5 ways your support has changed lives in 2018

2018 was an important year for Salt of the Earth. We opened a new bore well paid for by our village sponsorship scheme during our visit to India, we celebrated our 30th year, welcomed a new Development Officer to the team and launched a new ethical gift. Together with our partner organisations in Tamil Nadu we were able to make a huge impact this year and a lot of it would not have been possible without our supporters. Here are just some of the ways your donations, sponsorship and involvement helped.

1. 190 trees have been donated for planting.

We work with CRUSADE in India to support a tree-planting project, which protects the environment, improves diet and encourages employment. Many of you generously supported this project throughout 2019 by buying our ethical gift, ‘Gift of Trees’. This will improve the lives of countless people for years and years to come. 

2. Over £50,000 was raised from events and one-off donations.

Our supporters are extremely active in organising fundraising events, attending SOTE events and donating their time and money. In 2018, supporter led stalls raised £11,144 alone! This money supported a wide range of projects including access to safer drinking water, supporting women’s self-help groups and the construction of the RDC. If you would like to fundraise for us or organise your own event, get in touch!

3. Rural Development Centre Launch.

On 26th August, our partners MASARD opened the new Rural Development Centre (RDC), which couldn’t have been achieved so quickly without a generous response from supporters following our appeal in 2017. At least 15 communities and 10,000 people a year will benefit from the RDC and it will revolutionise the delivery of our work. You can read more about the centre here.

4. You’ve stopped 7.88kg of plastic from going to landfill

We work with Recycle4Charity, an organisation that not only protect the environment by recycling ink cartridges but donate £1 to SOTE for every cartridge donated. In 2018, our supporters raised £91.00 by sending off their unwanted cartridges and stopped plastic pollution. We sent a recycling envelope out with every one of our 700+ winter newsletters so we’re hoping we can raise much more in 2019. If you would like to donate your cartridges for us, let us know!

5. You helped stop an illegal child marriage.

This year, our partner CARE found that in one of the villages Anjali, a 13-year-old girl, had stopped going to school. It transpired that she was about to be married. Child marriage is against the law in India and CARE supported Anjali at her subsequent court hearing. Our partners are continuing to monitor Anjali in her new home and are supporting her to continue with her education.

If the SOTE child sponsorship programme did not exist then none of this community work would be done and the people in the Landoor begging community would have little or no chance of breaking free from the tragic and hopeless situation that they were born into.

We accomplished so much in 2018 and with your continued support; we could achieve this and much more in the year ahead. In January, we will visit our partner organisations in Tamil Nadu and finalise plans for projects throughout 2019.

If you are in a position to do so, please donate to our cause here