HOW WE OPERATE
WHO ARE WE?
Workaid is a registered charity set up in 1986 to help tackle poverty in developing countries in a practical way. We have just two fulltime members of staff - our administrator Bill Duperouzel and workshop operations manager Kevin Ling. We also have a part-time fundraiser, Chrissie Russell Flint, and a part-time publicity officer, Kate Barker. The rest of our team, including our management committee, office staff, workshop staff, area organisers and overseas co-ordinators, are all volunteers.
WHAT DO WE DO?
We collect donated tools and equipment from all over the UK through a network of 83 area organisers. The items are refurbished by a team of around 170 volunteers at our workshop in Amersham, then packed and shipped to approved training projects, mostly in East Africa.
WHO DO WE HELP?Refurbished equipment is sent to a wide range of training and employment-generating schemes run by schools, polytechnics, churches, women's groups, and self-help groups for disabled people, HIV/AIDS sufferers and refugees. Hand tools are used to teach skilled trades such as carpentry, masonry, car maintenance and leatherwork. Sewing and knitting machines enable women to set up small businesses at home and typewriters are used to teach secretarial skills. We also supply horticultural tools to small-scale farming projects.
HOW DO WE DELIVER?
Our operation is concentrated in Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, where we work with three partner organisations who visit and assess projects for us, and distribute donated goods to approved projects. Most equipment is sent in bulk in shipping containers, but we also send individual consignments to projects in other parts of Africa and worldwide through other charities.
We make every effort to keep our operational costs to a minimum and are grateful to the companies which make a huge contribution by providing goods and services free: GE Healthcare, which provides our office and workshop; Northern Containers Ltd, of Leeds, which donates our shipping containers; Ercol Furniture Ltd., which stores the containers; Adair Cargo Services which provides freighting at cost and British Airways which offers free flights. However, we still rely on the generosity of supporters to meet our running costs of £180,000 each year. Donations are received from trust funds, aid agencies, churches, community organisations, schools, companies and thousands of individuals. It is this on-going support which has fuelled Workaid's considerable growth over the last 20 years and which we hope will enable us to improve the lives of even more disadvantaged people in the future.
WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?
In 2007, Workaid sent 1,102 sewing machines, 406 typewriters, 418 knitting machines, 9 duplicators, 654 tool kits and 121 miscellaneous items to 146 projects in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Romania, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and UK.
Since 1986, we have supported more than 1,650 training projects in 49 countries worldwide. With an average of 50 individuals involved in each project, this means that we have directly improved the lives of more than 82,500 of the world's poorest people. And the benefits don't stop there: when an individual is earning a living, they can not only support their own families but feed income and services back into their communities, creating more employment and giving even more people the opportunity to build better lives for themselves.