What's coming up for Beyond Ourselves!?

These last two weeks of August always feel a little like the calm before the storm in the world of Beyond Ourselves. September to December is possibly the fullest part of the year for us. So I’ve been taking the opportunity this week to carefully plan my weekly work schedule for this coming term and prepare for all that’s ahead…

The first week of September brings exciting events for the teams in both continents!

In Europe, a group of us will be setting off on the first leg of the new Beyond the Bike adventure. We’ll be cycling from London to Amsterdam with Stuart and Claire, and then they will be heading down to Africa and eventually on to China! (Another group of us will be joining up with them again in Zambia in October).

And in Africa, the Zambia team will be arriving back from the UK refreshed and ready to start off the new school term with staff training days at each of our partner schools.

Then with 35 visitors coming on team to Zambia and 1000 children to interview, the rest of the term will just fly by!

For one night only…

Last night was a very special evening for Team Beyond Ourselves – for the first time ever we were all in the same room at the same time!

Diane, who joined our team in September last year and is based here in the UK overseeing all things finance, got to meet Dan, Melissa and Emily for the first time and put faces to the names and email addresses she knows so well!

And clearly Dan and Karen were very happy to be back together again!

                                         From left to right: Karen, Emily, Dan, Jodie, Diane and Melissa

A very quick run down on who’s who:

Karen - based in the UK, been with Beyond Ourselves since the very beginning in 2009, oversees all events and fundraising amongst other things

Emily – based in Zambia with her husband and kids, started in January of this year, works alongside the Zambian teachers in our partner schools developing education

Dan – based in Zambia, officially joined Beyond Ourselves in 2013, married to Melissa, oversees the ‘big picture’ in Zambia

Jodie – (that’s me!), mostly based in UK but in Zambia a couple of months of the year, oversees the ‘big picture’ generally and is the voice for Beyond Ourselves here in the UK

Diane – based in the UK office, been with Beyond Ourselves for almost a year now, oversees the finance and child sponsorship admin in the UK

Melissa – based in Zambia with Dan and their boys, has been part of Beyond Ourselves since 2009, oversees the child sponsorship operations in Zambia and community connections there, as well as all of our design work too

Hopefully, that gives you an idea of what our team do, but it can't capture who they are. I'm not one to brag generally, but as I said last night I think I get to work with the best team on the planet! They are committed, passionate, hard-working and fun! And it is my honour to work alongside them.

Here's the only serious photo we managed to capture!

Clean water for all three schools in Zambia!

'Tis the season for holidays and most of the Beyond Ourselves team are enjoying some time off over August - resting and relaxing, rejuvenating and refreshing!

It's HOT where I am today, kind of steamy hot, and so I am drinking glasses and glasses of bottled water to stay hydrated. And as I have sat drinking my clean, cool water I am so thankful for it!

And it has reminded me how grateful I am that over these past 18 months or so we have seen bore holes dug at all three of our partner schools. Greater Joy, Janna and Kawama now all have access to water on the school site.

Water that is not only refreshing on a hot day, but clean water that is safe for them to drink, cook with and wash in.

Life changing.

Not just for the school children and staff, but for the surrounding communities too who also have access to the water from a community tap at each school.

Community transforming.

If you helped make this happen, I raise my glass (of water) and say thank you!