The Mermaid conference centre in London has
ditched client goody bags in favour of charity
badges – and has urged other venues to do the
same. The venue has announced that 30 per cent
of its marketing spend will be donated to Meeting
Needs in 2016. The decision was prompted after
the venue recently became an official charity
partner for the organisation, which works to raise
funds for worthy causes relevant to the events
industry all across the world.
Project Harar is a fantastic charity Meeting Needs
has supported for many years. It provides lifechanging operations for those with serious facial
disfigurements in Ethiopia and this year will
perform more than 1200 such operations. Meeting
Needs executive committee member Martin Lewis
(pictured centre) visited Project Harar in June to
see the work at first hand and meet the doctors
who fly in as volunteers to perform the operations
– in many cases taking holiday to return each
year.
Sixty formerly destitute women from 10 villages in
the district of Manikganj in Bangladesh have had
their lives transformed by the Poverty Alleviation
Program for the Vulnerable Women co-funded by
Meeting Needs. The latest update from the Social
Education & Economic Development Organization
for the Needy (SEEDON) reports that these
women – either widowed or left by their husbands
– are now successfully raising goats, running
grocery shops and cultivating vegetables. Some
are even paying for their children’s education for
the first time.
Meeting Needs would like to say a huge thank
you to Kate Conway of Hyundai (and board
member of Meeting Needs) and Paul Hussey of
Conference Doctor for running the Virgin London
Marathon for Meeting Needs, finishing in 6:21
and 4:06 respectively. They raised a phenomenal
£2,930.64 for the charity, £1,900 of which has
already been given to Champion Chanzige to
provide tables and chairs for a community centre
in rural Tanzania that hosts learning opportunities
and community activities for around 7,000 people.
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