Harmony Education Trust - Alison Acosta

Alison Acosta, who is the fundraising and communication officer at Harmeny Education Trust, gave a brief history of Harmeny, which was run by the Save the Children Charity from 1958 to 1995 and from then by the Harmeny Education Trust. It caters for 24 young children 365 days per year and 6 for day education. The children have all had major and often horrific experiences in their lives prior to coming to Harmeny. The aim of the Trust is “to rebuild lives and re-shape their future”. Alison outlined what Harmeny does to help these children whose average age on coming to Harmeny is 8-10. The children are “survivors”, many of whom do not know what it is like to have a friend or cannot read or write or even know how to play. All the activities continued throughout the Covid pandemic.

At present the Trust can take children up to the age of 14 as there are not the resources to teach beyond S2. However the plan is to raise 1.95 million pounds to create new facilities to take children up to the age of 18. Alison showed members the plans and the hope is to have the new facilities completed by the summer of 2022. However 1.5 million pounds still needs to be raised.

Alison answered members’ questions expertly and the club’s vote of thanks was given by Mike Rowe.