Thomas Miller reaches the end of its first year with global charity partner Street Child making a £50,000 donation

Thomas Miller were delighted to make a corporate donation to Street Child as we mark the end of a brilliant first year partnership. The donation of £50,000 will be split between three different Street Child operations.

The majority of this donation has been put towards Street Child’s impactful community-based education centres across Baghlan, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces in Afghnaistan, seeing more than 38,000 students access an education. Thomas Miller’s support to Street Child in Afghanistan forms the basis of our partnership and we are thrilled to have been able to contribute to these efforts.

In addition, a portion of the funds have also been allocated to Street Child’s operations in Somalia and Pakistan. In Somalia this includes the distribution of short-term essential relief (food, water, and protection), followed by the construction of rainwater harvesting and storage tanks to ensure sustainable and adequate access to water throughout the year. In Pakistan this includes integrated interventions to protect vulnerable children, provide psychosocial support, and prevent ongoing disruption and dropout of education due to flooding.

Street Child tells us:

“The flexible funding enables us to respond to where need is greatest in our projects across emergency response – providing vital and contextualised life-saving and life-sustaining support.”

We began 2022 by supporting Street Child’s emergency response in Ukraine, and after our employees raised over £11,000, Thomas Miller matched this figure twice, meaning our total fundraising efforts for the crisis was over £31,000. These funds have helped to support over 26,000 children affected in the region since February, being used via a flexible approach to fill in the gaps which neither local governments nor communities can address themselves, forming partnerships with different NGOs across Ukraine and at the Moldovan and Romanian borders too. These partners have distributed food and hygiene packs both to people displaced by the crisis and those sheltering in their hometowns during strikes. Some also set up safe spaces for children to gather and play – despite what is going on around them – as well as receive support from psychologists to process the distress, trauma and disruption that comes with living through war. In recent months, Street Child’s flexible funds in Ukraine have started to shift from humanitarian aid to recovery and resilience, ensuring schools that are in areas safe enough are in a position to reopen.

As we progressed throughout the year, a plethora of enthusiastic employee fundraising events have contributed an impressive amount to our running total, with money raised ranging from participation in the Sierra Leone Marathon to quiz nights and Dress Down Days across our offices, along with many more. The engagement from employees across the globe have all contributed to our current running total of £90,500 in donations to Street Child.

Our global charity partnership is a core element of our unique Corporate Social Programme, Be The Difference, and we are thoroughly looking forward to another year with Street Child, helping to ensure children remain safe, in school and learning in the long term facilitated by some exciting and enriching fundraising initiatives amongst our employee globally.