2009 - What a year

2009 was a fantastic year for Quest4Change and we would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our volunteers and supporters who made this happen.

In Africa an incredible five sand dams were built by the summer team in Kenya, in Malawi the Gap team finished the clinic house and spent hours working at the local orphan feeding centre. The summer team then continued their good work at the feeding centre and built a classroom for grades 3 and 4 in the village of Chitakale. In Tanzania the team built an income generating Tilapia pond for the school at Waang'waray and a classroom with an office attached.

Volunteer Amrit working hard in Malawi

In South America volunteers built five homes for come of the poorest families living in the shanty town of Villa Maria, Peru, as well as spending 100s of hours providing sporting and recreational activities for the local kids during their summer holidays. In Rio the team worked tirelessly in their preparations for carnival and came an incredible 6th. They also put their hard efforts into caring for the 17 disabled boys living at Casa Lar in the Mangueira favela.

Carnival preparations in Rio in full swing at Casa Lar

And the last ever team worked on the Ecuadorian Amazon Conservation project in Yachana, maintaining many of the projects that Quest began here as well as building a raised greenhouse to protect crops from flood damage.

And our fundraisers have been on incredible form.

• In Rio the team raised nearly £4,000 for the struggling Casa Lar.
• In Villa Maria the team raised an incredible £5,500 to save the life of Ana Mariela, a local girl with a life threatening tumor.
• An incredible £6,500 was raised at one salsa night in memory of Katie Ashbridge, a volunteer at Villa Maria back in 2000.
• Andy's first ever Chicken week campaign raised over £1,000 for a chicken coup project at the school in Tanzania.
• Lucy Lapere raised over £1,000 by cycling from London to Paris.
  
• The staff at Watson Wyatt have also shown incredible support for the Villa Maria project by raising an incredible £2,600 through a cake sale and a further £2, 809 was raised at their fantastic salsa night in September.
• Ted Waite (pictured below) bared all to raise £345 for the boys of Casa Lar by doing the world famous Naked Bike ride through Brighton.

It really has been an incredible year. A huge thank you to everyone who has worked with and supported Quest4Change and were looking forward to an even more exciting 2010.

Find out more about what you've helped us achieve here.

Visit Quest4Change.org for more information on all the projects and how you can get involved.