For the tenth year running YOU and Clarins have joined forces to find
Britain’s Most Dynamisante Woman of the Year. Here, Josephine Fairley
meets the 2010 runner-up, 21-year-old Alice Pulford, who, after a gap-year
trip to Malawi, has devoted her life to providing a brighter future for the country’s orphaned girls
Alice at home in Leicestershire
There probably aren’t many orphanages set up as a result of sticking a pin in a map. But when Alice Pulford set out for Malawi on her gap year, initially as a volunteer teacher, she didn’t know precisely where in Africa she was going.
‘I sort of flicked through a catalogue of gap-year opportunities and went, “Right, that one…”’ There are, famously, many more hedonistic ways to spend the year before university. But Leicestershire-born Alice was determined to ‘give back’ during her time off.
Just before she left school, Alice’s grandfather – a great influence on her life – died, leaving her a small legacy with which to travel. ‘He was a huge inspiration to me,’ she says. ‘He did a lot with the local Rotary Club and was dedicated to “giving back”. When he died, I wanted to do something that would have made him proud.’
Volunteering in Africa for a few months, Alice felt, ‘would also help me make up my mind about what I wanted to do with my life. Unlike virtually everyone else in my class, I had no idea which career path to take,’ she says. Still, it’s one thing to find yourself teaching English, science and PE to 175 schoolchildren (‘with only one football, which was quite a challenge’) in the baking heat of Lilongwe Sector 4, as this area of Malawi is known, and quite another, at the age of 20, to wind up funding, building and managing an orphanage.
In addition to teaching, Alice and a friend got involved with a local ‘porridge fund’. Malawi, like so much of sub-Saharan Africa, has been devastated by the Aids epidemic, which has left millions orphaned – sometimes cared for by grandparents (who may have as many as 15 children in their care), but often left quite alone, or even with the responsibility of caring for siblings. Malaria, too, has taken its toll on the population. To save entire communities from starvation, the Malawi government has set up a programme to provide porridge (‘made with oats that aren’t considered good enough for those of us in the developed world,’ says Alice), which is then distributed locally by registered volunteers.
‘It was a total eye-opener,’ says Alice. ‘My friend and I had headed off to do some travelling, see the lakes and mountains. But when I realised how precarious life is in the villages – that without the porridge, they cannot eat,
and without the kindness of families in the community, these children won’t even have a roof over their head – I knew I had to do something.’
Back home, she set about raising £1,200 to build a toilet block for a school in one of the villages, Tilinanu, determined to go back as soon as possible to complete that project. ‘And then, while I was there, I came across a half-constructed building that had been earmarked for a church, then abandoned due to political wrangling.’ (That often goes with the territory in Africa.) The family that owned the land was happy to hand it over for the benefit of the village, but just three walls without a roof weren’t good for much. So, back in the UK, Alice rolled up her sleeves and got fundraising again – with a little help from Facebook – in order to convert the building into an orphanage to house some of the young, vulnerable girls in the village.
Some of the young girls at her Malawi orphanage
The building in Tilinanu before it was transformed into an orphanage
‘I organised a barbecue – £10 a head, bring your own booze – but soon realised that this wasn’t going to be enough to help us raise the £6,500 needed to complete the orphanage. I’d got a very precise quote, so I put a wish list on Facebook, and people could donate to buy a door, or a loo, or a bit of cement for the floor. Then, as the money came in, I’d get someone to go and buy the stuff in Malawi [various friends and her sister when she couldn’t be there herself]. To be honest, I’m quite shy – especially when it comes to asking for money – so it was much easier to hide
behind Facebook!’
Whenever Alice was in Malawi, she wrote a travel blog, too, which helped her supporters keep track of the project’s progress. By the time the orphanage was opened, Alice was in her first year at Liverpool John Moores University doing a BA in working with children and young people (her time in Africa has indeed put her on a precise career path, as this is the area in which she hopes to work when she returns to Tilinanu full time, which is now her dream).
Alice will graduate in May and has already signed up to do a master’s degree in social work. Meanwhile, until she has completed her postgraduate studies, Alice will continue to spend all her university vacations in Malawi:
four months in the summer, plus Christmas and Easter, when she arrives armed with the little extras that make life that bit more fun. ‘They love to sing. They also love to skip, so we take skipping ropes and even water pistols!’
‘I’ve managed to get every girl sponsored – by friends and family through Facebook and the website’
The orphanage now houses 34 girls, aged six to 16, with a full-time carer. There’s a medical clinic, two dormitories, a community centre and a playground. But bricks, mortar and all-important sanitation are one thing; what about the ongoing cost of feeding, clothing and caring for them? ‘I’ve managed to get every girl sponsored – by friends and family through Facebook and the website,’ says Alice. A little money goes a long way in Africa, but it’s still mind-blowing just how far: ‘As little as £3.81 keeps a roof over a child’s head for a week – that’s food, clothing, education, books and exams.’ For not much more than £6,000 a year, Alice can cover the entire cost of running the orphanage, ‘although rapid food-price inflation in Malawi is a worry,’ she admits. What will happen, though, when the girls reach adulthood? ‘The idea is to make sure every girl is trained and has a skill that she can take into the world to help support herself,’ explains Alice. That’s where the sponsors come in. Kept in the loop via newsletters, photos and letters so they’re right up to speed with how their sponsored child is doing, they’ve proved happy to pay for vocational training, too.
