Danielle de Sousa is raising money for Plan International
As financial advisors, we are passionate about taking care of people and making sure that we can help make people’s lives better financially in any way we can. So, with this mentality at the forefront of everyone in the office’s minds, we wanted to extend our help to others outside of the financial advice world. That’s why we started our Oportfolio charity initiative, where we dedicate each quarter of the year to raising money for a specific charity chosen by each of our team members. Last quarter, one of our senior mortgage and protection advisors Jade Pinkerton raised money for MacMillan Cancer Support by running the ASICS London 10K. This quarter, our operations manager Danielle de Sousa has chosen Plan International as the charity to see out the year.
Why Plan International?
For many years, Danielle has been a big supporter of Plan International and the work that they do. She has sponsored them on a personal level and so it was an absolutely obvious choice for the team to focus the last quarter of the year on helping support their cause. So, what is Plan International?
The organisation was founded in 1937 by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and aid worker Eric Muggeridge during the Spanish civil war. The organisation at the time was set up to solely support orphans and disadvantaged children of the civil war. They provided these children with food, education, a place to stay, and any other provisions that they weren’t able to access due to the conflict. During the second world war, the organisation evolved to support children from all over Europe who had been orphaned or had otherwise had their normal lives disrupted by the war.
Post-World War 2, the organisation branched out to underdeveloped countries and soon supporting the children from countries in Africa and South America and other parts of the world. For over 80 years, Plan International has supported disadvantaged children all over the world and has raised billions for good causes.
Today, they promote free, equal access to quality education for all children including girls and women who otherwise would not have access. Plan International increase access to sexual health services and eliminate harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage. They work with communities, families, schools and governments to protect children from harm. Whether that is on a large scale like war or a smaller scale like violence in the home.
The Facts And Figures
The organisation is a charity and primarily relies on the generosity of its donors and fundraisers. To illustrate how far your donations goes and the impact such a relatively small donation (to most) can have on a person’s life, Plan have released the following figures:
- £6 is enough to send a girl to school in Guatemala for a month. That’s less than £72 a year to pay for a child’s entire education.
- £12 could provide a dignity kit to a girl in Mozambique so they can manage their periods. The kit contains items such as reusable period pads, pairs of underwear, soaps for washing clothes and bathing, a bag, and nail clippers.
- £22 could provide 5 children in Mali with radios and educational materials for remote learning in emergencies.
- £55 is enough to support a Positive Parents group In Tanzania for a year, building up parents as allies against female genital mutilation and child marriage.
- £234 is enough to provide 12 months of training to a teacher in Sierra Leone.
What Are Oportfolio Doing To Support Plan International?
As we are supporting Plan for the entire last quarter of the year, we will be doing lots of fundraising activities to raise as much money as we possibly can. To kick things off, Danielle will be putting her talents as an artist to good use!
Danielle paints and draws wildlife as well as commission artwork, working with mostly Watercolours, gouache, and charcoal mediums. To raise money for the charity, Danielle will be creating three wildlife paintings and auctioning them off to the three people who donate the most money to Oportfolio’s cause.
Born & raised in Goa, and as a tribute to part of her heritage, Danielle has decided to paint three animals that are endangered in India. These animals are the Bengal Tiger, The Blackbuck & The One-horned Rhino. Each piece will be a unique one-of-a-kind painting and all proceeds from the auction will go directly to Plan International through Oportolio’s JustGiving page.
How Can I Donate And How Can I Win A Painting?
We have set up a JustGiving page where anyone wishing to donate can do so. Any small donation in support of our charity initiative will go a long way as you can see above so, please donate anything you can. If you do want to be in the running for one of the paintings, you will need to dig deep as the three paintings will go to the three people who have donated the most! Progress of how the paintings are coming along and any other activities we as a team are doing for Plan this quarter will be posted on our social media.
