Making a difference

A fundraising project by children and families at a Dumfries church has raised more than £10,000 in just two months.

Kids4Togo is raising money for a Compassion UK campaign to help families in Togo, one of the poorest countries in the world, provide for themselves.

Spokesman for the group, Tony Read said: “Kids4Togo is a fundraising initiative created by children and their families from St George’s Church in Dumfries, who want to help the fight against hunger in Togo.

We aim to raise £11,000 for Compassion UK’s ‘Planting a Way Through the Storm’

Project, which will provide enough seeds and fertiliser to feed 1016 families in Togo for seven months. We have already raised over £10,000 towards our total through donations and sponsorship, but are not ready to stop there.”

To raise funds the Kids4Togo group of 10 children (aged between 1 and 10) and their families, supported by members of St George’s and their friends have been taking on a number of challenges:

• The first was a Virtual Trek across Togo, in which the children walked, ran and cycled a collective 360 miles in four weeks.

• The second was a Taste4Togo challenge requiring them to taste 3 foods whilst blindfolded, donate £3 and nominate three friends to complete the challenge.

• The third challenge is the one which involves helping the kids on their ‘Virtual Trek Home’ from Togo. The local community is invited to help by joining the kids walking, running or cycling a collective of 3217 miles back home to Dumfries. Already this is paying off with ‘trekkers’ registering to donate and submitting the distances they are walking to add to the total miles.

Alex Clark, volunteering manager at Compassion UK, said: “The Kids4Togo fundraising campaign is a wonderful initiative and is so heartening to see.

Compassion UK commends the tremendous efforts they are making. We are so grateful for what they have achieved so far – we know this will make an amazing difference to children and their families in Togo.”