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Welcome
to our Newsletter.
We hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. These
unprecedented times of the pandemic present a whole new scale of
challenges across society. It has been a peaceful, restful time
for some, a time to pause and reflect. For many, however, it has been a
time of immense hardship, struggle and deprivation.
OUR IMPACT
It is advisable to sometimes analyse and evaluate a journey, looking
back to see how far one has come, what lessons were learnt along the
way and what the path ahead entails.
As such we took the opportunity to look back, through the Causes we
have supported to date, at our accomplishments in stark black and white
metrics, a few of which we share with you here:
c.44,000
NO OF ADULTS/CHILDREN
SUPPORTED THROUGH FOOD POVERTY & TOWARDS GOOD HEALTH IN THE UK
c.4,000
NO OF HOMELESS SUPPORTED
THROUGH FOOD POVERTY & TOWARDS GOOD HEALTH IN THE UK
Over 700
NO OF ELDERLY SUPPORTED
THROUGH FOOD POVERTY & TOWARDS GOOD HEALTH IN THE UK
24
NO OF NEW HOUSES BUILT IN
SIERRA LEONE
95
NO OF PEOPLE HOMED IN THESE
NEWLY BUILT HOUSES
16
NO OF VILLAGES LIT IN INDIA
206
NO OF HOUSEHOLDS LIT IN
INDIA
10
NO OF NEW CLASSROOMS BUILT IN
AFRICA
889
NO OF CHILDREN SUPPORTED
TOWARDS EDUCATION IN AFRICA
41
NO OF CLEAN WATER TANKS/WELLS
BUILT OR REPAIRED IN SRI LANKA & AFRICA
We are proud of the difference we have made. These are not simply
statistics. Behind them is the experience of real people, of
children, elderly, mothers and fathers.
Within these numbers is Arulmathy, a widow and below knee amputee, with
3 children. She had no choice but to persevere as a daily wage worker
under harsh conditions to feed her children. A well built for
them enables them to have clean drinking water and ability to cultivate
her small piece of land, giving her family food and basic income.
There's Frank, 89, in Harrow, a sprightly pensioner with a twinkle in
his eye. He gets enough to eat during this frightening COVID-19
crisis and helps out his deprived neighbours through our support.
Govind's village in Maharashtra now has electricity. There is no fear
of snakes and scorpion bites while walking at night. His mother does
not have the persistent hacking cough from inhaling noxious smoke while
cooking.
For the Turay family in Sierra Leone, life will never be the
same. They moved out of a slum into a proper home. Each day
they are grateful for running water, for toilets, for the chance to
live with dignity. The first baby born in the village instead of the
slums heralded a new dawn for another family. The baby named
Destiny after the village has a positive future with more opportunities
to thrive.
And the slum children Imran,7 and Arti, 5 would have normally spent
their days playing and working in a rubbish pile, helping their mothers
as rag pickers. They would search for bits of plastic, used tampon
applicators, scrap pieces of metal. Now their days are spent, as is the
right of every child, in a classroom and playgrounds.
CHILD OF MINE BALL
In December 2020 One Kind Act hosted a glittering ball, attended almost
500 guests to raise funds for children suffering from poverty of
health, education and nutrition around the world.
Over £130,000 was raised which went towards three worthy, effective
Causes:
- WORLD CHILD
CANCER improves the diagnosis, treatment and
support of children with cancer in low and middle-income countries and
provides support to their families. OKA has donated towards their
work in oncology, supporting some of the poorest communities in Malawi.
- HOME LEONE
works in one of the poorest nations of the world, Sierra Leone.
They have relocated hundreds of slum dwellers in a village with proper
homes, sanitation, running water and electricity. OKA has
helped to build classrooms and furnish a school in this village
- THE REAL
JUNK FOOD PROJECT (now known as London Community
Kitchen) deals with food poverty among families in UK. They
collect perfectly good food which supermarkets would otherwise throw
away and make it available to deprived, hungry families on a pay what
you feel basis.
