Following a fantastic year of fundraising, Co-operative food stores, pharmacies and banks across Wales have raised almost £93,000 for Seeds of Hope, a partnership between Oxfam and Dolen Cymru supporting growing and sustainability projects in Wales and Africa.
Ashley Drake, membership manager for The Co-operative in Wales said “The Seeds of Hope partnership has gone from strength to strength since we launched our fundraising drive early in 2012. Our store and branch colleagues really embraced the challenge and came up with some innovative and fun ways to raise cash. The fact that we have managed to exceed our original target of £50,000 by such an amount is testament to the hard work of store and branch teams, and also the generosity and support of our customers.”
Lorraine Rees, Community Fundraiser for Oxfam, said “We are overwhelmed by the amount of money raised, which will bring long-lasting change to families living in poverty. It means Oxfam can help improve the lives of hundreds of families in Ethiopia by training more women beekeepers and expanding a honey-making cooperative. As a result, families will be able to afford to send their children to school and eat better food. In Wales, some of the money will be used to recruit a part-time project worker in Duffryn,
Newport, who will encourage families to join the local food cooperative, eat more fresh fruit and vegetables and improve their health.”
Dolen Cymru will use their share of the money to develop an orchard project in Lesotho, which will enable disabled people and people affected by HIV/AIDS to grow food, eat healthily and sell the surplus produce.
Pictured with Lorraine and Ashley are Veronica German from Dolen Cymru and staff from the Kidwelly Co-operative, who raised an incredible £2,400 with a headshave, book stall and name the bear competition.