Ocean Stars Trust 2015 - Ten Years On
OceanStars :: Monday 22nd June 2015 :: Latest Blog Posts
OST Chair John Bunter writes about “Moving On”, in the Spring of 2015…
It was on 21 April 2005 that four of us, Dilanee, Jo Barton (Secretary-elect), Shona Holroyd (Treasurer-elect) and myself, met to discuss about setting up a charity in the aftermath of Dilanee’s “Mercy mission” to Sri Lanka a month before. Looking at the Minutes of that meeting, amongst our Agreed Actions were to
a) Apply for Charity Status
b) Explore means of gaining more funds
c) Report from her SL visit by Dilanee
d) Research organisations to whom we could present our new Charity.
This was the beginning of a fascinating journey for all of us, including Trustees, donors, recipients of our donated funds, and for those in Sri Lanka who have gained employment through us. I am not sure we actually visualised where we would be “Ten Years On”... We marked “TYO” with a fundraising “Party” on 21 March in Fleet, which I am sure many of our readers will remember as a pleasant evening, with a bit of entertainment, a bit of OST news, a speech or two, good (all donated) refreshments, music and pictures, and a time to meet and chat. From the Trustees’ point of view, it was great to meet with many of our donors and friends from over the years. I was able to report in my words of welcome how the Trustees had just completed a very professional-looking “Away Day” conference to discuss “Where Next for OST?” So… we are moving on from the strapline “Rebuilding Shattered Lives” to “Empowering Children in Sri Lanka”.
Readers will appreciate that OST has moved on from just funding Capital projects, to now establishing pre-schools, paying their teachers, and continuing with a range of child sponsorship. We are now also moving forward, as we agreed on our February Away Day, towards building the capacity of OSL (Ocean Stars Lanka, our Batticaloa- based office) so they begin to be self-supporting, and gain their own charitable income. Again, readers will have observed over the years of this Newsletter the many different activities of OST. But be assured that we are indeed always thinking on how the Charity should be progressing. John Bunter Chair, OST
Download the full June 2015 newsletter here