Fundraising Events

Over the past couple of years, I've set up different fundraising events to offer some financial support to the NGO La Esperanza Granada in Nicaragua.

Spaghetti Fest - 15 May 2011            <First Edition>

The first event was more than two years ago. On 15 May 2011, I set up a Spaghetti Fest to raise funds for the NGO where I was doing my university internship, La Esperanza Granada. Together with a group of very motivated people, I worked for months to set up this event. It became a huge success and we made more than €3000.

La Esperanza used the funds to support different projects. One of the projects was to put tables, chairs and electricity in the schools to be able to offer students computer classes. Using computers in the classroom has proven to be highly beneficial to the students' learning outcomes.

Spaghetti Fest - 5 May 2013            <Second Edition>

The second edition of the Spaghetti Fest took place on Sunday 5 May 2013. Once again I was able to count on so many friends and family members to give a hand and make this another fundraising success. We were able to raise another €3000. It was surprising how many people turned up on a beautiful Sunday like this. The support meant a lot!

At about the same time, I set up a different project called 'A Chair for Every Child'. People could donate €25 into the Nicaragua account which would be used to buy a school desk. There is such a big shortage of school desks in the barrios that kids come early to school just to make sure they have a chair for the day. We were able to raise more than €2000 with this project, good for about 80 school desks.

As an additional fundraising project, I gave a short presentation about the work of La Esperanza Granada at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), their local department in Brussels. Afterwards, the bank provided a lunch buffet and donated all the profits to La Esperanza Granada, good for more than €700.

Last but not least, the city of Vilvoorde has promised to donate part of their annual budget for development cooperation to the projects of La Esperanza Granada.

This blog keeps you updated on what exactly the money will be used for. Make sure to come back and read about the great things we can do with little means!