Good morning, it's Paul here.
(all the below written the night before)
Many thanks to Graham for holding the fort with such aplomb. This has given me a smashing break, including being Uncle Paul for this week, enjoying every moment of my niece's graduation, and my nephew's fantastic progress in the family tradition of music. A lovely cluster of family birthdays, and parties, certainly gave me a much-needed boost, after a pretty miserable time with my stock-picks in the last year.
You have to roll with the punches in life, and this is a walk in the park compared with 2008.
I think about all the people I met in Zimbabwe in Feb 2019, literally every day. The situation there is getting worse by the day, as the latest currency (called RTGS, or bond notes) is devaluing rapidly. That makes my shrinking shares portfolio feel literally insignificant.
It's long overdue for me to do something meaningful. So I've decided to raise £100-200k for emergency help, for the destitute in Zimbabwe, to be distributed through ZANE. I met almost all their workers in Zimbabwe, and can vouch for the decency & diligence of everyone. It's a Christian charity network, that helps the poorest of the poor. I'm not religious myself, but I saw how people in desperate circumstances do cling onto religion as the only hope they have. So I found it moving when each meeting or meal, had a prayer before & afterwards. Maybe I don't need prayers, as my life is relatively comfortable?
I've come up with a way of magnifying donations. Here's the idea;
1) Individual donations via a JustGiving page I'll set up
2) Sponsors & Donors (individual & corporate) who pledge to match every donation £ for £ (I've already got one very generous individual who has pledged £3k, and one corporate that has said they will contribute at least £1k). This is before a proper fundraising effort, which I'll get busy doing over the summer. PRs, brokers, and small caps, please get in touch if you would like to contribute.
3) ZANE matching - I met with Tom Benyon, the founder of ZANE, who liked my matching idea so much, he has pledged that ZANE itself will match all the above donations £ for £ .
Therefore, every £1, that UK investors donate to this appeal, will QUADRUPLE (plus Gift Aid), in terms of…
