A Most Generous Couple

A lovely couple contacted us recently and you can read their story for yourselves. Their wedding was a few days ago and we have copied what they wrote on their Just Giving Page

They wrote “For those of you visiting this page who don’t already know us, Audry (‘Aye Aye’) and Robin met about 5 years ago in London and are (at long last!) getting married on 17 August 2010 in Gloucestershire.  Audry is originally from Myanmar, while Robin is English.

As an alternative to traditional wedding gifts we both felt we wanted to use any gifts received to fund something tangible in Myanmar to commemorate our marriage.

After weeks of researching alternatives we came across a small charity called the Burma Children’s Fund (www.burmachildrensfund.org.uk).  The charity is non-political, non-religious organisation run entirely by volunteers, dedicated to helping the children of Burma through the provision of pre-schools, orphanages and healthcare. There is a moving account on their website of how the charity came into being from quite different beginnings, following a visit to Myanmar in 2004 by the founders. [This story is now on this blog]

After contacting the charity founders, and explaining what we were hoping to achieve, we were delighted when they called us a couple of weeks later with a specific project in need of funding. We plan to use any gifts received from our wedding to help establish a permanent pre-school in a village called Pyan Sakan in Pyone Chaung Parish, 8 miles from Taungoo (about 140 miles north of Yangon).  We have uploaded a photograph of the actual building that we are hoping to help purchase, taken in June 2010 specifically for us!

There are 89 families in this village currently using a house as a makeshift pre-school.  In its present form, the building can only accommodate 20 children, which is small percentage of the local children of eligible pre-school age. Any gifts will be put towards purchasing the building to secure its continued use as a pre-school, extending it to accommodate more children in the future, and training teachers to provide the tuition.

If you feel you would like to help us commemorate our marriage in this way, we would be delighted to receive donations in lieu of wedding presents towards this cause.  Donating through the JustGiving website is obviously a fabulous way to do this as they make the entire process very simple and, for UK taxpayers, are able to add approximately 20% (after costs) in Gift Aid.  However if you are coming to our wedding or know us personally we would also be delighted to receive personal cheques or cash before, at or after the wedding which we will then add to the JustGiving pot on your behalf.

Thanks so much from us both in advance for your generosity.  This truly is the best wedding present you could give us.

All the best,

Robin & Audry xx”

We are so grateful to Robin and Audrey and their family and friends for their generous support for the children in Burma. And Just Giving is such an easy way for people to donate when they want to help a charity.