What a year it has been for everyone across the world, with Covid-19 majorly impacting and constantly challenging every aspect of our lives. We wanted to take time to reflect on all that we have accomplished as a charity during 2021 and how our incredible team has managed to persevere throughout the pandemic. We, just like many others, have faced many setbacks over the course of this year, from having our charity ball cancelled, to trying to obtain support for the many innocent girls that have been placed in severely vulnerable situations as a result of the pandemic. But the way our inspirational team have managed to fundraise and continue to carry out the work that we do has proven just how determined we are as a small charity to better the lives of thousands of children in Zimbabwe.

Reading Half Marathon

In November a group of wonderful CBF supporters took on the Reading Half Marathon and raised a whopping £4956!

Captain Tom 100

A highlight of 2021 has to be taking part in the Captain Tom 100 challenge at the end of April. Thanks to all of those involved, we raised £902!

World Tutor Day

In July we celebrated World Tutor Day and our wonderful Supporter Lucy embarked on an ambitious global tutoring challenge where she tutored for 24-hours in 18 countries and raised £1463!

Big Give

This year we took part in The Big Give Christmas challenge. Thanks to your generous donations, we hit our target of £2,000 which has been doubled through match funding to £4,000!

Ultra Challenge

This year we partnered with Ultra Challenge which gives our supporters the opportunity to get involved in a range of challenges whilst raising money for CBF. The wonderful Rachel Maunder got involved and completed a 21k Halloween Walk raising £210!

World Children’s Day

Last month we celebrated World Children Day where we joined in with Unicef’s mission of reimagining a better world for the future generation.

Small Charity Week

We spent this week celebrating some of the stories coming from Zimbabwe and sharing testimonials from CBF volunteers and supporters about why CBF is important to them.

International Women’s Day

On March the 8th we invited our female supporters to #ChooseToChallenge and share their journeys with us. These stories inspired thousands of girls and women who are battling poverty, injustice and inequality in Africa.

Volunteer’s Week

In June we got involved in NCVO’s Volunteers Week – it was great to get involved in this national campaign and celebrate those who dedicate their time to CBF, without them, the work we do simply would not be possible.

Thames Valley Business Awards

We had a wonderful evening at the Thames Valley Business Awards in April and were delighted to be nominated in the Charity of the Year category – it was an honour to be shortlisted alongside some incredibly inspiring individuals and organisations.

Giving Tuesday

In November we celebrated Giving Tuesday and shared lots of ways our supporters could give to CBF. We even did a team dare challenge – from eating a raw onion to dancing in public, our team really got stuck in!

New Team Members

During the Summer we had two new placement students join us; Adela from the University of East Anglia and Lucy from the University of Reading. From marketing to event planning, they’ve got stuck into a bit of everything and are doing a fab job.

Constance

You may remember that Constance was hit by a car on her way to church when she was in Grade 5. With help from our wonderful sponsors, CBF was able to step in and provide a donation of over $600 to give Constance the prosthetic leg she desperately needed. We are incredibly grateful to the Jacaranda Trust who paid for her new prosthetic leg in April and want to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported Constance and allowed her to lead a normal life despite her accident.

Rebecca

Rebecca is one of our sponsored children from Chitakatira High School and was selected as a junior Member of Parliament for Mutare South Constituency! Here she is after being presented with her new uniform featuring the insignia of the government and parliament of Zimbabwe. We are so proud, well done Rebecca! This shows just how influential your support can be.

Patience

After losing her mother in 2008 and her father going blind a year later, Patience has had a difficult life. Despite these challenges, Patience excelled in her A-levels and was offered a place at the prestigious University of Zimbabwe to study Pharmacy. Thanks to your support, she was able to pursue this further education and is very much enjoying her studies!

We couldn’t possibly name everyone who has helped us through 2021, there’s just too many of you! But a huge heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you – whether you donated £1, ran a fundraiser, shared one of our posts or donated an auction prize, you are the reason we’ve made it through 2021 and have been able to continue to do the work that means so much to us.

Author: Olivia Harvey (31/01/22)