It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since Bristol’s Twitter community came together in just five weeks to organise a fantastic party and raised over £1,500 for charity: water. If you missed it or fancy reminiscing about what was a wonderful evening, watch this short film:
We were one of 185 cities around the world which took part. Twelve months on we’re doing it all again and who knows how many locations will get involved?!
The theme of this year’s Twestival, which takes place on Thursday 25 March, is education and after an online vote Concern Worldwide was chosen as the 2010 charitable cause.
Founded in 1968, Concern is a non-governmental, international, humanitarian organization dedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of poverty. Their mission is to help people living in extreme poverty achieve major improvements in their lives - improvements they can sustain without ongoing support. Concern meets the needs of these people in a caring and personalized manner, respecting their human and cultural dignity. They are committed to reaching the most vulnerable, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
Concern’s work is informed by a vision for change and their education programs target the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world, with particular emphasis on reaching out-of-school children such as girls, orphans, street children, working children, children affected by conflict, children affected by HIV and AIDS, and children with disabilities. Concern’s education programs currently reach over 700,000 people in 25 countries across the regions of Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
100% of the money raised in Bristol - and at all Twestivals around the world - will go to Concern Worldwide. The funds will be used for material purchases (curriculum, desks, pencils) as well as project activities such as construction of schools; rehabilitation of classrooms; teacher/management training; PTAs; HIV/AIDS school clubs; water and sanitation in schools; health education in schools; education advocacy; vocational/life-skills training for youth, farmers and women; and curriculum development for secondary school/university. Money will not be used for things like administration, overhead and reporting oversight.
We hope you’ll agree that it is a fantastic cause.
So how can you help? Well, at this point we need everything! Whether you can provide sponsorship, a venue, a raffle prize, food and drink, entertainment, help with press coverage or anything else which contributes to creating a brilliant party we want to hear from you!
To get involved we firstly encourage you to register as an volunteer on the Twestival website. When you’ve done that tweet at us on Twitter or post on our Facebook event page and let us know what you can offer. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
