About Kennington Overseas Aid



   
Kennington Overseas Aid was founded in 1968 by the three Kennington Churches, with the aim of helping people less fortunate than ourselves.  Each year we choose a project provided by an established overseas charity, usually one working in the third world, as the target of our fundraising efforts.

If you have recently come to live in the village and would like to join in doing something worthwhile KOA brings great opportunities for getting to know people, and you will be made very welcome. Alternatively if you have lived here for some time, perhaps recently retired, and would like a new interest, KOA may be for you. There is no formal membership and there are many different activities in which you can participate. The annual programme is circulated to everyone in Kennington each spring, and includes supper concerts, a fun run, wine and cheese party, fete, children's concert etc., and for the month of August there is a charity shop in the church hall. Come along to any of these events and decide if you would like to join in. Ask anyone who is involved and they will tell you that there is a lot of enjoyment as well as the satisfaction of achieving something really valuable.


The way we work at the moment is as follows:

Each July the committee meets to consider suggestions for Charities for the following year. – suggestions are welcome from anyone. Three charities are chosen, and the chairperson writes to each of them, inviting them to give us a short proposal for a project that would cost about £20–25,000, which is how much we have raised in the last few years.

In the last several years we have concentrated on smaller, locally based charities that we feel we can build a close rapport with, and who are less likely to have large overheads.  We encourage the Charities to give us something more or less self-contained (not just a contribution to some large project), and with an emphasis on sutainable development.

The proposals are circulated to supporters by email (if you have it) or on paper at the time of the AGM in November.  A selection meeting is held in January to pick one project from the three. Anyone is welome to come and vote!

We start the planning process at the selection meeting, and continue it with one more planning meeting in February. Events are organised by individual event organisers for the smaller events, or by event committees for the larger events such as the fete, and that is where the planning really happens.  

After the end of the season, we hold the AGM, at which we present a large cheque to the chosen Charity!

The committee consist of a chairperson, two vice-chairs, secretary and treasurer, plus a few ordinary members with responsibility for  such things as publicity, etc. The chairmansip rotates between the chair and vice chairs, so that there is in effect a chair and one vice-chair, with the previous year's chairperson having a well deserved sabattical.


History

Constitution