VITAL

As one of the Seven 'Wonder Women of the World', Yvonne was chosen to be a keynote speaker at the Investing in Women Launch Event in May 2018. Yvonne used her platform to advocate gender equality and action against gender-based violence.

Ambassadors George Harliono and Konstantin Lapshin, and Alanna Crouch, donated their time to perform for an intimate audience, raising over £1,400!

Throughout the month of June 2018, Ena Salon (Holborn) kindly fundraised for VITAL: all staff wore VITAL t-shirts and talked about our charity and projects to customers on Saturdays, while VITAL-branded items were also placed around the shop for suggested donations. Thank you very much for your generosity and awareness-raising, including through your sister company, Allilon!

VITAL's Annual Barry's Fundraiser was held in June 2018, raising over £,1000 in 1 hour! This was an excellent event, with lots of brands donating fitness treats and goodies. #sweatforchange

In June 2018, the Festival Medical Services awarded us our largest-ever grant of £13,082 for the Eye OPD, as part of the Clinic. During our annual trip in November 2018, we inaugurated the Clinic and over 112 patients benefited from services on just the first day, with 270 children benefiting over 10 clinics/weeks!

Babu Dey is the Coordinator of our Railway Project and once was a railway-connected child himself. After pursuing an education, teaching himself English and defying all odds to overcome his socio-economic circumstances, Babu has been working with children in contact with railway stations and streets/slums to help them to also break the cycle of poverty. In October 2018, Babu visited

Konstantin Lapshin once again kindly donated his time to perform for VITAL in Lesa, Italy. The audience were mesmerised by his musical flair and enjoyed listening to him play in an amazing location, on Lago Maggiore.

VITAL has partnered with Royal Holloway's Department of Politics and International Relations since 2015, inviting final year students to intern with us once a week as part of an assessed module. This year, the Politics and International Relations Society and the Diplomatic Society held their first-ever Charity Ball in aid of VITAL, raising over £2,150!

In May 2019, the first-ever Cricket World Cup for street-connected children was held in the UK, with the final at Lord's Cricket Ground on May 7th. On May 4th, the HOPE Kolkata Foundation's Director, Geeta Venkadakrishnan, delivered her Perspectives on Child Poverty at an exclusive Salon, which was also attended by the children chosen to play in the World Cup under the care of the HOPE Foundation's projects. This was a fantastic event and we thank Geeta, all of the children and Justine Kalota!

For the first-time ever, VITAL was nominated under the 'Charity of the Year' category in the Asian Voice Charity Awards 2019! This truly spoke to our impact over the last 5 years and particularly in the last year, in refining our Monitoring and Evaluation processes, transforming lives and communities, and maximising every penny donated to VITAL! Thank you to all of our supporters over the years for helping us to make steps towards eradicating child poverty!

On Sunday June 23rd 2019, we held our Annual Fundraiser at Barry's Bootcamp! This was an incredibly challenging and fun event, with a total of 5 brands kindly donating fitness goodies and treats! A big thank you to all who came out on a Sunday evening to #sweatforchange

On June 25th 2019, VITAL attended the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry's/Asian Business Association's Summer Reception. This was an excellent event, with the guest speaker as Kolkata-born Pinky Lilani: a fierce advocate of gender equality, women's rights and world-renowned entrepreneur and celebrator of women's achievements