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Impact of working with Affinity Visa Credit Card Partners
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As of January 2002, The Co-operative Bank issued bespoke visa credit cards for 13 national charities / non-governmental organisations. Affinity partners receive a donation from the bank for each new card and a margin on the use of the card. During 2002, partners received a total of £1,199,150. The impact of monies raised with a number of partners is estimated below, accounting for 87% of all monies raised in 2002.
RSPB
Oxfam
Amnesty International
Tearfund
Save the Children
Help the Hospices
Help the Aged
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Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The bank and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have raised £2,144,575 for Britain's threatened wetlands over the three years 1999-2002. Bank monies have contributed towards the rehabilitation of 365 hectares of reed-bed, including the conversion of 300 hectares of arable land to wetland in East Anglia via the creation of 8km of bank, 21km of channels, 20 acres of shallow and deep pools and the planting of 250,000 reeds. Over the period 1996 to 2001, nesting pairs of Reed Warblers, Sedge Warblers and Reed Bunting have increased from 4 to 250, 6 to 122 and 6 to 67 respectively. This habitat will become increasingly important as existing coastal wetlands are destroyed by rising sea levels. Since 1997, the bank has been the 'Species Champion' for the bittern (and is one of only 18 commercial companies to support the Government's Species Championing Scheme to date) and has been working with the RSPB to restore and extend reedbed habitats at Wigan Flashes, where the bittern is known to over-winter. In 1997, the UK's population of breeding bitterns was estimated as just 11. The number of calling or booming males heard in the country now stands at 29. During 2001, the bank recommitted to being the Species Champion for the bittern, and will provide financial support of £30,000 over the period 2001 to 2003 inclusive. This is in addition to the £479,186 raised for Britain's wetlands via the RSPB credit card in 2002.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_rspb.html
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Oxfam
In October 2002, Oxfam marked its 60th birthday. During this
time it has worked with poor people around the world to
overcome poverty and suffering. Since 1994, the bank and
Oxfam have raised £1.6 million via the affinity visa card scheme.
Oxfam is responsible for a wide range of development, emergency
and campaigning work. For example, of monies raised during 2002 via
the affinity visa card scheme, some £280,000 could typically fund
the following projects. The Cassava Seed Multiplication project in Southern Malawi, where £99,000 is being spent over 3 years to enhance food security and increase incomes for over 23,000 smallholder farmers. The provision of emergency aid, such as when Oxfam had dispatched £150,000 of water and sewerage equipment to Central Africa to help ensure hygienic conditions for 100,000 displaced people following a volcanic eruption in Goma. Or the £70,000 Oxfam has used to fund the construction of 18 classrooms and the training of 21 teachers in Zambia.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_oxfam.html
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Amnesty International
In 2002, it was announced that the Amnesty International Visa credit card(s) had now raised more than one million pounds. Funds that have enabled Amnesty International to monitor and support human rights all across the world. For example, at the end of 2002, Amnesty celebrated the release of Ngawang Choephel, the Tibetan musician who was serving an 18 year prison sentence, for film-making and promoting Tibetan culture.
Achieving real change in people's lives is the measure of Amnesty International's success and the contributions that Amnesty Visa credit card holders make has a huge impact. Over the last year, these successes range from the establishment of the International Criminal Court, to the release of individuals imprisoned for their peacefully held beliefs.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_amnesty.html
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Tearfund
Tearfund is an evangelical Christian relief
and development charity working to bring
help and hope to communities in need around
the world. Last year, Tearfund supported 643
projects in more than 80 countries worldwide
within the following areas: disaster response,
aid relief, basic needs projects (e.g. clean water)
health, education, micro-enterprise and advocacy.
Tearfund's development strategy is to work
alongside partners overseas to address the
underlying causes of poverty. Projects are always
owned and managed by the local community,
ensuring their sustainability in the long term.
Since its launch in November 1999, the Tearfund Visa credit card raised almost £220,000. In 2002, the card raised £62,279, which contributed to the work of Joint Relief Ministries (JRM) in Egypt.
JRM is supporting refugees from Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. The programme includes, food distribution, affordable medical care, children's education, vocational training and income generation activities. JRM has also set up an advocacy network, which trains refugees on their rights under international refugee law and helps them to file applications for asylum. Meanwhile, a befriending service helps refugees cope with depression, and emotional and psychological stress.
Vocational training in domestic service and child care has been especially well received by refugees because it offers a realistic employment opportunity and meets one of the refugees' key needs - how to introduce them to modern urban cleaning skills and materials which maybe quite alien to their experiences in rural Africa.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_tearfund.html
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Save the Children
Save the Children champions the right of all children to a happy, healthy and secure childhood. The relationship with The Co-operative Bank helps to achieve this vision.
In 2002 over £45,000 was raised through The Co-operative Bank Visa credit card. This has contributed to education programmes throughout the world, which aim to unlock the potential of children who may otherwise have missed out. Save the Children works with marginalised children in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. Most of the work is focused on early childhood development and improving the quality of basic primary education.
In Kosovo for example, £15,000 allows Save the Children to equip and run an educational programme for 1 year for children with special needs. In Albania £27,000 could enable the publication and distribution of a set of 12 colourful storybooks to all 2000 kindergartens across the country. As well as working in the developing world, Save the Children works to promote education development in the UK. In Northern Ireland Save the Children produced a video and anti-bullying resource pack. One of the outcomes of the anti-bullying initiative was a commitment by the Department of Education to introduce legislation placing schools obligations to take bullying on a statutory footing.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_savechildren.html
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© Dan White |
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Help the Hospices
Help the Hospices is the national charity for
the hospice movement and supports hospices
across the UK. Total funds raised in 2002
were £19,759. Some of this was passed
directly to local hospices chosen by cardholders
and the rest supported the many services Help
the Hospices provides. For example, the charity
gives bursary awards of up to £750 to support staff
training in hospices, especially that of nurses and
doctors. The training courses supported manual lymphatic drainage, a very precise and gentle rhythmic massage treatment for the relief of pain. Other examples of support for hospices across the country include a recent grant of £450, which helped Joseph Weld Hospice in Dorchester to run a series of study days on palliative care for health care assistants working in local nursing homes.
On average, hospices receive less than 30% of their income from the NHS. Help the Hospices is working towards increasing this level of funding, so that hospices can be better placed to provide the very best levels of care to hundreds of thousands of people every year.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_hospices.html
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Help the Aged
A total of £8,636 was raised for Help the Aged
through the Visa credit card partnership in 2002.
In practical terms £5,000 would buy 188 home safety
kits or 18 SeniorLink Boguscaller Units. £1,500 would
pay for petrol for the HandyVan for three years, allowing
1,800 home visits. £1,000 would pay for 4 Senior Link
Bogus Caller Units or 10 HandyVan jobs. Even £100
pounds can buy 5 HandyVan Kits or complete 1 job.
£277 can purchase one Senior Link Boguscaller Unit to secure a vulnerable older person and help protect them from "bogus callers". The total amount raised from the Visa credit card is the equivalent of 188 home safety kits, the petrol for the handy van for 3 years and 8 Senior Link Bogus Caller Units.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
personal/visa_affinity_helptheaged.html
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