ACCURO ANNUAL REVIEW
2024
NEPAL - THAILAND - CAMBODIA - PERU

OVERVIEW

2024 was a very successful and very busy year. Our work with Accuro has seen us building projects and running programs across four countries.

Accuro projects have, over the years now improved the lives of more than 70,000 vulnerable children and communities, in varying forms around the world.

If you include our COVID aid campaign; feeding and providing health posts and PPE to lockdown communities in the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal, that number stretches to well over 100,000 people reached.

These figures represent individuals with whom we have directly worked, when you factor in the knock on effect of one of the 27,000+ girls reached by our empowerment programme, for example, returning to their village and teaching numeracy or nutrition advice to her family of ten people, the impact is far far larger.

This work, only made possible by our partnership with you will have lasting, often life changing, impact for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives for generations to come.

On to 2025!

Below are some highlights from each project completed or programme run last year.

ECO-LEARNING CENTRE, PERU

This project has been one of the biggest runaway successes, with over 4000 children already walking through its gates to explore and learn about the fragile ecosystem of the area and how to protect it.

The children learn how to farm with zero pesticides, how to compost and create natural fertilises and how to irrigate. All produce is either used at the centre to feed the kids or provided to local schools feeding underprivileged children or sold at market.

There are so many beautiful aspects to this program; the team and kids have even headed out of the grounds and encouraged the people of the villages and towns in the sacred valley to join them in 5 separate full day litter picks.

We get great reports of the children using these new skill sets at home and in school, and really enjoying it.

The main planting areas are directly in line with a star constellation that the local community holds in very high regard and respect and is deeply meaningful to them.

Large scale “Hang Outs” are held where local business owners interact with the kids and the program to discuss Eco-business opportunities. This gives the kids an opportunity to network with people who they would normally not get to meet, due to their level of poverty.

This project in constantly evolving and as the seasons change so do the lessons, and the crops and the work that needs to be done.

Every single item that comes through the gates is reused in some way, there is zero waste.

SENSORY GARDEN, CAMBODIA

Another wonderful project completed last year was our much needed sensory garden in Cambodia.

This project provides a safe space for 300 children to learn, feel and play in the grounds of their massively underfunded residential care home.

These children suffer from severe physical and psychological disabilities, as well as birth defects, primarily due to the use of chemicals (Agent Orange) by the USA during the Vietnam War, which polluted crops, water, and animals.

Sadly with little education at the time (and limited options) the communities continued to eat and drink the highly damaging chemicals with truly devastating consequences. Leading to many deaths, cancers, cases of blindness and an extraordinarily high birth defect rate in future generations. The ground is often still found to be contaminated today.

Each child at the care home where our project is located, requires full-time one-on-one care which leaves very little time for anything but functional day to day survival.

The sensory garden allows the children to safely experience a variety of sensations—touch, new textures, and interactive experiences—things they have been deprived of since birth. These experiences are critical to their cognitive development and, most importantly, provide lots of fun.

Many of the kids can experience the garden without wheelchairs and simply explore in their own way in any fashion their disability will allow.

The kids personalities shine through with their smiles and excitement and their own individual ways of expressing themselves through play, sound and touch.

This also gives the amazing carers a well deserved break!

By the end of this rainy season the garden surrounding the locally sourced bamboo structure will be full of lush grass and flowers for the kids and carers to enjoy.

GIRLS’ SAFE HOUSE & LEARNING CENTRE, NEPAL

This multiyear project is the result of a pressing need, not only for the 27,000 girls in our Girls Empowerment Program but also for all girls and women in Nepal and even India. It already serves — and will continue to serve — as a highly effective beacon of hope for those in need.

Once complete, the centre will serve multiple vital purposes: a central hub for the Girls Empowerment Program, safe accommodation when needed, healthcare services, a conference space, and a large hall for presentations by inspiring women from around the world.

It is completely ground breaking for the area and indeed Nepal, nothing like this has been launched before. The community is so excited and there is a constant stream of people, including the general public, government officials and journalists coming to view the centre.

It has also garnered significant national press coverage, as has the Girls Empowerment Program, further expanding the reach of our work.

We started the construction after lock-down, but Nepal was hit again and locked down, along with many surrounding countries. Fortunately, we were allowed to continue building using laborers from the local area, provided they remained on-site, which is common in Nepal. As a result, we were able to keep many workers and their families fed during a difficult time for the country and community.

We were heavily impacted by rising prices during and after COVID, along with numerous other challenges from that period. As a result, we faced a significant deficit during tough times. However, through fundraising efforts and cutting back on internal design and some 'nice-to-haves' for the time being, we've managed to reduce this to €70,000.

