LittleStars-Luxor

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

 Egyptian Registration

We are delighted to announce that Little Stars' registration as an Egyptian Society has been completed.  It took fourteen months for all the checks and paperwork to be finalised but this week we were issued with an Egyptian charity number.  We passed all of the health checks on the clinic and security checks (including police checks on Trustees and staff) with flying colours. 

The registration will affect only the charity's accounting procedures and not the way the charity operates.  The advantages are that Little Stars will no longer have a tax liability in Egypt which means that we can now buy that longed for vehicle without a tax burden and that we can collect funds from tourists and residents in Luxor which we had not been able to do before. 

Thanks are offered to all those in the UK and in Egypt who worked so hard to bring this about.

www.Littlestars-Luxor.org  and www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

 Royal Ascot

Every year the Royal Borough of Windsor allows charities to collect funds during Royal Ascot week.  There are usually a lot of applicants for the privilege and a draw is held in the Mayor's Parlour to decide who the lucky charities are.  We are lucky to get a place two years ago and the rules do not allow any charity to apply two years in a row.  This gives small charities like Little Stars a chance to be selected.

We placed our application with Windsor Borough Council a whole year ago and the draw was held yesterday.  Today we were advised that we have been awarded a permit to collect funds on one of the Royal Ascot Days.  We are delighted as it brings the new Training Centre which will lead widows into self-sufficiency and being able to care for their children that bit closer.

Thanks are offered to all who wished us well in the draw and to the Royal Borough of Windsor for arranging it.

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

 New Patron - Countess Carnarvon

We have had some delightful news today when we learned that the Countess Carnarvon has agreed to become a patron of Little Stars. We are very proud to have both the Earl and the Countess of Carnarvon as joint patrons. Wonderful.

Countess Carnarvon also sent a generous donation to help our work with Luxor's children. The Countess visited the west bank clinic to observe our work last November and hopes to return to Luxor for another visit later this year.

www.Littlestars-luxor.org and www.Littlestarsluxor.com

Little Stars on Ebay

At the request of some of our supporters, Little Stars is now a registered charity on Ebay.  The registration with Mission Fish, which is the charitable arm of Ebay, is now complete.  If you are selling items on Ebay, you can support Little Stars simply by nominating Little Stars as your favourite charity and a percentage of your sale will be donated to Little Stars automatically.  Please help if you can as every penny counts and every penny is put to very good use.

There are a lot of Egyptian items offered on Ebay, if just a few sellers nominated Little Stars as part beneficiary of a sale, it would make a real difference to the lives of many children in Egypt.

Thank You

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

Wonderful Donations

Little Stars has been exceptionally lucky this week as we have received a magnificent donation of £800 from Peter Allingham at Ancient World Tours.  The funds were donated by travellers on one of his most recent tours of Luxor.  We are particularly delighted as it means that more work can be carried out on the new Training Centre.

In addition to this sum, we received a cheque for £100 from Barry Ross at Stuart Ross Publishing to be used to help one of the sponsored families.  That particular family, and others, are desperately in need of cookers and this will easily cover the cost of two gas cooker and gas bottles that will be delivered to Haja Marise.

To put icing on the cake, we have received a box of lenses from Vision Support in North Wales.  The lenses are for those who are marginally to severely visually impaired and will be shared between the clinic and the Good Samaritan Home for Disabled people.  The lenses came through Brian Robertson and we are very grateful that he thought of us.

We thank everyone for their support.

www.Littlestars-Luxor.org  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

Training Centre for village women 

We have been able to sign a lease on the premises above the Qurna clinic.  The space will be used to provide classrooms where village women and girls can learn skills which could lead them to self-sufficiency and an ability to care for their families without handouts.  Work will start on preparing the premises in the very near future.

Classes will be offered in sewing, beading and weaving, simple hairdressing skills suitable for use among village women, animal care and cheese making, plus basic literacy where possible.

We need your prayers that Allah will provide as although we have a donation of £1,000 to start the work, it is going to cost a lot more.  Investigations are being made into the possibility of applying for an EU grant.

Without you none of this would be possible.

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

Cairo Shopping Trip for Equipment

We have been able to buy all the tables, chairs and storage boxes for the new nursery school in Luxor but we had to travel to Cairo to buy all the larger items of equipment.  The items were shipped down to Luxor and we are now just waiting for building work to be completed before everything is put in place.

