Parenta Trust
Parenta Trust is a relatively young charity with an ambitious plan. Its mission? To build pre-schools in the most deprived areas of the world that will allow the youngest, most vulnerable children in desperate need of an education to break out of the cycle of poverty and look forward to a bright future. The challenge? To raise enough funds to build 250 of them.The Trust’s goal is clear: to give these children an opportunity to learn from an early age, via the provision of a quality pre-school education.
Parenta Trust was founded by Allan Presland, CEO of Parenta, the UK’s largest provider of childcare training and nursery management software within the early years sector. It all began in 2013 after a life-changing trip to Kampala in Uganda. He found a young girl on a rubbish tip on top of a cemetery scavenging for food and found it heartbreaking that she had to fend for herself to even find food let alone be given any form of schooling.
He returned to the UK with a clear plan. Knowing that he had to do something significant to help, he set up the charity to support the building of further pre-schools in the region, leveraging his existing network of contacts in the early year’s sector.
The first four pre-schools are built and open – giving nearly 900 children an education that would previously have been impossible. The fifth opens this year and the sixth has been commissioned, with fundraising for the seventh well underway. The Trust is assisted by international development charity Fields of Life which collaborates with the local communities ‘on the ground’.
The Sponsorship Programme that complements the school builds continues to grow. Sponsored children benefit from a pre-school education in a Parenta Trust school and receive a school uniform, a daily hot meal and school supplies, as well as visits and correspondence from their sponsors.
The support received by Parenta Trust over the past five years or so has seen dedicated fundraisers take part in a variety of endeavours. The biggest in the fundraising calendar is the annual car and motorbike rally in June, “Maidstone to Monaco”, when teams cover 2,000 miles through eight countries, traversing the Alps and the winding roads of the legendary Furka Pass. The five-day adventure encompasses camping under the stars – and taking part in challenges – before reaching the final destination of glamorous Monaco.
If you would like more information on the work of Parenta Trust or to register for the Maidstone to Monaco Rally, visit www.parentatrust.com
E-mail [email protected]
Tel: 0800 002 9242 @parentatrust