During this Christmas week I would like to flag up three outstanding charity organisations with which Nomadic Thoughts are proudly affiliated. Operating in our holiday destination countries all three NGOs offer, in their own unique ways, a phenomenal grass-roots service to local communities.

So if you do have a few minutes I would urge you to please look at their web-sites. You never know you may be inspired to get more involved.

The first is our very own charity New Life Mexico. The second Just-A-Drop, and the third TanzanEar.

1. NEW LIFE MEXICO – New Life Mexico’s work focuses on supporting vulnerable children and young people in Mexico through social, health and education programmes. It is a registered UK charity that is firmly embedded in Nomadic Thoughts’ DNA.

I have been directly involved since its inception ten years ago, as it was my sister Philippa who set up the charity after initially working as a volunteer in an orphanage in Puerto Vallarta. I am a Director & Trustee and am very proud that Nomadic Thoughts have not only been consistently involved in financing and running local projects, but also donate our services to run the UK office.

I also took the bulk of the photos on the website during my last visit.

Whilst a high proportion of New Life Mexico’s initial work focused on the rehabilitation of street children, more recently our emphasis has broadened out to provide direct, local out-reach programmes. The aim of which is to give the most vulnerable children a better alternative to violence, drugs and gangs.

Although at times we do find things extremely stressful and harrowing, as a tiny charity we are very proud of our successes over the years. We continue to keep the long term sustainability of our projects at the forefront of our planning, and guarantee that 100% of our funding is spent locally in Mexico.

On a personal note, one of our proudest family moments was when Philippa, having being nominated by the British Embassy in Mexico City for her New Life Mexico work, ran through Glastonbury with the London 2012 Olympic Torch on Day 4 of the Torch Relay.

For further information please see www.newlifemexico.com or contact us at Nomadic Thoughts.

2. JUST-A-DROP 

Just-A-Drop is again a very special charity providing international water aid to some of the poorest communities in over 29 countries worldwide.

Initially launched in 1998 by a close friend of mine – Fiona Jeffery OBE – the impact Just-A-Drop has made across an enormous range of destinations has been remarkable. In addition to providing clean drinking water to many local communities in a host of our holiday destination countries, Just-A-Drop are presently working along side New Life Mexico, on a selection of new school water houses projects.

Just-A-Drop’s sense of purpose and efficiency of organisation, has been matched by their passion to get as big a bang for their donors’ buck as possible. For example the water-houses they are presently installing in partnership with New Life Mexico are to provide over 4.5 million cups of water p.a. to otherwise  ‘dry’ local school communities.

For further information please see www.justadrop.org

3. TANZANEAR

TanzanEar is also a UK charity. Dedicated to helping deaf people in Tanzania lead richer, and more fulfilling lives. They do this by concentrating their efforts on supporting the ‘Buguruni School for the Deaf’ in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The school struggles to make ends meet with only a limited state-run supply of teachers, administration and maintenance supplies. TanzanEar helps with vital additional funding which the school so desperately needs to stay in existence.

On a smaller scale, knowing how cold nights and early mornings can be in East Africa, we at Nomadic Thoughts were particularly pleased to recently donate 50+ fleecies to the school when Jonathan Pym, who has worked at Nomadic Thoughts, recently spent a period of time volunteering at Buguruni.

Suffice to say we are very keen to continue our involvement in this unique local Africa education programme.

For further information please see www.tanzanear.org