‘We’ve got two girls just finishing secondary school who are learning typing and will go on to become secretaries. But we will continue to support them until they can stand on their own feet,’ says Alice, who is clear that the mission is to ‘offer a helping hand to enable the whole community to be self-sustainable.’
The happy residents
Alice at home with her Tilinanu photo album
The Tilinanu charity also finances its own porridge fund, which feeds another 175 children a day. The government gives the oats, but it’s down to Alice and her team to raise the money on an ongoing basis for the staff to cook it, for the pots and pans, etc.
The daily meal of porridge stops the children from going hungry – but a vital element of helping Tilinanu along the path to true self-sustainability is to teach the locals to grow their own fruit. For just £7, anyone can buy a tree for the village to help work towards that goal. ‘We started with 14 tangerine trees, 14 mango trees and 14 orange trees, as well as some tomatoes,’ says Alice. It’s just the start, hopes this practical, wise-beyond-her-years 21-year-old, who explains that while she’d love to open more orphanages, or expand Tilinanu, she wants ‘to be sure that we can
run before we can walk. It’s so vital that everything we do is sustainable.’
Alice is keen to point out that she hasn’t achieved all of this single-handed. Her mother Yvonne has been supportive:
‘She’s got an amazing social network – in fact, I think half of Leicestershire’s involved in fundraising for us! And right now, my sister Nina is hands-on at Tilinanu,’ says Alice, who concedes that her university tutors have been hugely understanding and encouraging while she’s been juggling fundraising and trips to Malawi with some pretty intense degree coursework. In fact, Liverpool John Moores University recognised Alice as the outstanding student at this year’s Student Volunteer Awards.
But it’s not all work and no play for Alice. ‘I do want to live my youth and have fun,’ she laughs. ‘I still let my hair down – but I think I’ve found a good balance. To be honest, when I was at school I was a bit of a party girl – and some of my friends think I’m the last person who’d have ended up starting an orphanage, especially when I bumbled at random through that catalogue of gap-year destinations and settled on Malawi! But I’m really glad I did.
‘I don’t feel the weight of it on my shoulders.
I just feel very lucky to have realised what I want to do with my life.’ Not half as glad, though, as the 34 young girls who now have a roof over their head, food on their plate, a school uniform on their back – and the occasional water-pistol fight to look forward to.
To support Alice Pulford, and to read more about the project, visit lovetilinanu.org.uk
And last year’s winner was…
Anne outside the offices of Jigsaw4U with some of the young people she has helped
Anne Davies’s touching story really struck a chord with our judges and she was deservedly crowned YOU/Clarins Most Dynamisante Woman of the Year 2010.
Anne set up Jigsaw4U, a charity that offers support to thousands of children who have suffered the loss of someone close to them, after her own difficult childhood. Her father made multiple suicide attempts and was in and out of psychiatric hospitals, and her family was even homeless for a time. Anne decided to use her experiences to help troubled children, first becoming a social worker and then setting up her charity initially in the Southeast.
The £30,000 prize money has allowed Jigsaw4U to help an extra 5,000 children this year and create a new office
in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. It has also established a social networking presence and set up a new national helpline. In the future she would like to build a safe house for young runaways. ‘I couldn’t be more grateful,’ says Anne. ‘The publicity has opened so many doors and really
raised awareness.’
ARE YOU OUR CLARINS MOST DYNAMISANTE WOMAN OF 2011?
YOU and Clarins have teamed up once again to search for the Clarins Most Dynamisante Woman of the Year 2011. For the tenth year running, we are seeking to reward inspirational British women who work selflessly to help underprivileged or sick children, whether in this country or elsewhere in the world, on a professional or voluntary basis. The winner will be awarded £30,000 for their charity, which could make all the difference.
Named after Clarins’s bestselling fragrance Eau Dynamisante, the award was founded in France in 1997. Clarins now runs the charitable initiative in 15 countries around the world and that number continues to grow. It was established by Clarins to help and honour those women who dedicate their time, energy and courage to improving the lives of children around the world. We are proud not only to celebrate these women, but also to be able
to make a significant and tangible contribution to ensuring that their vital work continues.
The winner will be chosen by a panel of judges including Catherine Fenton, deputy editor of YOU, Josephine Fairley, contributing editor, and Nicky Lyon-Maris, public relations director of Clarins. A shortlist of candidates will be interviewed on Wednesday 20 April at London’s glamorous Charlotte Street Hotel. The winner will be presented with the award at a celebration event on Wednesday 22 June.
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