Meeting of the Friends of TARA, Friday 22nd September 2017

Many thanks to all those who came to our 2nd Friends of TARA evening. The meeting took place on Friday 22nd september in the pleasant surroundings of IPT in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. More than 70 people came to meet Pascal, Founder-Director of TARA, just arrived from Delhi to give us all the latest news from the 3 TARA homes. The clearly stated aim of the event was to ask the help not only of the participants but also all existing sponsors, to make the Friends of TARA family grow and recruit new sponsors.

TARA under the spotlight!

Pascal began the evening with a short presentation of TARA for those not already familiar with it, and then focussed on the amazing team of qualified staff who run the homes. He gave us some details showing how complex the task can be - not always easy to run three « homes » of 20 kids each round the clock. This was all highlighted by a series of short videos on everyday life at TARA, full of energy and emotion.

Sponsorship

A new video illustrated well our objective to increase the number of individual sponsors (as opposed to Corporate sponsors) in order to ensure stable and long-lasting financial support. Today TARA is financed 65% by corporates and the aim is to reverse the trend and have 65% of individual sponsors.

Participatory workshops

The first part of the event came to an end with a great family photo including all participants. Afterwards, the group divided into two, according to interests, in order to discuss different ways in which everyone can contribute to finding new sponsors. The aim was to promote exchange and allow everyone to have their say. All agree that the best Ambassadors for TARA are the existing sponsors.

At School…

On one side, Anne-Emmanuelle and Alice led the workshop called « How to bring TARA alive at school and with family and friends ». Lots of great ideas to raise money and raise awareness with our children : collect school supplies, organise a Show and Sale, exchange of letters between a class here and TARA children, a pancake or bake sale…

And at Work

On the other, Julien, with the help of a very moving testimony from Fabienne, had a closer look at the tools which can be used to encourage companies to support TARA: open the door of the Foundation or at least identify the right person to contact, talk to them about Microdon’s salary round-up scheme, meet the works council to organise a presentation of TARA to staff during lunch breaks, put up posters or leave brochures at the coffee machine.

Closing the event

We finished the evening with a delicious cocktail prepared by Catherine and Soline during which we were all able to exchange and get to know each other better. There were also some promotional TARA items on sale : mugs, magnets, books.

We really hope to be able to organise another Friends of TARA meeting another time and invite all the new sponsors you will have helped us to find!