Fiona Stevenson Memorial Fund

Fiona Stevenson Memorial Fund – CAF account – 816750 - T 50201428

Fiona died in the 7/7/2005 terrorist attack in London at Aldgate Station and she is greatly missed by the people who knew her.

Fiona’s fund was originally set up from money given shortly after her death.

The money had not been given for a specific purpose but to somehow be used to improve the life of the poor children that Fiona went to Belize to help. We remembered her concern, immediately on her return, that the second highest death rate for children in Belize was drowning. There seemed to be a reluctance to learn to swim, which we found later may have often been due to a deep seated fear of water. The highest cause of death was from gunshot that we did not think we could directly impact.

Due to many participants, much discussion, unsuccessful then gradually successful experiences since 2007, I am pleased to say that the fund now has clear objectives with enough funds to support swimming lessons until 2018.

The Prime objective is for the Payment for swimming lessons, to those less able to afford them, to reduce the likelihood of children drowning. We also value meeting less tangible objectives such as;

- The Fund account spreadsheet (income income and expenditure)

   followed by figures extracted that are intended to provide the ingredients of a Cost Benefit analysis.  

The above Fund spreadsheets provide a brief overview of what Fiona’s Fund has received and paid for to date.
This money has come from several sources in addition to the original donations and the following points are important; 

• A few regular payments, various sponsored activities, collections at celebrations including weddings, three balls and a birthday party have together raised the funds.
  For some of these we used Just Giving, facilitated for us via the Liberty Foundation, who also helped us transfer money directly to the YWCA in Belize. Liberty were not able to do this from 2016 as they migrated to run their orphanage in Belize.  
  
  
• The only administration payments to Fiona’s fund are those charged by banks for payments to Belize and by the UK Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), who keep our money and accounts and assist us in obtaining all UK charitable tax concessions to which Fiona’s fund is entitled. 
  
  
• I hope the reports indicate that the money is well spent as, to date, it has given much satisfaction to both the recipients and the and donors, who have no doubt that Fiona would be very pleased with how this has progressed. 
  
  
• Unfortunately, we are closing this charity after 2018 as we cannot maintain the funds flow needed. 
  
  
• I suggested to Belize YWCA for some time that what they are doing is so marvellous that it may be attractive to a local Corporation to provide the sponsorship that the YWCA need to maintain their swimming programs. 
  I understand the YWCA are looking for appropriate help but so far have not been successful. 
  If anyone reading this has any relevant ideas, please contact me via this site, or the YWCA in Belize directly. 
  
  
• As we did not have sufficient funds to run another year I agreed with Fiona's friends, who we are still in contact with, that the residual money should go to aid the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre to support their work in helping local communities who are finding difficulty in resolving a variety of social and financial problems. Previously, the the Canonesses ran New Hall School, where Fiona was taught for 5 years, and would have known many of them. I sent the following Link to Fiona's friends so they could have a good idea of the type of work that the residual money would be supporting.  https://canonesses.co.uk/meeting-the-need/needs-of-our-neighbours/ . 
  

- The 10th November 2012 Charity Dinner at the Charing Cross Hotel, London that made a profit of over £9,000.

 On 25th June 2016 many of Fiona's friends met to celebrate her 40th birthday at Brown's and with the help of an auction and a raffle managed to raise almost £8,000, which means we can meet proposals from Belize for £6,000 for 2017 and 2018.

- A short summary of Fiona's life