Video about Uganda

Here is a short video I made about my experience in Uganda :)

Unfortunately, due to copyright issues I can't post it on here directly, but follow this link to see it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQKsgMJ_1ko&list=UUp5EbPsmLW1GD5DgB4QT1Bg

More posts to come!

Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed it :)

Silvia

Thank you for your donation!

To everyone who donated,

I just wanted to write this post to thank all of you for your donations to this amazing cause. Building a playground with East African Playgrounds has definitely been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. 

The school I was based at was called Kyabirwa Pre-school and was run by a charity called Soft Power Education, which runs schools and health clinics in the area. We also built a very small playground in another of their pre-schools, just a short drive from us (not that much fun on Ugandan roads!). There were 90 kids in the pre-school and an SEN block, which made the project even more special because some of the items in the playground were especially designed for SEN kids.

Here are some pictures of the school and competed playgrounds:

Disabled swing

Cave (ant hill)

The first wobble-board EAP has ever seen!

Alice showing off the caterpillar

The school where we worked and stayed

Complex (my personal favourite)

Cars

Recliners

Sensory wall

Shop and cafe`

Sensory wall from the otehr side

Swings

Crocodile seesaw

Snake seesaw

Elephants

Boda boda (Ugandan motorbikes)

Hippo

As you can see, the playground turned out great! And it would not have been possible without your help, so thank you from all the children of Kyabirwa!

I will be going to Uganda again next summer as a leader, so if you'd like to donate to my next adventure or volunteer for East African Playgrounds, please get in touch :) I'll make more posts talking about my amazing time in Uganda and will update you on my upcoming project as well.

Silvia

BAKE SALE :D

Here are some pictures of mine and Sarah's bake sale on campus from Thursday! We managed to raise an amazing £51.73 all together!! Thank you to everyone who bought a cupcake or donated their spare change :) We will definitely be doing one again soon!

And a special thank you to our housemate Chris, who helped us bake and decorate!
Click here for my Virgin Money Giving page and here for my friend Sarah's blog :)

Silvia

February update!

Hi everyone :) 

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated in the last two months! I am now at 470, but have actually got some money that I collected in my bucket that needs to be added to that. Now, let's have a look at that to do list I wrote a while back :)

1. Get a permit for bucketing in York in January - That didn't happen :( but I am hoping we will get a permit in a couple of weeks!

2. Organize a bake sale for next term (already have loads of boxes and things like that) - DONE

3. Think about busking - still thinking about it...

4. Try and sell some CDs and songs online (if interested stay tuned!) - still working on that one, and maybe thinking of doing a small concert :)

5. Sell some gingerbread men bags before Christmas (next week) - DONE and it went pretty well :) thanks to all those who bought some!

6. Get in touch with my Grandmother about asking for donations at her church - this also hasn't happened yet :(

7. Send private emails/messages to people I know might want to donate - DONE :)

8. Make plans to fundraise while I'm in Italy (busking) - I don't think this is ever going to happen actually, Italy is just not much of a charity giving kind of place

9. Make JAM with my buddy Sarah! (IT'S JAM FOR AFRICA) - still a work in progress!

10. Make a video for my Youtube channel promoting my fundraising page - DONE! here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNiktdx_xBw&list=UUp5EbPsmLW1GD5DgB4QT1Bg&feature=c4-overview

11. Update my page and come up with an original idea (easier said than done!) - still haven't updated, but I think I have a good idea :)

So, all in all, I have done some things and am still planning others. Better than I expected really! Now I just need to concentrate on that bucketing, making some jam, and doing something involving singing :) 

As always, this is my donations page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=SilviaHarvey

Thank youuu :)
Silvia

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Buon Natale!

Joyeux Noel!

Feliz Navidad!

Froehliche Weihnachten!

Krismasi Njema!

圣诞快乐!


!عيد ميلاد مجيد

С Рождеством!

And in the Christmas spirit, please click here to donate to East African Playgrounds :) any donation, big or small, will truly make a difference! Thanks :)

Silvia

P4A 2013 - East African Playgrounds VIDEO

Hi!

I finally made a video about the Uganda project! It's part of the Project for Awesome, which is an awesome (sorry for the repetition, but that's what it is!) thing that brothers Hank and John Green put together to raise thousands for ten charities which get voted for :) So please go vote for East African Playgrounds and DFTBA :)

Silvia

Cute and easy Christmas gift! :)

Hi guys!

I've been working on this little Christmas gift idea and I thought I would share it :) It's a mixture for chocolate truffles! Delicious, I've tasted them. Trust me. It's really easy and you don't even need many ingredients! Also, even if it's edible it won't go soft, hard or off that quickly either :)

Here we go!

Ingredients:
200 g (7oz) milk chocolate
250 g (8oz) dark chocolate (70%+)
375 ml double cream
3 tbsp Champagne or sparkling white wine
1 tsp vanilla extract or flavouring
cocoa powder (optional)

N.B. I bought my ingredients in Italy, that's why they're all in Italian :) AND I only used half of them, so you should have more than this!

 Step 1: Pour the double cream in a pan and heat it until it boils gently.

Step 2: In the mean time, chop the chocolate up, put it into a heatproof dish.

Step 3: make sure you also line a dish with cling film! This was just big enough for me, so you might want to use something bigger if you're making the whole mixture :)

Step 4:  Pour half of the cream onto the chocolate to melt for about a minute, then whisk! I used that, although you can do it with an electric one  as well :) 

Step 5: Pour the rest of the cream and stir until nice and glossy!

Step 6: Add the vanilla and the wine! (Forgot to take a picture of the wine, sorry!)

It should now look something like this :) Well, probably better! 

Step 7: Pour the mixture in the dish that you prepared before.

Step 8: Put it in the fridge and leave to set for 4 hours or more (I recommend overnight)

Step 9: When it's finally set, scoop teaspoonfuls and make them into balls.

Step 10: To make them look a bit better I coated them with cocoa powder, but it's up to you :) I used cling film and made it into a sort of bag and shook it with the truffle in it :) I hope that was clear! Remember to shake the excess powder off!

The purpose of the cling film was to make this less messy, but it clearly failed :( Tip: coat your hands in cocoa powder when you're rolling them in balls

  And here they are! I actually managed to make about 30 from half of the ingredients (including a minuscule one and a malformed one), so bear that in mind :)

You can also make them in squares if you want :) In that case, take a warm knife and just slice the mixture after it's set!

Next up: Making them into little gift boxes!

So, I got these cute boxes and the pink paper from Tiger :) (which, if you don't know, you HAVE to go to) I'm sure you can find similar things in Hobby Craft or similar :)

First, I put the paper in the box and then cut it to fit, and then put the truffles in. However, please learn from my mistakes! I would actually suggest putting the truffles in first, and then cutting the paper to fit :)

And here's the box from the outside. You can just put a little bow on it to make it into a nice present or wrap it :) works either way (or on its own actually)!

I hope this might inspire somebody! It sure inspired me :) Thank you for reading and please go and check out my Virgin Money Giving page by clicking here :)

If I find some more time off from revision, I'll try and make another Xmas related post and update on fundraising!

Silvia 

Credits for the recipe go to Laura Buxton :)