Fundraising – How We Use What You Give Us
This month, Barbara, Catherine and Emma (supported by Dave, Barbara’s husband!!) all part of Chaparda 2020 team, head to Edinburgh to take on “The Big Stroll” a 15 mile walk through historic Edinburgh.
We have been very committed to fundraising through 2019 and this will be the third walk by various combinations of the team to raise money for World Medicine. ALL funds raised for World Medicine are used to support our projects and apart from a small amount of administrative running costs we have no fixed overheads that require donated money to be used for.
We have two projects at the moment. One in London, providing auricular acupuncture for the community impacted by the Grenfell disaster – a lot of this work focuses on post traumatic stress. (For further reading on this condition and how acupuncture can help go to acupuncture.org.uk) Costs for this project include, auricular needles, sharp boxes, insurance and training etc. Annual costs at present stand at around £1000 annually.
Our second project is in India, and January 2020 will see a team of acupuncturists and interpreters travel to Chaparda to run an acupuncture clinic for 3 weeks. One of the reasons that we remain committed to this work is because over the years we have witnessed incredible healing in our Indian patients, that in turn has allowed them to continue working and supporting their own families. This is key to our work, bringing effective treatment to areas where healthcare resources are limited. Each year the numbers attending our clinics continue to grow and the impact of our work continues to spread out into the surrounding communities.
Travel is the biggest cost to the volunteers and stands around £700 per person.
We have estimated each acupuncturist will need 5000 needles each for our next project so, a total of 30,000 needles. A box of 1000 needles costs approximately £24. This year our needles will cost us around £720. In addition many of us will use moxabustion therapy and so we may spend a further £100 on moxa. Other equipment includes, sharps boxes, forceps, cupping sets, alcohol wipes, cotton wool, hand sanitizer, paper for documentation etc. Another cost is insurance and training.
This year we plan to offset our carbon footprint as a charity by donating the carbon cost of our travel into an environmental project as local to our project as we can manage. (Look out for future blogs with further information about this!)
We very much hope that our supporters understand just how much we appreciate their willingness to help us raise money. We are passionate about our work and we know that many, many people, who will never be able to voice their gratitude personally, are similarly appreciative for the opportunity to benefit from the service that World Medicine offers.