Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbEzYi7eL4k

Wow – this last 3 weeks has been a rollercoaster and we want to thank you for joining us on our journey and given us your time and love and made this trip a huge success.

Our aim was to make it as interactive as humanly possible and I think we pulled it off. Practically every night we have uploaded a video produced and edited by the brilliantly talented Saffron Jackson and our wonderful A Team in the UK and US comprising of Kirsty Stephenson, Matthew Knight, Lisa Howells and Matthew Edmonson have helped us distribute the videos onto loads of video sites across the worldwide web.

I want to thank Nerys Nicholls and Lara Gordon who have helped us with the logistics in the UK and Uganda

In Uganda we’d like to thank:  Mercy Ndirangu and Isobel Booth-Clibbons from Families for Children, Charles Mugasa, Esther Tumuhairwe, Ruth Chelangat, Diana Sande, Charles Banura from Home Start Uganda, the wonderful mothers who shared with us their experiences of bringing up ther children Nule, Esther, Christine, Lucy, Rose, Rosetta, Millie and Miriam, our team Norah Owaraga, Dr Catherine Ndekera, Peter Ndekera and Dennis Owaraga. Dr Atai and Faith Karamagi from Mulago Hospital, Mr Ssozi, John Kasule, Rachel Parsons, Larissa Rwakasiisi and Steve Waldron, Frank Dramba and Henry Walusimbi,Patrick our wonderful reliable driver, Barbara Nankya at Sanyu Babies’ Home, Barry Egan, Ben Ssebuufu, Damilie from Waaksia Ministries, Immaculate Kiiza from Hope For Children, Joel our housekeeper, Venita and Matt, Martin Shearman at the British High Commission and Kate Wedgewood from DFID.

We also want to thank everyone who has followed our journey and actually played a big part of the success – thank you for all you messages telling us to get some sleep, your questions and your brilliant support.

Lots of love Lucy, Brian and Saffron.

Saffron - our Producer

Africa and I have a bit of a history, like Brian the continent never let go with me either. I first landed there back in ‘98 when I went on an overland trip through Uganda and Kenya in my university summer holiday. Since then I have been back several times and on Gap Year I travelled for 6 months filming through various parts of South, East, North and West Africa.  I am really chuffed to be using my skills to help this amazing project get off the ground.

In our three weeks in Uganda we really want to feel like you are there with us through the entire trip right from the moment we arrive in Uganda. This is going to be an important trip and we want YOU to be involved.

So for now it’s on to finalising our shooting schedule, checking through the kit, praying the internet in Uganda is up to it and packing the well travelled rucksack once more!

7 days to go!

When it comes to digital media, it’s time for the sector to get with the programme, says Jude Habib

Social media is clearly very important to us, not only for building our global community of supporters but also reaching our fundraising targets.

We’re not fixated by numbers. But how can we fail to be impressed by the fact that we have gathered over 1000 supporters on our Facebook group in just over a month. Not only that – we’ve also had over 8000 visits to our blog.

1000 supporters - a mini milestone

But what have we done to deserve this? Well, we’ve launched a website, started twittering/tweeting, added our photos to Flickr and made a few videos. OK, so maybe I’m making this all sound extremely simple – and of course it has required hard work and dedication from all involved – but compared to other forms of branding, marketing and fundraising activity it is pretty straightforward, rewarding (in that we actually get to have a conversation with our supporters) and economical (free in most cases).

We are simply using existing tools to reach out to social networking communities that are already present, ready and willing to get involved.

We know this isn’t the only way, we need to go to our supporters (not expect them to find us) and not all of them are hanging out in social networking communities everyday or reading RSS feeds from blogs

We are thinking of initiatives to reach out to schools, colleges and the workplace – encouraging supporters to fundraise in their local communities. We have a face-to-face “meetup” group in London on 4th February, Undress for Uganda we hope will happen in living rooms throughout the country (in our dreams the world) and to appeal the hearts of celebrities we will write letters.

We’re not bound only to the realms of socia media, we just know we’re missing a trick if we don’t talk to those who are willing to speak to us.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsKIWaUPUM]
Link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_tsKIWaUPUM

Well, our (not just for Christmas) wish has come true – Matthew d’Ancona, editor of The Spectator, has agreed to become our Patron.

It’s a sensational honour for us to have him on board, and even more of an honour is how much he cares about what we are doing and what we are trying to achieve.

We wanted to hear first-hand just why Matthew wanted to get involved with the Child’s i Foundation, so we popped into The Spectator HQ yesterday for a chat.

Matthew talks about how a project like ours, building a home for abandoned babies in one of the poorest places on Earth, may just be one small step, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s one that will resonate in more ways than we can imagine. Getting everyone involved, creating our own community and using the web to allow everyone in it to watch our babies thrive and grow – that’s the heart of what we are doing, and why he thinks we will triumph.

Matthew also gave us more background on his interest and belief in the digital revolution, which forms the foundation of our project, and how it is changing the world as we speak.  Changing the world is no easy task – but if we do it one step at a time, it can be done.

Part 2.  Matthew d’Ancona on The Spectator digital dinners

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PYABLDViw]
Link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D8PYABLDViw

We thank him so much for giving up his time and we are honoured he is part of our team.

Now, in his own words… “I want you out there to do stuff. Help Lucy with her to do list. After you’ve clicked on this, click on the to do list now. That’s the Geldof moment…”

Read our earlier posts on how Matthew came to be involved:
Digital Dinner at The Spectator
Here comes everybody