We are now seeking smaller items that are robust and stimulating.  If you have any large-piece jigsaw puzzles that your children have outgrown would you consider taking them out to Luxor with you when you next visit of perhaps post them to the Little Stars UK office so that we can take them out there.  Every little thing helps.

While we were in Cairo we were able to buy all the equipment for the new dental surgery.  This arrived in a large wooden crate and will be installed as soon as the necessary plumbing has been completed.  The dental chair will be installed by the supplier who graciously gave us a good discount as we were a registered charity.

We also bought a large batch of wheelchairs in Cairo which are now in our East Bank Distribution Centre.  The blankets, which took an extraordinary time to be delivered, are now with us and will be distributed to our sponsored families in a few days time.

Thank You

Without you we can do nothing

With you we can do so much.

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

The Villages

We have been out in the villages this week for the first time in 2010.  The baby we have been caring for is now able to hold its head up but the skin infection we have been fighting in a little girl has unforuntately returned and has again spread to her face.

Some major repair work is being done in two homes thanks to a donation from Lynne Weyman who is a family sponsor.  A small amount of money goes a long way in Egypt and the donation enables a cement floor to be put in to cover the mud that is there now and will allow the electricity wiring to be replaced and a toilet added.  In Europe this would cost thousands of pounds but in Egypt the cost is small.  There will be some left over for luxuries.

Unfortunately the blankets we were hoping to distribute have not been delivered from Cairo so we could not distribute them along with the food parcels but we hope that they will arrive within the next few days.

Without your support we would not be able to do any of these things.

www.LittleStars-Luxor-ork  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

In Memory Donations

Life is very hard when you lose a loved one and it is difficult to decide how someone should be remembered.  Little Stars now has an "In Memory" section on the website where people can donate in the memory of those they cared about.  A donation could be for a general or specific purpose and if you wish a piece of equipment in the Nursery School or a room in the Clinic or the Training Workshops could named in their memory.

What better way to remember those who have died than by helping those whose lives are still in front of them but have so little to help them on their way.

www.LittleStars-Luxor.org  and  www.Littlestarsluxor.com

Project Developments

At the beginning of this month, our clinic was visit by Lord and Lady Carnarvon who accepted a cheque for 25,000 le from Mr. Ehab Gaddis the Honorary Consul.  The cheque was a donation from the British Embassy Port Said Fund towards the completion of a dental facility in the clinic.  Lord Carnarvon added a generous donation of his own to Little Stars and there is now sufficient funding for the project to go ahead.

Little Stars has also been given a donation of £1,000 to start Project Libra which involves the setting up of training workshops were widows and girls can learn a trade that will help them earn a living to support their families.  The donation is given in memory of Dorrie Sharp by her daughter Lynne Weyman who is one of our family sponsors. The donation is specific to this project and will be used to start work on completing an area of the floor above the clinic into workshops.

With you we can do so much.

Without you we can do nothing.

www.Littlestars-Luxor.org  and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

 Little Stars on Facebook

Facebook has millions of members and is the the favourite networking site for many people.  Little Stars has a Facebook page which is added to on a very regular basis.  For up-to-date information on the charity's work in Luxor, Egypt, have a look at our page. 

Becoming a fan on the site allows us to email you when we have important news. 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=94512927330&ref=ts

Come and join us.

 www.LittleStars-Luxor.org   and  www.LittleStarsLuxor.com

Gift Aid and Sponsorship

There was a pile of mail waiting to be sorted on return from a recent visit to Luxor, including Gift Aid Forms from new sponsors - thank you everyone.  Gift Aid adds 25% to every donation you make. 

Sponsorship makes so much difference to a family and our family sponsors are wonderfully supportive.  In one family we have a new baby girl who is now one month old.  The baby's mother's milk has completely dried up and she cannot feed it.  Baby milk is subsidised in Egypt but she has such a small income that she still could not afford it without a sponsor's help and the baby would without doubt die through malnourishment.  Fortunately we are able to buy the milk the baby needs.

Malnourishment is very different from starvation.  There is no apparent starvation in Egypt as there is sufficient bread but babies and children do not thrive and grow on a diet of bread alone.  The Little Stars' food parcels are vital in the areas we work in and Gift Aid tax returns means that 25% can be added at no extra cost.

With you we can do so much.

Without you we can do nothing.