Happy Christmas and New Year from all at Hanna’s Orphanage! We’ve all been enjoying time with our families over the break, but we’re back and ready to look at the exciting things that are going to be happening in 2011!

2010 was a great year for Hanna’s Orphanage, not least in our partnerships with Cass Business School. Last year’s Cass Business School volunteers - Charleane, Donal and Michael – taught at the summer school for two weeks in August and spent a huge amount of time and effort in the UK raising money and awareness. They raised around £6500 between them and introduced Hanna’s Orphanage to a whole new group of people! Supported by everyone at Cass Business School, they held events throughout the year, from raffles to concerts, and found ways to help Hanna’s Orphanage whenever they could.

They weren’t the only people fundraising for Hanna’s Orphanage this year. There have been cake stalls in Suffolk (thanks Sandra, Anne-marie and Beryl!), busking outside supermarkets (thanks Danyele and all her music buddies), people jumping out of aeroplanes (thanks Anthony, Danyele and Amie!), and music gigs in London (thanks Maria, Football Action, Smoke Feathers, Looks Like Rain, and Front Covers!). We’ve even had people who have asked their wedding guests to donate to Hanna’s Orphanage instead of giving them wedding gifts (thanks David and Anne-marie)! So many people have given up their time and energy to help us fundraise, and we are incredibly grateful to all of them.

We’ve also been blessed to have received donations that have – for us – come completely out of the blue. These are from people who have come across us through the Charities Aid Foundation (http://www.cafonline.org/) or have researched various charities to donate to, and have decided on us. Others have been from word of mouth, through people who are really impressed with what we’re doing. It’s really great that more and more people are hearing about us and are liking what we do!

The annual report and the accounts should be available for people to see by the end of January, but as a general picture, the money you have raised this year has been spent on:

House rent for the Addis Ababa branch of the orphanage
Food for the children
Refurbishing the kitchen in the Addis Ababa orphanage
House rent for Wolita House (South Ethiopia)
Household expenses for Wolita House (South Ethiopia)
Part salaries for 2 Project Workers
Annual ‘registration fee’ that children must pay to start school in Addis Ababa
Materials for clubs and recreations during the summer and weekends

In terms of where the money goes, we try to be as transparent as we possibly can. We aim to be able to tell you exactly where your donation has gone, whether it was £10 or £1000! We also want to make sure that your donation reaches the people you want it to. We all see money being wasted in our day to day life, and I’m really, really passionate about making sure that doesn’t happen. The maximum amount of money we raise goes straight to the orphanage.

So thank you again for all your hard work! It’s been a really brilliant year and we’ve more than doubled the amount we sent to Hanna Orphans’ Home last year!

I’ll post about the exciting plans for 2011 – and how you can get involved! – in a few days!