Purple Cake Day dollars well exceed target

Children’s charity Purple Cake Day raised NZD80,000 this year, significantly above its NZD60,000 target, enabling its project partners in Haiti and Nepal to help educate more than 600 children initially and make real, ongoing change to local schools and communities.

Purple Cake Day, celebrated officially on 1 March, aims to help children learn about other children globally and fundraise for those in need. Working with established project partners, it invests in improving accessibility and delivery of quality education to children in poverty and hardship. New Zealander and humanitarian aid worker Emily Sanson-Rejouis established Purple Cake Day following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, in which her husband and two of her daughters perished.

Ms Sanson-Rejouis says “the fantastic result is a credit to everyone involved. The effects of Purple Cake Day’s 2012 celebrations will be felt for many years, especially where we are investing in teacher training, classroom resources and a library that will benefit many children over time.”

The three project partners in Nepal will receive a total of NZD48,250. First Steps Himalaya’s share will help them develop early learning and year one pilot classrooms in four remote village schools. In Time Trust will create a library at the Kailesh Bodhi School it supports in Jumla, North West Nepal, giving 297 children and their teachers their first real access to books. Sir Edmund Hillary’s Hillary Himalayan Trust will provide scholarships for teenagers not normally able to attend college, due to the cost or considerable walking distance.

First Steps Himalaya CEO & Founding Director Fionna Heiton says ““thanks to Purple Cake Day, we have gained widespread recognition in Nepal for our work. We’re at a very exciting stage of our growth. We’re now opening year one classes, providing transition to school, and are working to create model schools in partnership with the Nepali government in our project area.”

A total of NZD20,750 will be used to sustain Haiti education projects that have been supported since 2011. Project partner Children of Haiti Project, will receive NZD 15,000 to continue providing education, a daily meal and medical care for 87 children left homeless by the 2010 earthquake. NZD5,750 is earmarked for the Henri Christophe Community School rebuild project.

The remaining NZD11,000 has been set aside as a Children's Emergency Fund. This fund will enable Purple Cake Day to respond to a humanitarian emergency, as it did in 2011 when it contributed to Save the Children NZ’s Journey of Hope Programme for children affected by the Christchurch earthquake.

In just its second year of activity, Purple Cake Day 2012 was the catalyst for more than a hundred purple-themed celebrations, fundraising and education activities in classrooms and communities globally, including Australia, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Congo, Dubai, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Myanmar/Burma, Nepal, New Zealand, Scotland, UK, Haiti and the US. More than 1000 people in 28 countries, many of them teachers, downloaded its 46-page Resource Kit, which provides information, ideas and activities related to the charity and its country in focus.

ENDS

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