For over 10 years, across Asia and Africa, we have worked with local communities empowering them to gain life skills, education, health and nutrition. The charity was initially set up with the intent to try and help the children of Sri Lanka after my family and I witnessed first-hand the devastation left by the 24 December 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. While DATUM’s debut on the humanitarian front co
nsisted of collecting and sending clothes, blankets and emergency toolkits for infants and children, its trustees (architects, lawyers and doctors) were planning the development of more sustainable and long-lasting projects. Less than two years after the disaster, DATUM teamed up with partner charity Indian Ocean Disaster Relief to erect the IODR Centre in Weligama, Sri Lanka. This pilot project now provides full-time education to 200 children between the ages of 3 and 18, a sports facility and daily meals. Two medical camps also provide basic health checks and medicine including a vaccination service, which would otherwise be unavailable to them for various reasons including poverty but also proximity of medical centres to the village or district. For eight years already, DATUM has been raising funds and building orphanages, schools and health clinics ensuring each has clean water (wells and pumps) and toilets in war-stricken regions, poor neighbourhoods and remote villages. DATUM has extended its presence to eight countries including Guinea, Senegal, Cameroon, Tanzania, Malawi, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In 2014, DATUM will be concentrating its efforts in Guinea where a small village is in desperate need of a brand new little school, and in Momella,Tanzania, where DATUM is helping homeless boys live their dream of becoming professional footballers at the dedicated Soccer Academy. But 2014 is also the year DATUM will be undertaking its biggest project to date: the construction of a secondary school complex in Chisasa, Malawi, to finally enable the local adolescents to have access to education.
