Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund

Atlas Foundation Asia & Anita, Alex & Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund - Asia Regional Report

1. Fundraising

With the many restrictions in Singapore lifted The Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund are excited to be looking at Fundraising events over the next coming year!

We are currently looking into more events, runs and Gala dinner, all dates and details to be confirmed.

We do have a team entering the ‘Two Oceans Ultra Marathon’ and are looking forward to promoting this event. For many of the participants they have just completed the entry marathon to be eligible to do the race in under four hours! We will be updating and following their progress for the April event.

1. Projects

As projects and areas find a new norm following the Covid Pandemic, the need for help and support has clearly not been reduced but neither has our determination to find and support the poorest and most disadvantaged children in Asia.

Kampuchea Balop

We are excited to be looking at our partnership renewal to guarantee the longevity of our relationship. The team have recently had the opportunity to visit the project in action. Travelling to Oudong where the Anita, Alex & Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund sponsors an All-Schools programme, taking rugby into the schools as part of the children’s PE program. The team managed to visit two of the five schools.

What shone through all of the sessions they saw was the caring enthusiasm, energy and know how from the KB educators and the absolute enjoyment on view from every one of the children.

These children have so little but thanks to KB they now have rugby. The rugby values of teamwork, respect for themselves and the team/classmates. It was also great to see so many girls engaged alongside the boys.

They continue to do a great job of engaging and supporting children with significant disadvantages in Cambodia.

Khelo Rugby

We are excited to be finalising a new three year funding agreement with Khelo Rugby, we are continuing to support this project and are looking to build on the past relationship with them and support the growth of the fantastic work they do in Kolkota and other parts of India.

The application for funding has been split into four parts allowing the Foundation to support the day to day running of the project bringing Rugby to an underprivileged community providing far more than just sport. Behind it lying the ethos and values of rugby. We are also excited to be embarking on the opportunity of a scholarship program for secondary school children as well as university scholars. This is a fantastic opportunity to make a systematic change, the funding will go some way to helping disadvantage children not only through rugby but also contribute through education making a grass route change and facilitating these children within the community

The ethos of khelo Rugby is to provide mentorship and support throughout the programme so these scholarships will penetrate far wider then the individual themselves they will benefit a community as a whole as they help and tutor younger peers.

The Anita, Alex and Annabel Nicholson Memorial Fund have been seeking ways to leverage knowledge of the educational sector in Asia to help identify several potential partners who will work with The Anita, Alex and Annabel Memorial Fund and Khelo Rugby to create bespoke educational programs that can be delivered to the players at khleo Rugby.

The first part of this pilot started in August 2022, with an exciting horizon. Due to the recent success of the GlobalGiving “Little by Little” campaign we raised enough funds for 15 extra seats in our pop-up classrooms. We intend to extend this to 20 seats and replicate the project in Saraswatipur with the hope that we can engage with a cohort of 8-10year olds along with an additional cohort of older children at different times using the same devices.

We would like to thank Studycat for their kind donation for the software and the time and commitment given to get this pilot up and running. With their continued support they have provided the educational online platform giving access for the students and teachers to facilitate this pilot without whom it would not be possible.

As we analyse the success of our pilot and the impact it has had in a short space of time, we are looking at best ways to improve or adapt the pilot in order to optimise the project. We hope that this will allow us to gain the optimal success when trying to expand out to a larger community of children.

Le Tour ICB is a virtual cycling event that took place in March 2021 Khelo Rugby requested to spend the funds raised to replace two of their existing buses, we are delighted to announce the arrival of these buses! These buses will be used to transport the children within the programme, adding to the resources for the children and pushing the availability of the program through the communities that they serve.

In addition, in the spirit of cycling the remaining funds have been used for their cycle workshop, four mountain bikes in Saraswatipur and two road bikes for use in Kolkata. We look forward to hearing about their progress!