower educators to address HIV & AIDS effectively in the classroom.  We are extremely grateful to UNICEF for sharing in this vision and to the Department of Education in the Vryhied District who have embraced this opportunity.

The African Pulse resources have been accepted by Gauteng Online- the province’s Department of Education School Online programme- to reach 10,000 computers in schools across Gauteng.  Feroza’s Story is soon to form a part of the latest software upgrades to schools, creating access to important information through this innovative ‘edu-tainment’ approach to thousands of children.

The African Pulse was elected as Twickenham’s charity this year! Many activities pursued over this July and with the help of a team of volunteers £4,113 was raised!!

Despite the wind and heavy rain, our intrepid fundraisers manage to find enough people on Twickenham Green to sell 58 raffle tickets to! It was a dreadful Bank Holiday Monday in London but we made the most of it.

We have been nominated as the charity for Twickenham Festival and we started our efforts at the HANDS Charity Fair by helping Esther (Twickenham Town Centre Manager) and Bruce (Crusader Travel) distribute Festival programmes to anyone who came within range.

Thanks to Anne, Frances, Cliff, Kevin and Esme who braved the elements and gave away chocolate cake and sold raffle tickets (we have 10,000 of them to sell by 23 June when the draw takes place!).

Write in if you would like some.

Great news! Chris Bass, our very own Marathon Man, has raised a brilliant total of £5,072, including Gift Aid.

Thanks for all the pain, Chris, preparing and running for us - we’re sure the limp will go away soon!

Oyez, oyez! Get down to the May Fair on Monday 26th May on Twickenham Green, to support the African Pulse. The African Pulse has been nominated as THE charity for the Twickenham Festival Week in June, so we need all the help we can get. There will be lots of fabulously exciting things to do (sell and buy raffle tickets) and cool people to see (Peter, for one) so make sure you don’t miss out! Volunteers welcome.

After months of hard training, our runner for the Flora London Marathon, Chris Bass, successfully completed the 26 miles 365 yards in 3 hours 45 minutes - beating Ronan Keating and thousands of others in the process.

Two of our trustees, Chris and Peter, along with Chris’s family cheered him as he ran past the 13 mile and 22 mile markers - can you guess which is which from the photos?

We are very grateful for all the pain that Chris suffered as he raised an amazing £3,500 for The African Pulse. A week on…Chris is finally able to walk without looking like John Wayne!

A Soup Lunch hosted in Twickenham in February 2008 raised £1,350.  Thanks to all who attended and to Peter and Chris who held the day.

Rise Kagona, of legendary Zimbabwean band The Bhundu Boys, who supported Madonna at Wembley Stadium in 1987, headlined a charity event at Twickenham music venue Filthy’s at The Red Lion on 22nd June 2007.

South African beer and wine , plus an authentic braai barbeque added to the unique atmosphere.

One of the sponsors of the evening was One Water, whose founder Duncan Goose has been awarded the title Greatest Briton Campaigner 2007. One Water donated 2,000 bottles of their water to the event.

Supporting Rise was up and coming South African singer Josie Field who flew into London from Jo’burg for the event. Kicking off the evening was local band, ˜Marner Brown”, who make regular appearances at Filthy’s.

Filthy’s @ The Red Lion is at 166 Heath Road, Twickenham, TW1 4BN.