Help a community in Africa build their own school

Musicians take to the streets to raise funds for LearnAsOne

11 March 2010: LearnAsOne, a UK-based charity dedicated to funding schools in Africa, today announces the launch of its first annual BuskAsOne, a week of busking events around the world from 19-25 April 2010. The charity is hoping to raise £22,800 to help build schools in rural Zambia.

The busk is open to any musician, singer or instrumentalist, and anyone interested in joining in with the BuskAsOne should register at www.learnasone.org/busk where they will find all the tips and guidance they need for a safe, hassle-free busk. In July, the LearnAsOne team will return to Zambia and share stories, photos and videos from the schools to show its supporters exactly how the funds they raised are spent.

The communities we work with are extremely dedicated. They are happy to make tens of thousands of bricks by hand and contribute labour for free to give their children the opportunity to go to school. But they can’t afford raw materials such as cement, roofing sheets and windows.

This is where the busking money comes in. £22,800 will allow us to fund four new buildings – two new classrooms and two teacher’s houses. This will secure the education of 60 children every year.

LearnAsOne have also published a step-by-step guide to help buskers join in with the event:

  • Choose a location and pick a date during our busk week
  • If it’s not on private land ask your local council for permission
  • Email [email protected] and tell us when and where you are playing
  • Tell the local press so you can get your piccy in the paper. And try to get it filmed and upload onto YouTube too (tag it LearnAsOne)
  • Busk!
  • Once you’ve finished collect up the money and pay the money in online at www.justgiving.com/buskasone

Steve Heyes, Founder of LearnAsOne, says: “BuskAsOne promises to not only be a vital fundraising event for these much needed projects in Zambia, but also a fun and inspiring week of musical performances. It costs £5,700 to buy the raw materials to build a classroom or a teachers’ house. For every new school building funded through BuskAsOne, we will offer the busker who the raises the most money the opportunity to have a school building named in their honour, which we’re hoping will be music to the ears of our supporters. So what are you waiting for? Come together and BuskAsOne for a fantastic cause!”

The LearnAsOne team, led by founder Steve Heyes, uses social media such as Twitter and Youtube to take its supporters on a virtual journey and meet the rural community in Zambia which needs the school, and show them exactly how they can help facilitate education in this particular community. Using its website (www.learnasone.org) and Twitter, LearnAsOne regularly posts stories and photos from the community, along with a breakdown of the costs to build, equip and run the school. They also offer visitors to the website the chance to ask questions to members of the community, and let them answer in their own words.

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Notes to Editors:

About LearnAsOne
LearnAsOne is a non-profit organisation based in the UK dedicated to funding schools in Africa. By using simple online tools for organising volunteers and fundraising, LearnAsOne reduces operation overheads to the bare minimum. At the same time, the same simple technologies offer donors unprecedented levels of access to its work and shows them exactly how their money is spent. For more information, go to www.learnasone.org

Further Information:

Steve Heyes
LearnAsOne
[email protected]
+44 (0) 7725 416144

Video

Meet Saviour: She is one of the children who the busking money will help. Please feel free to embed this video on your website or blog.

Images

You can use any of the images below. For hi-res versions please email [email protected]. Please credit all photos to Brenda Veltman: www.brendaveldtman.com.