K.I.N.D. Competitors

The Young Lives Foundation, Kent’s Children’s Charity of the year 2019, looks after vulnerable and disadvantaged young people across the South East of England. Founded in 2007, we support a wide group of disadvantaged and vulnerable children and young people through a range of unique and tailored services. These focus on: - Mentoring, Befriending & Care Leavers - Advocacy & Children's Rights - Positive Activities Our vision is that every young person in need shall have access to the resources and opportunities needed for them to achieve their potential and lead fulfilled lives. We are very proud of the awards that YLF has been presented with. These include: - Kent’s Children’s Charity of the year 2019 -The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service - The Investing in Volunteers award - The Mentoring & Befriending Foundation’s Approved Provider Standard - The National Appropriate Adult Network Standard - Mental Health Aware Badge We have a number of experienced and trained members in our team that deliver our services including advocates, volunteer appropriate adults, volunteer mentors and volunteer befrienders. You could join the YLF family today! Become a volunteer, fundraiser or donate to YLF!

Open Arms Malawi is dedicated to saving and improving the lives of vulnerable children in Malawi. We work closely with families and communities to ensure they have the resources to raise healthy children at home and become self-sufficient. Malawi faces significant challenges as one of the poorest countries in the world. Most of the population live below the international poverty line, relying heavily on farming in a climate vulnerable to erratic rainfall and storms. Each day, almost 100 babies die before their first birthday from preventable causes like malnutrition and disease. There is an urgent need for support and intervention. Open Arms supports vulnerable babies from birth to 3 years old by providing: Formula milk and food to aid growth Medicines to support good health Basic supplies so that children have what they need to develop Due to the importance of a stable family unit our support extends to siblings and guardians too, with advice, monitoring and support in generating an income to enable them to become self-sufficient. As well as vital help for babies who are at risk we also support families of older children who need more support with food distributions, agricultural support and school fees . The Open Arms team are embedded within the communities we work with and have built up a trusted relationship with village leaders over many years. We work with local systems to improve community life such as providing nursery education to over 600 children in nine remote village schools. (Open Arms Malawi is a Registered Charity (1171686) in England and Wales, and regulated by the Fundraising Regulator)

The Dream Factory was founded to brighten the lives and encourage hope for children and young adults aged 3-25 years, who have either life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, or who suffer from severe disabilities. Avril Mills BEM, set up The Dream Factory in 2008 in memory of her son Oliver, who sadly died from leukaemia, aged 9 years old. Now in 2023, we have granted over 600 dreams in his memory! We aim to do everything possible to grant a child’s dream, which could be to meet their favourite celebrity, their favourite sporting hero, live the lifestyle of a millionaire for the day, own a laptop or the latest phone. They could choose to take a magical trip to meet Mickey Mouse in Disneyland, Paris or even be a Princess for the day. We have granted dreams of being a zookeeper and a firefighter for the day, swimming with dolphins to special princess/pirate bedroom makeovers, had a wheelchair wrapped and even granted a ride in a helicopter. No dream or wish is too small! It is only with your help that we can make the dreams and wishes of these children come true! We have no Government funding and rely solely on donations from our supporters - even our offices are provided free of charge to help reduce our costs. We have only a few part-time staff working alongside Avril Mills and over 20 volunteers to help us grant dreams. You can help by way of donation, volunteering or becoming a regular donor. You can sponsor or organise a fundraising event or even make us your Charity of the Year – we are so grateful for any support that we receive. Your donations really do make dreams come true. Making a change to someone’s life is not just meaningful but also beautiful. Donating is very easy and can be done by a regular donation via your bank or via Just Giving, Paypal, Bank Transfer (details on our website). With help from you, we can make more dreams come true!