Our annual Big Give Education Appeal launched today and, for the coming week only, every online donation will be doubled thanks to the £32,260 in match funding already pledged by Trusts and generous supporters.

Through the Appeal we aim to give more children like the girls pictured above from Nepal’s most disadvantaged Dalit communities a better start in life through education.

With your help, we will:

• Expand our network of Community Learning Centres (CLCs) from 9 to 17. These centres provide a welcoming first step into education, helping children develop the confidence and basic skills they need before joining mainstream school. Once enrolled, they continue to receive extra tuition and homework support, reducing the risk of early school drop-out and, for many girls, the misery of child marriage.

• Increase the number of sixth-form bursaries from 24 to 32. These two-year bursaries allow young people to complete their own education while, at the same time, giving something back as tutors in the CLCs, inspiring and supporting younger children from the very communities they grew up in. A bursary costs £21 per month.

• Launch our university scholarship programme for the first time. Up to six former bursary students will receive support with university fees and modest living costs while acting as mentors for the next generation of students. A university scholarship costs £200 per month.

The short film below takes you inside one of the CLCs that our supporters helped us build through a previous Big Give appeal. Filmed on a misty January morning in rural Nepal, it shows the difference these centres are making to children whose opportunities were once almost non-existent and provides more examples of the operating costs:

Our target this year is £64,520, made up of the £32,260 already pledged and the donations we hope to receive over the coming week.

If we achieve that target, we will also be able to use that as leverage to secure a potential £60,000 grant over the next two years from a UK Foundation. That additional investment would enable us to improve learning spaces, provide teacher training and teaching resources and strengthen engagement with parents and local communities, taking the programme to an even higher level.

We’ve seen this incentivisation approach succeed before. A previous Big Give campaign in April helped us secure a £70,000 grant from the Guernsey Overseas Aid & Development Commission for one of our environmental programmes. Strategic use of matched funding has become one of the most effective ways of multiplying the impact of every donation we receive.

Our ambition doesn’t stop at the target. Every pound raised above our goal will go directly towards expanding our new university scholarship programme. An additional £2,400 is enough to support one more student for a full year, giving another talented young person the chance to become the first in their family to attend university. We believe another two young people could be helped in this way.

Last year, 68% of Pipal Tree’s income came through Big Give campaigns, allowing us to double the value of thousands of donations and significantly increase our impact across Nepal. If you would like to continue to be part of that success, please click the button below. Every pound you give today will become two pounds through Big Give match funding.

Thank you!