Gourmet Garden Party at Gregans Castle Hotel, Sunday 15th August
Hi guys
Hope everyone is keeping well! I've had a busy week - was away in France with Donagh and my folks for a week of badly needed R&R after Irish Aid. Amber was fit to collapse afterwards, and Tara came down with an awful dose and was in bed for a week after it, so I think we were all burnt out. Donagh had a blast in France - he's a mad thing for the sea, so he bum shuffled his way down the beach like a rocket every day and sat in the water with little waves coming in, trying to catch bits of flotsam and driftwood and splashing his chubby hands merrily in the water! I had a lovely week, doing very little and catching up on sleep, and doing lots of swimming. I got back last Tuesday and was busy last week with a board meeting on Thursday and finalising our summer newsletter for the printers, which should go out at the end of next week to you all, with an update on our work and where your funds are going.
Everything is going very well in Nepal on our programmes, which is great news. The women's literacy classes are going very well, and the food production, healthcare and micro finance programmes are well underway this year. Funding is tight though, and some capital projects that we had hoped to press ahead with by May have been postponed until after the monsoon in September. The local people and local government offices are all extremely positive about our work, and the feedback is extraordinarily positive, which is great. In 2009, the local community contributed 25% of the cost of the programmes in terms of free labour, free materials, land etc, while we funded the other 75%, so it shows the level of their commitment to our work, given how little resources they have.
On the Irish side here, we are writing up our formal application to the board of our philantropic fund at the moment, and their board meeting takes place in mid August. This is the other major funding that we are applying for at present, and if we can get this and the Irish Aid over the line, we move from a very difficult funding position with difficulty forecasting our income each month, to much more stable and predictable funding, and a lot more of it. The newsletter is being finalised, and then we have radio adds that we hope to get out on air for free on NewsTalk over the summer, so this week I am finalising who will be recording them, and hope to push ahead with that next week.
This year, we are doing a summer gourmet garden party in the fabulous surrounds of 4* Gregans Castle Hotel. Situated at the foot of Corkscrew Hill outside Ballyvaughan, an hour from Galway, with magnificant views out over the Burren, Gregans is a really enchanting country house hotel. It's wom the Georgina Campbell country house of the year for 2010, and a host of other awards. So the event is on Sunday 15th August, kicking off at 2pm. Pimms will be served on the lawn, beside their beautiful rose gardens, and we have fantastic jazz musicians and Nepali musicians playing for the afternoon, along with gourmet food, and a hawk display. We will also have some children's entertainment if you want to bring the little terrors with you and have them taken off your hands while you chill out for a few hours! You can stay overnight in Gregans as well if you fancy treating yourselves. Ticket numbers are restricted to 70, and it's €50 for adults and €25 for children. Not cheap, but it will be a gorgeous afternoon of croquet on the lawns and a real gourmet feast from their award-winning organic restaurant. They are hoping to go for a Mitchelin star next year, so it really will be an afternoon to remember. Tickets available from Gregans Castle Hotel on 065 7077005, or www.gregans.ie. We hope you will support this event and have a really special day!
Otherwise, I'm a bit under the weather with a bit of flu here, and a lot of snuffling is going on, poor me. With that, I'll take my decrepid self off to the kitchen table for a bit of lunch. Hope you are all keeping well!
Lots of love
Nicky XXX
