We are extremely grateful to Rodborough School for their recent fundraising efforts for DEF. The students raised an amazing £1,809 through their Mufti-day and sponsored poetry events. The proceeds will be spent on providing opportunities for disadvantaged youngsters in Surrey. Thank you Rodborough!...
Our apprenticeship programme with our partner charity in Colombia continues to yield successful results for impoverished youngsters in Cali. Having just completed our 10th and 11th accountancy training courses we are pleased to announce that 25 students have been placed in formal employment, giving them a real chance to pursue a sustainable career in accountancy....
Thanks to Rowledge choir who put on of a fantastic performance at Frensham Heights School to fundraise for DEF. They helped to raise over £1,000 for disadvantaged youngsters 'at risk' in Surrey who will be supported through comprehensive mentoring programmes....
Thanks to the Godalming College music students who kicked off the 2018 Music in the Park summer programme in Godalming. A very useful £250 was raised which will be used to help jobless and highly vulnerable young people in Surrey....
Local authority budgets for youth services have been slashed and many vulnerable youngsters risk falling into poverty and/or homelessness. This year we are pleased to announce our support for the fantastic Bridges Mentoring Scheme ran by Guildford Diocese, who support such youngsters....
Don’t forget to come to Godalming College’s Spring Benefit concert, a fundraising event sponsored by The Dan Eley Foundation. It is on March 14th at Godalming United Church. The superb music students will be playing their hearts out to raise funds for highly disadvantaged youngsters in their own backyard. Every penny goes to source....
With funds raised from our yearly spring benefit concert, performed by Godalming College students themselves, were able purchase and donate a marimba to the college music department. The marimba is an exotic percussion instrument used in Traditional Latin American and African music and it is the first time the college have had one. ...
In October Dan was in Cali for the inauguration of the 10th and 11th courses of our accountancy apprenticeship scheme. The courses will run simultaneously as part of our new expanded-format programme, training 60 students as bookkeepers. The programme has already trained over 250 youngsters from deprived urban communities in the city of Cali, Colombia....
It’s difficult to describe the feelings building up to an experience so significant and poignant, one which you know will be unlike anything you ever have or ever will experience in your whole life. I arrived in Cali just five days before my trip back to the Amazon to revisit the exact spot where I had my diving accident 5 ½ years ago. The spinal cord injury I sustained there had life-changing consequences which I still live with today and which have taken my life down a completely different course. It’s impossible to underestimate how pivotal that moment was....
It wasn’t long before I felt at home in Colombia, as most visitors who spend time there do. It’s so easy to meet people and make friends and I embraced the lifestyle and culture in Cali which is famed as one of the world’s salsa capitals and for its vibrant nightlife. I was welcomed warmly into my new post and it wasn’t long before I started a course of salsa classes. Everything seemed well, I was in the prime of my life physically, leading an active, independent and comfortable expat lifestyle. All that changed during my Christmas holidays when a couple of friends and I decided to go to the Amazon jungle to embark on what promised to be an...