I've been voted in for another year!!

The BWG had it's AGM yesterday and I've been voted in for another year - Yay!!! I had to do a round up of all things welfare and had to read it.......aloud.......into a microphone......which was practically up my nose it was so close!!. (I hate doing things like that!!). Anyway, I thought I would share my round up of the year with you cause I think we've done pretty bloody well!! (Oh, and do you like our shiny new logo that JJ and I designed?)

Guess how much money we have spent this year (I am so excited about this!!)........from March 2007 to March 2008 we have spent …….wait for it…….One million, twelve thousand, two hundred and forty four baht …..Isn’t that amazing!! We have been able to do fantastic things with the money that we have raised and it has gone to support 24 different charities and projects across the whole of Thailand.

I am not going to list everything that we have donated to (cause that would just be really really boring!!) but thought I'd give you some examples - We have paid for a Community Centre to be built, built a new home for a family after theirs was lost in a fire, bought shoes and clothes for children with nothing, paid for sight to be restored to the blind, smiles to be restored to those suffering from cleft lips and palates, bought medical equipment, have sponsored kids through school and university, bought fishing boats, built a bridge, paid for petrol and a van to take donated goods to those that need them most on the Thai/Burmese border, bought medicines and paid for a holiday for terminally ill children to name but a few!!

And it’s not just money we have given – I set up the Welfare Volunteer 'People Bank' last year and am chuffed to bits to say that 104 wonderful BWG ladies have donated their time!! I had someone ask me how we calculated how many volunteers we have had – it is calculated as one volunteer position per person. (So regardless of whether that person volunteers at a one off event or commits to going along to something every week they will still only be counted once - does that make any sense what-so-ever?)

Anyway, to give you an idea of what our ladies are doing - we have volunteers who visit orphaned children, provide physio therapy, provide nursing advice, teach English to both children and adults, answer e-mails on behalf of Thai charities, write funding proposals, work on education sponsorship, help with environmental causes and help out at various parties throughout the year…..again I’m going to stop there cause but could go on (and on and on :-D)

What do you reckon - not bad eh!!