2nd Annual Charity Ball 2021 (6th November 2021)
The annual black-tie fundraising event was held on the 6th November 2021 at the Marriott Hotel, Portsmouth.
The event celebrated the outstanding work of its volunteers and helped promote racial harmony, equality and diversity for the best interest of our city Portsmouth. Due to COVID-19 it was proven difficult to plan because of the constant change to rules and regulation for the pandemic. With only a small degree of certainty we had a few weeks to plan the event, we were extremely pleased with the way it all came together on the night in such a short amount of time.
150 guests from 42 nationalities attended the annual black-tie event. Among the attendees, we had guests from Spain, Republic of Guinea, Paris, Leicester, Manchester, London, Bognor Regis, Chichester, Southampton, Bournemouth, and Birmingham.
The event started at 7pm with welcome drinks, 360 photo booth and performers. At 7.50pm guests were seated for their 3-course meal. At 9.00pm we had keynote speeches followed by live auction at 9.30pm. At 9.50pm we had performance from Salsa Solent followed by performance from Decades Live UK. There was ongoing entertainment until 12am.
Your contribution helped us to raise a total of £13,710 (and still counting!) which will go toward URBOND Child Education Programme (in the Rep. of Guinea, West Africa) which is working to improve access to primary education for children in areas where there are shortfalls. The region has well documented issues with gender disparity in child education, with nearly a third of the female population at primary age not attending school whatsoever, nearly double the number of males at the same age. Cultural attitudes along with widespread poverty are significant barriers to girls’ education with instances of child labour, forced early marriages and child prostitution sadly common place in the region. Education is a fundamental key to unlocking the cycle of poverty, working to eliminate gender disparities in education will help meaningfully increase both the status and capabilities of women in African society.
We had some wonderful auction prizes donated by Paul Pogba, the Marriott Hotel, Perfect Pear, Mamadou Camara, Kazenga Lualua and Portsmouth Football club.
It all wouldn’t have been possible without the support of people in the community and beyond and companies that have donated their time and services free of charge. Special thanks to our special sponsor Richmond Motor Group for their ongoing support. Thanks to Gaglani & Co, Perfect Pear, M3, Success Connections and Davium Vodka. Thanks to all those colleagues and guests of companies that have attended the events.
The Charity Ball will be taking place next year, look out for posters and book early.
To DONATE please visit: https://www.urbond.org/donate/