The construction rolls on and we are still fundraising for the extra funds.

This has been a long and challenging journey, but without a doubt, it’s one of the most important projects for not only the area but Nepal—serving underprivileged, often suppressed, and abused young women. The building itself is truly incredible up close; it’s hard to capture its full essence in photos. Even now, it’s already in use, hosting numerous meetings as we put the final touches on this truly special project.

The toughest challenges are often the ones that will make the biggest impact, and this project is a perfect example. By completing this space, we are creating a safe haven for young women, empowering them to rise above their circumstances and build brighter futures.

CHILD NUTRITION PROGRAM

We are nearing the end of the 4th year of our Child Nutrition Program and it's a really beautiful, multi-layered model to see in action.

Firstly we are feeding around 3000 children a day through a midday meal program in schools, which has increased health and attendance. Many children have very little to eat at home, so a hot nutritious meal at school makes the world of difference.

In all the schools that we work with, we have set up gardens that provide enough produce to support the school daily. The knock on effect of this has been fantastic: not only are the kids learning about agriculture and nutrition, but their parents are coming to school to learn about sustainable food production too.

In the 1st and 2nd year we invited members of staff from other schools to come and observe, it was very popular so a training program was instigated for other schools’ staff to attend. Fast forward to today and schools all over the region are using our systems in a big way. Not only becoming self-sustaining but making money at the market.

Lots of the schools have started a “Learn to Earn” programme, where the kids work on the crops or mushroom production and are paid a small wage. They are then taught how to save this money, and many have become quite entrepreneurial by buying crops or chickens for their own families.

We have also put nutrition information throughout all government health-posts in the region (often very simple buildings with little equipment). This initiative is primarily aimed at supporting young mothers, a high-risk demographic for malnutrition.

Our aim was to work with 16,000 individuals, the number of impacted people now far exceeds this. It’s almost impossible to quantify the reach, especially when you factor in our popular and informative nutrition podcast that reaches tens of thousands of listeners and is now in its 3rd season.

We look forward to seeing the impact grow further in the 3rd cycle of years 5 and 6!

PAUL SWEET NURSERY & SCHOOL, MAE SOT

The Paul Sweet Nursery was built many years ago, a really fun design with an integrated climbing frame and play area. Unfortunately, the land lord wanted to sell the land and move these Burmese migrant children away.

We stepped in and took the nursery apart and moved it to a safer local land in a very close vicinity. We were also able to move the primary school along with it. So the kids are now safe to learn and play.

This area of Thailand borders Burma and many refugees flee horrific circumstances at home to arrive in Thailand. We’ve now been working in this area for 8 years to serve the kids of the migrant community who are not allowed to enter the Thai school system.

GIRLS’ EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM

The GEP continues to be a great success. Working to push forward girls’ rights across the country on a national level but also on an individual level, working with girls specific needs and ambitions.

In January we held a 4 day conference with the girls from all 3, 3 year phases of the program (year 3 only being one year in).

It was incredible to hear the stories of growth from the girls we began with 7 years ago. Back then, most girls would never have dreamed of speaking to a man or considered a career. Fast forward to today: we have a weekly TV show with the girls taking on politicians and people of influence, we have girls winning international business awards, an app in development to keep girls safe in rural areas, the list is endless.

What started with less than 40 girls has now reached over 27,000, this is without a doubt one of our biggest accomplishments to date.

About 60 of the girls made videos for this report, but thought best to show one for now!

They also put together a little video below.

THE TAK SCHOOL

The Tak school (in fact its called Parahitathoo, but in the area of Tak) is a new school project for hundreds of Burmese migrant children who have been through so much. There was an existing school but it was simply not fit for purpose and unsafe.

For this design we were fortunate enough to win an agreement with the Paris Olympics to receive repurposed elements of the Olympic village, as the Paris Olympics was attempting to be the greenest yet.

As you can see on the rendering to the right, the roof is more of a canopy, this will be made using super robust high end fabrics and other elements from Paris. The frame is almost complete and the timber and all other materials are now in Bangkok and on their way.

Embracing circularity is essential in the architectural and construction sector which accounts for more than a third of global resource consumption.

One might think 'why send timber to Thailand when they have their own trees,' but in fact sustainable forestry is very rare in South East Asia and the timber industry is one of the biggest causes of deforestation in the region.

Twin that with the fact that much of the lower grade timber sold is untreated for external conditions, means that it degrades very quickly. Utilising and up-cycling treated sustainably forested timber from the Olympics allows us to create low impact screens and walls in our mobile classroom projects.

We aim to open the new school by June 1st 2025.

WITH MANY THANKS AS ALWAYS