Integrity is proud to sponsor, for the second year running, the Dominic Simpson Memorial Trust fund-raising dinner. The trust was set up in March 2005, in memory of Dominic Simpson, ‘to advance education and facilitate educational opportunity for individuals and communities in the Middle East’. In the first six years of operation the trust has raised over £300,000 to support educational projects targeting young girls and women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The trust aims to:
- Target areas of need where relatively small interventions can make a difference
- Work with partner organisations with an established presence ‘on the ground’ in the region
- Undertake work that otherwise may not be funded
- Concentrate on activities that have direct practical benefits to individuals and communities
- Establish on-going links with the organisations and communities we work with eg between schools in the Middle East and the UK.
The focus of this summer’s fund-raising and publicity was a dinner in the delightful surroundings of the Great Hall at Lincoln’s Inn, a spectacular oasis amongst the surrounding City streets. A high spot of the evening was a very heartening speech by broadcaster and former hostage, John McCarthy. His speech combined realism with hope, and offered a strong endorsement of DSMT’s support for education for young people in the region.
From ticket sales, auction, raffle and donations the dinner raised more than £31,000, all of which will go towards providing access to high quality education for disadvantaged young people from kindergarten to university level through our well-established partner organisations in the region:
- Early Childhood Resource Centre, East Jerusalem
- Dar El Tifl School and Orphanage, East Jerusalem (school and higher education scholarships)
- Bardala School for Girls, Jordan Valley (via ANERA)
- East Jerusalem YMCA Vocational Training Centre Jericho (via Ycare International)
