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October 2008

Artists' Open House for Trust Sulha

Part of the Canterbury Festival's Artists' Open Houses programme will be raising money for Trust Sulha this year. 

Writer Katherine May, from Whitstable, has invited Wendy Daws, visual artist and jewellery maker,  Pam Dodds, ceramicist, Tracey Falcon, visual artist, Wolf Howard, pinhole photographer, painter and poet, Jean Lowe, ceramicist, Alison Swan, ceramicist to join her for an exhibition at her home.

The dates are Saturday 11th/Sunday 12th; Saturday 18th/Sunday 19th; Saturday 25th October, 11 - 5pm, all at 18 Warwick Road, Whitstable, CT5 1HY. 10 per cent of sales will go towards Trust Sulha. 

A wonderful opportunity to find some beautiful Christmas presents and help these Afghan children bring peace into the world.

September 2008

Dance for Peace a resounding success!

Trust Sulha are proud to announce that their first annual Dance for Peace raised £1312.99.

The night featured the talents of students from Kent Youth Dance Company, da capo performing arts, Hasland School of Dance and Performing Arts, Dance Warehouse, Page Mason School of Dance and Drama and The Old Bakehouse Dance Studios.

Many thanks to all who took part, and for the kind donations made by the audience at the end of the evening. 

For a press release, click here. 

July 2008

The new school

Earlier this year, we reported that Rahema had to vacate the premises of the Marnie Smith Middle School, in Quetta Pakistan, because the Pakistani government planned to build a road there. Rahema, her husband Baqi and their daughter also had to find a new home, because they lived on the same site as the school.

Rahema and Baqi managed to find a new school site, which was just a pile of bricks and mud. The images she sent us were shocking. It was impossible to see how a new school could be built there.

However, thanks to donations from Trust Sulha supporters and an enormous amount of hard work by Rahema, Baqi, their teachers, students, family and friends, there is now a wonderful new school building, as these remarkable pictures show. Please visit the gallery for more pictures. 

Trust Sulha is amazed and inspired by this new school and so glad that we could help Rahema and her students. We wish them many happy times and great learning experiences in their new school, which is truly wonderful to see.

Congratulations and well done everyone!

New equipment for the school

Money has recently reached headmistress Jamilla Abassy. She spent it on notebooks, pens, pencils and rubbers for students at Bakhtar School.
The school held a special ceremony for their teachers and presented 12 of them with teaching uniforms. In addition, 10 orphan students were given school uniform. 

Many thanks to everyone who continues to support Trust Sulha, it is much appreciated.

May 2008

May has been a very difficult month for the Marnie Smith Middle School. Due to the construction of a new road by the Pakistani government, the headmistress Raheema, had to move the school and her home. 

Raheema and her husband, Baqi, have managed to find somewhere new, but as you can from the pictures below, it's barely useable. There are no roofs, no proper floors and barely any walls. There is no electricity, phone or Internet connection either. However, as you can also see, everyone is working very hard to make this a good place to study. And we wish them well in this task. 

Thanks to everyone who sent extra funds for Raheema at this extremely testing time. We will update you with new pictures as soon as we can. You can see more on the  Gallery page.

January 2008

We have some very sad news. Following a gas leak at Jamilla's Bakhtar School, her husband's cousin has died. He was a student at the school and working as a night-time security guard there. The thoughts of all involved with Trust Sulha are with Jamilla, her husband Nabi and the family and friends of Nabi's cousin. 

Since this sadness in Jamilla's family, the latest lot of Trust Sulha funds have reached Jamilla and Rahima. Jamilla held a Trust Sulha gift distribution day at Bakhtar Middle School. The co-educational school has 300 pupils aged between six and 18. There are 10 teachers. Attached to Bakhtar is an English language centre for girls. Classes are free and Jamilla pays the two teachers from her own money she makes selling her poetry. Some pictures of the gift distribution day are below. You can see more on the How We Have Helped and Gallery pages.

After several days of heavy rain, the roofs of three classrooms at the Marnie Smith Middle School collapsed. Fortunately the incident happened at night when there were no students present and no-one was hurt. Headmistress Rahima, her family, staff and friends worked hard to mend the roof. We thank them for their efforts and wish them well!

Marnie says: 'I have spoken to the Charities Commission about Trust Sulha becoming a registered charity. They told me that they do not register small charities - those who raise less than £5,000 per year. So, until we reach this threshold, perhaps in a few years, we won't be able to be registered. We are still eligible for Gift Aid though and I am looking into this.'

November 2007

Thanks to the kindhearted donation of time and technical expertise from Trust Sulha donors Chris and Katherine, the website is up running - thank you both

Thanks also to Andy Redman for his hard work creating our logo - thank you Andy

Thanks to Katie Clifford and Carol Hammond for hosting a Christmas Bazaar and coffee morning at Carol's church - Hawkhurst Baptist - thank you also to Maureen, Jo and Rosie

March 2007

Thanks to Maureen Smith for hosting the first Trust Sulha sale at her home in Whitstable