The events industry charity partnership, Events for Namuwongo, has announced that in one evening the industry raised $155,000 during Namuwongo Night, held May 2 at the Novotel London West.
“This will literally change the lives of so many and we can’t thank everyone enough for the generosity and support of all those who came, placed bids, donated prizes or gave us their hard-earned cash. Our industry has done something amazing,” said Trevor Foley, organizer, tfconnect. “A huge thank you to our event supporters and to all those who very generously donated prizes!”
BBC TV and Radio 2 DJ, Chris Evans, set the scene at the beginning of the evening, auctioning a unique money-can’t-buy-lot and interviewing Events for Namuwongo supporters and fundraisers, thanking them publicly for their achievements. The action-packed evening featured an exciting line up of entertainment and an exceptional “Money Can’t Buy Auction,” including joining Chris Evans on his Radio 2 Breakfast Show, tickets to see Top Gear being filmed and Michelin star Chef Billy Reid cooking in your own home.
The silent auction went online for the first time thanks to Giving Live and the whole event was captured on video by another generous supporter, Go Live. Streets United, sporting Namuwongo Football team kit, Canadian comedian Sean Collins and Rose Windross the first lady of Soul II Soul performed and Molly Hackett, aged 17 years, daughter of Greg Hackett from Clarion, moved the room with her personal fundraising story. During the evening, Events for Namuwongo founder, Chris Hughes made a compelling and entertaining presentation reviewing exactly what the partnership has achieved in Uganda already.
“We are now working towards and looking forward to our next big fundraising initiative, ‘Wonga for Wongo’ day on Oct. 9, which we are launching to coincide with Ugandan Independence Day,” said Foley.
Events for Namuwongo is partnership of people and companies within the events industry who have come together to support this community by not only adopting them, but caring for this community to create real change for those who live there. Thanks to money raised by the events industry, the project fund is employing 150 people in the community. To date over 3km of drains have been cleared and thousands of tons of rubbish removed. Desilting teams keeping up with the daily maintenance and another 1.2 tons of recycling sorted and sold in recent months.
Now with the fundraising on Namuwongo Night and the ongoing support of the industry, the work of developing healthcare, schooling and employment initiatives will continue.
