Overview
Having started to set up the Overseas Aid Alliance last year it wasn’t until 20th January this year that the Trustees were able to officially ratify our Constitution and our other governing and policy documents. It was then in late March that we heard our registration with the UK Charity Commission as a CIO (a Charitable Incorporated Organization whose only voting members are its charity trustees) had been approved. Our registration number is No. 1202522 – The Overseas Aid Alliance. The administration didn’t end there because we went on to open a bank account with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) Bank Ltd and gain gift aid status from HMRC for donations from UK taxpayers.
With all the formalities completed we were finally able to focus on raising funds and delivering our mission namely, “The prevention and relief of poverty, in particular in the least developed nations of the world, by providing: grants, items and services to individuals in need and/or charities, or other organizations working to prevent or relieve poverty“.
By November 26th we were in a position to hold our inaugural AGM and we had an accumulated sum of approximately £38,750 available to allocate to our trusted and deserving partners. The Trustees consequently approved expenditure of up to £35,000 on 5 different projects in 5 of the least developed countries in the world (see below for details). As well as ensuring implementation of those projects, our aim for 2024 will be to raise further funds in order to continue and expand our work. We are a small team of volunteers with absolutely no overheads so every penny we raise can and does go directly into the projects we support.
Ongoing project work
The six projects we will be supporting next year are as follows:
The Lake Clinic, Tonle Sap, Cambodia… (see top two photos). The Lake Clinic provides a vital primary healthcare service to the neglected and impoverished communities living in the isolated floating villages around the Tonle Sap lake. Our donation will go directly towards their community outreach programme which provides villagers with bio-sand water filters and floating vegetable gardens to improve their health and nutritional status.
Billy’s Clinic in Chembe Village, Malawi… Chembe is a densely populated fishing village on the shores of Lake Malawi. The clinic is currently in the process of building a new maternity unit so that women in the village can be delivered in safe supervised conditions. OAA have agreed to provide some much needed medical equipment for the unit when it opens next year.
Women’s development project in Maraland… (see photo above right). The opportunity has arisen for us to help the Waymaker Trust which is based in NE India to improve facilities and provide better healthcare for disadvantaged Mara women many of whom have been displaced from their homes since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1st 2021. As part of the project, pregnant women will be supplied with clean childbirth kits which should make a huge difference to outcomes in this remote and neglected corner of the world where services have disintegrated and poverty levels are higher than ever.
The Jibon Tari Floating Hospital, Bangladesh… The Jibon Tari Floating Hospital provides vital medical care including surgical operations to the poor and remote riverside communities throughout the waterways of Bangladesh. Our contribution will focus specifically on the provision of healthcare for children and will go towards the cost of both screening and treatment services including life changing corrective procedures for disabling conditions such as cataracts, cleft palate and club feet.
Zanzibar Outreach Programme, Zanzibar, Tanzania… (see photo above left) The Zanzibar Outreach Programme in Zanzibar, Tanzania (ZOP) operates on both the main island of Unguja and the much less populated island of Pemba. Led by Dr Naufal (an ENT Surgeon) they have a dedicated team of volunteers who, amongst other things, run a school academy for profoundly deaf children, a community water supply project and regular mobile health clinics providing vital medical services in the outlying towns and villages.
Please refer to the Autumn 2023 news update for more photos and information about all of these projects.
overseasaidalliance.org 