COVID 19
In March 2020, a catastrophe unfolded on our doorsteps and within our
communities. COVID-19 promised to bring untold suffering to the
poorest, most fragile communities in the world.
Therefore, in full awareness of the unprecedented challenges, and in
many cases horror, we were witnessing we whole heartedly and
quickly launched One Kind Act's COVID-19 Relief Fund. The appeal
is for dedicated additional funds to urgently allow us to help our
communities prepare for, and make it through, these terrible
times. We are well placed and in touch with local Causes
including frontline groups to see what is needed and how funds raised
can be most effectively spent.
Over £14,000 has been raised to date, with funds still coming in
regularly. One Kind Act have boosted this from our own reserves and
have granted over £18,000 to:
London
Community Kitchen for PPE and to continue helping
them towards providing hundreds of food parcels for the vulnerable,
homeless and the marginalised people of our Harrow community
Organising
Food For London (OFFL) to purchase long life food,
drinks and fresh fruit and vegetables for around 300 homeless people
being sheltered across 3 hostels and for 4 hubs set up to meet the food
needs of 100 elderly and vulnerable families in the Harrow and Haringey
districts of London
NishkamSWAT
to provide meals directly to our brave NHS workers who are risking
their lives to help the very vulnerable and sick within hospitals
One Kind Act committee member, Ritu Soni convinced Kellogg's to donate
hundreds of cereal boxes to our effort. Additionally, she
persuaded The Seven restaurant, Harrow, to also donate food cooked in
their kitchens to feed the poor of Harrow. We were humbled that a
restaurant which was making no money still had the generosity to dig
deep and help others even while they were struggling. Thank you
The Seven.
.
Mark Ramprakash, our patron visited the London Community Kitchen with
the mayor of Harrow to see for themselves the families that were
being fed, the dedication of the volunteers and the patience of those
waiting in long queues to receive their food parcels. They also
launched the "Make Harrow Smile" campaign to do a kind act
and then nominate others to continue this chain of kindness.
CHARITY PARTNERS
One Kind Act caught the eye of two larger, well
established charities with a view to collaborate because they
recognised the special value we, as a smaller organisation, bring to
beneficiaries of our work. We, in turn recognised collaboration
with a large organisation allows us to bring impactful solutions
to more people. We believe collaboration is the right step when it
deepens the positive impact an organisation makes on its recipients.
British Asian
Trust is a unique bridge between the British Asian
community and supporting great projects in India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. They are able to identify and reach the
most vulnerable sections in these countries and ensure donations have
maximum positive impact. We hope to support each other in our
work, thereby expanding our scope of charity work.
Yuva
Unstoppable aims to transform government schools into
smart, clean schools with sanitation, clean water and
technology. One Kind Act is impressed with their modus operandi of
maximum impact with minimum cost and whole heartedly support their
vision that the long-term solution to poverty is effective education.
We have contributed towards their work with marginalised communities
and frontline warriors during Covid-19.
IN CONCLUSION
Thank you for all your support to enable the remarkable transformations
we achieved. During the pandemic your help is more important than ever
before. We
need your support to help people around the world suffering through no
fault of their own.
Become a
supporter at onekindact.org. Follow One Kind Act on
Facebook, Instagram (@okacharity) and Twitter (@OKAcharity)
We leave you with the words of Ritu Soni, OKA Associate, who penned
this poem after observing mothers, fathers, children, the old and young
waiting to collect their food parcels in Harrow.
I queued
Summer heat
Or windy gales
I waited
For the food bag
I queued
Patient and waiting
Some looked to see
My bag empty
My heart full
I queued
My child hungry
My world now different
Nothing moves me
I queued
Don't judge me
Nobody gets it
Until you are in it
I queued
They think they know why
Now it's a test
Am I now for real?
I queued
For respect
For eyes to open wide
See me
I'm not invisible.
A man a woman a child.
I queued.......
For eyes to open wide
See me
I'm not invisible.
A man a woman a child.
I queued.......
We all at One Kind Act send you our best wishes.
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