Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just a quick message to you all to say Merry Christmas from all of us here at Beyond Ourselves! 


And we want to take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support this past year, you have gone way BEYOND what we expected...


So whether you skydived, cycled, spray tanned, played golf, ran a marathon, bought an alternative gift or sponsored a child we want to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU!


Thank you for living generously


Thank you for making a difference


Thank you for changing lives


MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Teams, Teams and more Teams!

We always knew that October and November were going to be busy months for Beyond Ourselves so we were well prepared for the last few weeks and all that they brought!


First off, we had a team of teachers from some of the Primary Schools we are involved with here in the UK, fly out to Zambia to spend time in our partner schools in Ndola and Kitwe. They spent their time soaking up the Zambian culture, sharing educational ideas with the teachers there, teaching various lessons to the children in the schools, and strengthening links between the schools there and their own schools in the UK.

At the same time we had another team of dedicated Cranleigh students over at Kawama School in Kitwe. They were finishing off the classrooms that their fellow students had built over the summer holidays. They worked hard in the heat to paint the classrooms as well as run activities for the students at the school. 

Well done Cranleigh!

Then, we had our BIG trip of the year when a team of us meet with every child and their parent/carer to see how they are doing. As well as asking the family questions about home life, health issues and how schools is going, we also take the children's height, weight and BMI to check they are growing well! There's also an up to date photo of each child taken too. With 900 children attending the 4 schools we partner with, it's a big job - but we got it done! 


What's really special in all the trips is that even though there is a focus on getting our tasks done and achieving what needs to be completed within the short visit, we always make time to spend time with the children. And it's these moments that really impact the team... 


We are so used to hearing about poverty and seeing it in the media that we almost become immune to it. But when we meet a child who is HIV+, or who is orphaned, or who is only getting to eat once a day, or who is living in one room with 6 other people; poverty gets a face and a name - it's no longer distant and impersonal but right there in front of you to touch and see, and more often than not it will change you...

It really is about beyond the bike...

I just had to share this with you all. Taken from the Beyond the Bike Facebook group 

The man in the photo is Blackson Banda, the cook at Janna School in Ndola, Beyond Ourselves’ first project and the one we visited at the end of the group ride. I first met Blackson last year when I visited with Richard & Tamsin Humes. He is a lovely guy and was super keen to cycle but couldn’t make the group ride. Instead, I was able to give him a lift on Thandie back to his home village on the border of Malawi. For financial reasons (a return bus fare from Ndola is a month’s salary), he hadn’t visited for 13 years and sadly wasn’t able to make his sister’s funeral last month. As such it was an emotional visit for him and a moving one for us. His sister died at the tender age of 35 and leaves 4 double orphans. Blackson is taking his 6 year old niece Catherine back to Ndola and hopes she will be able to attend Janna, thanks to the child sponsorship programme that Beyond Ourselves run. If you want to sponsor a child, £12.50 a month gives kids like Catherine a chance of a brighter future… http://www.beyondourselves.co.uk/sponsor-a-child/

Join the Beyond the Bike Facebook group to see what Stuart is up to or follow him on Twitter @beyondthebike

Beyond the Bike!

Two years ago when our friend Stuart Block first floated the idea of cycling across Africa to raise funds for Beyond Ourselves and a couple of other charities I have to admit that I thought he was slightly mad! I also thought it would never actually happen…

Yet, here we are with Beyond the Bike in full swing and the first Group Ride of the trip complete.

Somewhere along the way over the past couple of years amidst all the logistics, publicity, sponsors and organising,  I agreed to cycle part of the Zambia Group Ride. As the major beneficiary charity of the ride, it seemed the good and proper thing to do, to show willing and don a pair of padded shorts!

And so one of the toughest weeks of my life began!

There were 12 cyclists in total cycling from Lusaka to Ndola on the Zambikes that had been bought by one of the ride’s sponsors, Copperbelt Energy. The bikes are then being donated to the community schools Beyond Ourselves partners with in Ndola and Kitwe.

It was an incredible week with many lasting memories but what impacted me the most (apart from the saddle!) was that a group of people I hardly knew were willing to give up a week or two of their Summer and put themselves through such a physically demanding task in support of the bike ride and the work of Beyond Ourselves with communities in Zambia. But I’ll let you see for yourself:

In my previous blog I wrote about living generously, and what the past few weeks have showed me once again is that if we offer people the opportunity to be generous, more often than not they’ll take it! Something inside each one of us longs to be a part of something bigger, something worthwhile, something beyond ourselves…

In case you’re interested, here’s a bit more about the Beyond the Bike journey so far:

Living life generously!

This last month has seen our diaries fit to burst but I'm not complaining, we’ve had a great time – suffice to say there’s never a dull moment in the Beyond Ourselves office!

Our biggest event of the month was our annual Beyond Ourselves Golf Day which was a huge success as always. A massive thank you to everyone who played and those who joined us in the evening for the BBQ and Party! Here’s a little pic of the winners… 

Well done boys!

As a team we are committed to living our lives generously - with our time, money and skill, and we have a heart to encourage others to do the same. And at the Golf Day we really saw that being lived out. I was thrilled by how many people took a day out of their busy lives to join us and support Beyond Ourselves in this way. Then in the evening I was overwhelmed by the generosity of people in the auction, it is so encouraging to know that we have such a great bunch of supporters!

But what moved me the most was that we saw 14 children get sponsored that evening. That’s 14 decisions to make a difference, 14 decisions to change a life, 14 decisions to live life generously…

First one!

Firstly, welcome! Thanks for being interested enough in who we are and what we do to find out a bit more! I have to admit I’m feeling the pressure of writing the first Beyond Ourselves blog, so here goes…

Over the coming weeks I’ll introduce you to members of our team so you can get to know us a bit better, plus we’ll keep you updated with various events that are happening and any news we have to share.

But for now I just wanted to share a little a bit of our heart with you. Throughout our lives we’re encouraged to think about our future, from a young age we’re asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, we respond with the standard answers of teacher, policeman, vet – I know because I used to be a teacher! Then as we get older we have to choose subjects to study, a career path, to make a plan, to pursue our dream.

As the homeless man asks in Pretty Woman “What’s your dream? Everybody’s got a dream…”. (That film is an office favourite by the way!)

And so we dream of the future, what could lie ahead for us, what we’ll achieve and where we’ll be in 5, 10 or 20 years from now…

But do any of us ever take time to dream for others?  Do we even dare to do such a thing? When so many people’s dreams are self-centred why bother dreaming beyond ourselves? What difference can we make anyway?

Maybe we rarely dream for others because we think that the world expects nothing of us?  Maybe we just feel too small to make a difference on any scale? Working in Africa has its challenges and the need at times can be completely overwhelming but when we as a team look back at the past few years and think of each child, each teacher, each family that has been impacted, we’re glad that we dared to dream for others, that we chose to make a difference to the one.

 So, like every good teacher, I’ll finish with a story:

There was a man who was walking along a sandy beach where thousands of

starfish had been washed up on the shore. He noticed a boy picking the

starfish one by one and throwing them back into the ocean. The man observed

the boy for a few minutes and then asked what he was doing. The boy replied

that he was returning the starfish to the sea, otherwise they would die.

The man asked how saving a few, when so many were doomed, would make any

difference whatsoever? The boy picked up a starfish and threw it back into

the ocean and said "Made a difference to that one..."