Stephen: Shaved half my beard and head for TearFund East Africa...

Total raised so far: £1871.93 (on 12 Sept 2022) + GiftAid: (1) This KindLink page: £910 (+GiftAid) (2) JustGiving online (before this KindLink page was started): £230.00 (+£50 GiftAid) (3) In-person donations : £611.93 (+GiftAid) on printed sponsor form before 9 Sept 2022. (4) In-person donations, since shaving remaining half of beard on 9 Sept 2022: £120 So this £910 + £230.00 + £611.93 + £120 = £1871.93 (+GiftAid). Thank you very much to all who donated. More donations are still very welcome. I plan to shave the remaining half of my beard this Friday 9th Sept 2022. The cost of living in the West is rising. However for people in East Africa, due to drought, war and reduced food supply from Ukraine, etc, millions of people face severe famine. Here's are two 3 minute videos (a) Explaining the current situation in East Africa: youtube.com/watch?v=nhUXsRT_loo (b) Explaining how TearFund use your donations to help people in real need in East Africa: youtube.com/watch?v=MrK3JNhHbFM (This video is from 4 years ago but unfortunately the crisis continues, due to drought and the huge recent rise in food prices). In November I had to isolate due to Covid, so decided to grow a "lockdown beard". At end of June at youth club, half my beard and head got shaved. I decided to keep the other half as an illustration of our very divided world - one half of my face has a full beard, and hair (although thinning hair!) and similarity our world is divided with richer countries having plenty of food, while other countries suffer severe famine. So, I'm going to keep my half beard until reach the target of £1000 for the work of TearFund in East Africa. Some information about TeaFund's East Africa Hunger Crisis Appeal ( tearfund.org/campaigns/east-africa-hunger-crisis-appeal ) Here is some of the life-saving work you’ll be supporting: - Providing emergency food relief and cash grants to communities suffering from hunger. - Building wells and solar-powered water pumps in drought-affected areas. - Supporting people through self-help groups. In these groups, people are able to acquire land for tree planting and farming, access affordable loans, and build fuel-saving stoves. - Training farmers with new techniques so that they can adapt to the changing weather patterns. Together, we can make a difference. Thank you so much for your support. (NOTE: To add GiftAid, you need to enter a postal address on the donation webform.) Yours sincerely, Stephen Bridgett.