When the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green was founded in 1872, it was East   London’s first public museum. Today, we are transforming this beloved building into a new national museum of design and creativity dedicated entirely to children.

Relaunching later this year as Young V&A, the museum will be a place to imagine, play, create, debate and design. Young V&A will help children to develop abilities such as creative thinking, problem-solving and collaboration through imaginative, hands-on gallery displays and creative programming for schools, families and community groups.

In a climate of growing inequality and reduced funding for the arts, it is vital that we young people’s creative development. We rely on your generous donations and are thankful for   your support. Whether you can give E 25 or f 25,000, all donations will help to complete this project.

25 could buy books for the new Reading Room.

75 could buy sensory materials to help bring the collection to life for young visitors

150 could conserve and display an international object in the permanent galleries

5000 could help furnish the new creative studios in the Learning Centre.

*To pay by debit, credit card, use the QR code, visit www.vam.ac.uk appeal or call 020 7942 2905 to speak to a member of the Development team.

*Return a completed donation form or post a cheque directly to the museum or hand it in all the V&A Membership Desk or the Members’ Room.

*To find out about donating by bank transfer, making a regular monthly donation, or to make a larger gift, please email the Development team at appeals@vam.ac.uk.

Want to help us serve more of our elderly neighbors? Want to deliver meals and a smile?

Meals on Wheels provides meals for the elderly and the disabled adults in Richland County, South Carolina. Meals are delivered at lunch time five days a week by volunteers.

But Meals on Wheels delivers more than just a meal. The daily visit from a volunteer also provides a warm smile and a safety check that helps keep seniors healthy, safe and living independently in their own homes.

Meals on Wheels recipients (接受者) are the elderly and disabled adults in our community who cannot maintain an enough, healthy diet, either because of transport or money difficulties. Nearly three-fourths of them are at or below the national poverty level (贫困线).

No one is refused a meal based on income. Some individuals may receive meals at no cost, while others are asked to pay according to their incomes.

Our menus are carefully planned to meet one-third of the daily nutritional (营养) needs of senior people. All meals are served with fat-free milk and whole grain bread.

Through the support of our funding partners, staff and volunteers, we were able to serve 169,381 hot and frozen meals to 1,015 recipients in 2018. The meals were delivered by volunteers driving nearly 55,000 miles. Although we have made great efforts, we still have a waiting list of people we can't serve because we don’t have enough workers. So please join us!

For more information, please contact Anne Shissias, Director of In-Home & Community Based Services, at 803-252-7734 x234 or ashissias@seniorresourcesine.org.

Katie always felt there had to be something more to life than just partying, buying clothes and driving a cool car. She finally discovered what she was missing out on when she traveled halfway around the world to help poor kids.

When she was 14, she discovered a club at school called Operation Smile, an organization that supports free operation for facially deformed (面部畸形的) kids in developing countries. At that time, she joined Operation Smile just to satisfy her school’s community service requirement.

After working with Operation Smile for a while, she learned different countries have different deformities. The more she learned about what affects kids around the world, the more she wanted to go abroad with Operation Smile.

At 15, she was chosen to go abroad. Before her trip, she attended a weekend “mission (使命) training”. That’s when she was told she’d be going to the Philippines. Although she was excited, one night during training, she broke down in tears. She felt pity for all those unfortunate kids. After her arrival in the Philippines, she met the kids waiting for operation, and they were running around and happy. It seemed normal. Her job was to play with the kids before their operation to help them feel more relaxed. She also went to nearby schools to hand out toothbrushes and teach students how to brush their teeth.

When their operation was over, the kids were always overjoyed, but their parents were blown away. Sometimes they couldn’t even recognize their kids because their appearances had improved so much. They would cry and hug the doctors and nurses and give them presents — they were so grateful.