Meet Nicole Kelly, the University of Nottingham’s campus ambassador for the charity Kiddies Support Scheme; Her Campus catches up with her to hear a bit about all the great work she does around the uni and fundraising events to keep an eye out for.
So, for those of us who have never heard of it before, what is KiSS all about? So KiSS is a UK based charity which supports vulnerable children who live in Uganda; all money we raise goes towards helping children to gain access to healthcare and education.
How did you become involved with the charity? At my school I was head girl and part of my role was to actively help a charity. I went out to Uganda in October, and it’s a scheme that my school has supported for two years now. The charity has been around for about 20 years and relies from support from my school and another school in the area.
What is your main objective? The main objective is to promote the charity as much as possible, because the more impact we have the more money we can raise. We are trying to start a student led project, and something that will help secure the future of the charity. At the moment, it relies on around £70,000 per year which is a small amount for a charity. It is really important that we find a more sustainable source of income for the charity as KiSS only puts a child into education if they know they can provide a full education, rather than having to pull them out halfway through because of a lack of funding.
Have you got anything planned? So far we’ve only put on small events like selling cookies but we have lots planned. We want to sell a Christmas hamper, do a speed dating night around Valentine’s Day and will be selling glowsticks in Ocean. We also want to take events to town as well as on campus. We are trying to set up bar crawls with the presidents of halls, and have t-shirts with the KiSS logo on them on order.
Is there a large team of you? I am kind of the lead person trying to raise awareness at the moment. But we are in the process of setting up a KiSS society, which the union are currently reviewing. There are about 30 people interested in it at the moment. There is also another girl from my school who came to Nottingham who is also very involved.
I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would be interested to help. What would you say to those wanting to get involved? Please get involved! You can find out more about the charity on the Facebook page and through the UoN KiSS society. If you’d like to donate we also have a Just Giving page, or you can email me or message me on Facebook for more details.
Fundraising JustGiving page – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/fundraisingforKiSS
Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/UoNKissSociety/
Email address: uonkiss@gmail.com
Charity’s website: http://kiddiessupportscheme.org/
Edited by Jess Shelton