How you can help Maria & the Children

The most valuable commodity to help Maria and the children of Salvador is money. Money can be converted into food, clothes, furniture, electric bills - whatever is most needed. If we can raise enough money this year it will also open the new orphanage we are so desperately trying to get - anyone who has visited Maria will know that despite our best efforts the current refuge is not a good place for children to grow up.

NEW FUND RAISING PACK (MARCH 07)

Stop Press - We have just uploaded our new fund raising pack (MS word document). Please do have a look if you can spend any time helping Maria and the children. It's packs with ideas and usefull inCOBation to help our supporters. Any other ideas greatfully received, and please do let us know what works for you so we can share the information with everyone.

YOU CAN MAKE A DONATION ONLINE NOW

Children of Bahia has teamed up with justgiving.com so anyone wishing to help can now donate money on-line uding your credit card. You can also make regular monthly donations automatically.

This is the best way for us to receive money as any tax rebate is automatically added thus saving us having to make a submission to the Inland Revenue for Gift Aid for each donation. That means we get annother 28% or 40% on top of your donation automatically if you qualify for gift aid, which you do if you pay tax in the UK.

PRINT OUT OUR LEAFLET AND PASS IT ON!

We have now put up a copy of our leaflet in .PDF format so if you like you can print some out and pass them on. This is a very powerful way of helping us. More information here

However large or small the donation they are all very gratefully received and vitally important, as together they all mount up! Some of the most wonderful donations have been from children - for example Emily, Callum, Chloe & Maisie (all about 10 years old) from Parkstone. They were so concerned about the children in Maria's care that they held a summer fair in their back garden in August 2004 for their friends and family. A lot of work went into raising the money, well done all of you !!

We welcome any help - for example donations of things to auction, raffle prizes and the like, or offers of days out. We will soon be auctioning on-line some paintings that have been donated and we hope to do this with other donated items too.

Donations of time can also raise money - these are some of the things wonderful people have done to raise funds for Maria - a huge thank you to everyone involved!!

We will try and develop this section into more of a useful resource for people interested in raising funds for Maria - in the meantime please do contact us if you would like some help with an event or idea or need some leaflets of posters or anything.

Spread the word

Also vitally important is letting family, relations, friends and work colleagues know about Maria and her struggle to save homeless children. Maybe a group you are involved with such as a school, business or church could adopt Maria as their charity for this year? This is one of the simplest but most powerful ways to help Maria - and it's free :)

Volunteers in Salvador

We regret that at the moment there is no volunteer programme for people to go and help in the refuge. You are however welcome to visit Maria - more information here.

You can now have your own sponsorship page on-line!!

Children of Bahia has teamed up with justgiving.com so anyone wishing to help can now raise money quickly and easily online with their own personalised webpages.

Friends and family will be able to donate online with a credit or debit card – so no more running around with paper sponsorship forms, or chasing cheques and cash after your event. To set up your page today visit www.justgiving.com/friendsofmaria/raisemoney or call 0800 028 6183 for more details.

A Huge thankyou to everyone who has helped!