UK Charity Commission Registration Number 1120536

Newsletter 12- May 2008

Archived Newsletter - April 2008

This time last year Little Stars was only a dream, now it is thriving charity with dedicated Trustees and a large support base. All this is more than we could ever have aimed for. Last Christmas we were hoping that our donations would approach £10,000 but this figure has been reached three times over as donations have exceeded £30,000. So much can be done with this money.

In the last year Little Stars has bought 15 wheelchairs and 1,000 food parcels, and has accepted responsibility for two clinics for disabled children that were under the watchful eye of Karnak Charity Hospital where one of the clinics in housed. New equipment has been bought and a new manager put in place on the west bank clinic. In addition, the school fees of 200 children have been paid ensuring their continued education. For the last three months, Little Stars has given regular support to the Good Samaritan Home for Disabled People and two of our supporters have volunteered to provide a supply of meat to the Home on a monthly basis. Four new wheelchairs were given to the Home during April and Khaled our Needs Assessor is monitoring the situation.

Mohammed tries out his new chair	Mona has Cystic Fibrosis

Our support base is ever expanding and now we have new support from a group in America who are making Little Stars their major charity project. There is no other charity in Luxor covering he same range of projects that Little Stars does as we are totally without bias over gender or religion when offering assistance. The support of our American friends is greatly appreciated.

We have bought a batch of tabards with the Little Stars name on them so that our workers and supporters can be easily recognised when it is necessary. They have proven a great success and one will be sent to Kit Claxton so that he is clearly visible on his half-marathon run in October. The tabards match our bright yellow collecting boxes which are seen throughout the UK but which are never used in Luxor as Egyptian law only allows Egyptian charities to raise funds in Egypt. This is no deterrent as we are a UK registered charity with international support and this supports the Egyptian charities rather than enticing funds away from them.

Our bright new tabards	match our collecting boxes

Our plans for a West Bank Clinic that will provide free treatment for chronically sick and disabled children is still high on our Agenda and we have moved £15,000 sterling of your donations into a deposit account towards the cost of buying equipment and a mini-bus for transport. The bid we put into the Lottery Commission has been acknowledged which means that all our paperwork is in order and now we have wait several months to see if we get through to the next round. The clinic is not dependent on the success of the bid: it will just bring its completion that bit closer. Eventually we hope to have the purpose-built centre that was one of our initial aims, but that might have to wait until the success of the trial project is assessed. The new clinic will be called The Little Stars Carnarvon Centre in honour of our patron and the 5th Earl of Carnarvon who with Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The work load in Luxor has been increasing rapidly as the scope of what we undertake grows and it has been evident for a while that we needed a Luxor Administrator to deal with all the day-to-day running of the charity and to make sure that all appeals to Little Stars were dealt with promptly. We are delighted to report that the post was offered to Mrs. Carol Sharples, who has been acting as a volunteer for Little Stars ever since it began, and that she accepted the post. Carol has lived in Luxor for the last six years and is familiar with its culture. Her first task is to sort out the new East Bank Distribution Centre and then take on the task of helping to organise the new clinic on the West Bank.

The centre looks small from the outside.	It will not take long to clear the space

The East Bank Distribution Centre is in Abdel Hamid Ali el Omda Street which is close to the International Hospital. The premises look small from the outside but extend behind all the adjoining shops. They were once used as a dairy and are large enough to get everything that we need inside it. As the premises have not been use for some time they require extensive cleaning and the clearing away of all the old items that have been stored there but this is something that can be done in a matter of hours and then we will be able to start organising the area.

Racks are being made to hang all of the children’s clothes that we have been given and pallets are being bought which will keep foot stuffs off the ground. Initially we only have a one-year lease on the premises but if the Centre works as we hope it will, then the lease will be renewed or alternative premises will be sought.

The inside is like a Tardis and has	sufficient space for all our needs.

The year has not been all plain sailing as we lost our webmaster and all our websites soon after we started. However, Paul stepped in and uploaded a new site for us within days of the original sites’ demise. We can never thank him enough. Paul has now moved to Spain and is busy with a new business and this means that the task of uploading the newsletter and keeping the website up-to-date has passed to our Chairman. She, although willing was not the most proficient webmaster in the world and the whole exercise has meant a learning curve with a steepness to rival that of Mount Everest. Despite all that, the Newsletters are here thanks to Paul’s files and his long-distance guiding hand. We are happy to report that four of the old sites are now running again and there are several ways of finding out what progress Little Stars is making.

We hope to move into the future and our new financial year with the same enthusiasm that our supporters have shown in the last year. Thank you for your support.

Back copies of all our newsletters are available by post if you send a large stamped addressed envelope to our registered office. Back copies can be emailed to you, and any queries answered, through

contact@LittleStars-Luxor-org

With you we can do so much.
Without you we can do nothing.