Drapers’ Hall

Events

Events are a great way of raising funds for Rafiki Thabo Foundation – we organise our own but also encourage our supporters to do so too!

We – and our supporters – have run so many amazing fundraising events over the years, including our epic Mount Kilimanjaro expedition and Oxford City Guest Speaker Event in 2023, our gala dinners in 2018 and 2022, the Rafiki Thabo Cook Off in 2020, the Rafiki Relay in 2021, several clothes swaps and pampering and shopping evenings, children’s activities at local fetes etc. Read more about some of our events below. We also have a dedicated events website which we use for some, but not all, of our major events.

We are busy working on our upcoming events, which include taking part in The Big Give Christmas Challenge! So please do come back shortly to see how you can get involved and support us!

Past events

Snowdon For Sunrise 2024

Our amazing team of supporters did it! Head torches gave the only light as they made their way up Snowdon in the middle of the night, braving strong winds and threat of horrific rain! They reached the summit in time for sunrise, but unfortunately it was covered in thick cloud, and only on descent did the beauty of Snowdon reveal itself. Thank you so much to our amazing trekkers for challenging themselves and raising funds for Rafiki Thabo Foundation! Stay tuned for a possible 2025 return!

Family Fun Day

There were squeals of delight galore at our Family Fun Day as the children flocked to see Maddie Moate in her live shows and then queue patiently to meet her in person and have their photos taken! They loved beating our England Footballer, patron Harry Baker in Beat the Goalie too! We were thrilled to welcome so many families to a day of live shows, fun, food, stalls, games and live music!

Film launch & Panel discussion 

We were delighted to welcome loyal supporters and new friends as we launched our new film and discussed our work removing barriers to education for children living with disability in Kenya. It was wonderful to see such enthusiastic engagement between our fabulous panellists and guests! Recorded for anyone who missed it!

Learn more and watch

Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023

Our Big Give Christmas Campaign is now CLOSED! An amazing opportunity for our supporters to make TWICE the impact when they made a donation towards our campaign in support of enabling children access to education. We are so very grateful for your support! You Donated and saw it DOUBLED during this past week of 28th Nov to 5th Dec 2023.

Read more here

Kilimanjaro Trek August 2023

They did it! A team of incredible, brave, and passionate supporters, including our patrons, our Fundraiser Janne, and two of our graduates Ayiesa and Derek, took on the biggest challenge of their lives as they summitted Uhuru Peak at 5895m and they did so to help us raise awareness and funds for our work. We are over the moon to announce that together they raised more than £30,000!

Read more about the trek

OCFC Guest Speaker Event

We were delighted to partner with Oxford City FC and Fortitude Communications for our Guest Speaker event in September 2023, sponsored by Optimal People with drinks reception by Align Events. Our patrons, Harry Baker and Bob Bhania, shared inspirational stories of how they identified strengths and common goals in overcoming emotional and physical challenges that enabled them to turn adversity into success, as well as anecdotes from their recent Kilimanjaro challenge in aid of Rafiki Thabo Foundation! Thank you so much to all our guests, sponsors, and partners!

Drapers’ Hall

Gala Dinner

Our second gala dinner finally took place on Thursday 10th November 2022 at the stunning Drapers’ Hall after two postponements due to Covid! We again enjoyed live music at an atmospheric champagne reception before entering the stunning Livery Hall for dining, entertainment, fabulous auction frenzy and a talk from the incredible Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

We are so grateful to everyone who supported the event in so many ways, by sponsoring it, donating auction prizes, bidding in our silent and live auctions and our scholar pledge drive, and joining us on the night itself!

Radio 4 appeal

We were so proud to have our little charity featured as BBC Radio 4’s Appeal in February 2022! And delighted to have raised over £33,000!

Our BBC Radio 4 Appeal was aired on 6th and 10th February 2022. The wonderful Amar Latif told the story of one of our scholars, Praise. Don’t worry if you missed it – you can still listen to it by clicking on the button below – but please note that if you would still like to make a donation in response to our appeal you will need to do that via our website rather than via the BBC Radio 4 appeal website as that defaults to the current week’s appeal.

Read more about and listen to our appeal

Celebration Dinner

In November 2021 we had the enormous pleasure of hosting our Celebration Dinner featuring British artist Jeremy Houghton. We were celebrating our wonderful supporters who enabled us to continue our work despite the challenges of the pandemic. Our guests heard from our trustees Jon and Andy as they shared highlights and unveiled our new film! They met our new patron, the inspirational Harry Baker, England Cerebral Palsy footballer, and enjoyed stunning paintings and a talk by Jeremy Houghton, Artist in Residence to Windsor Castle for Her Majesty the Queen! It was such a wonderful evening!

Relay for Education

Wow, what an amazing Rafiki Relay we had! More than 2,000 pairs of feet, £16,223 raised and a whopping 103,791km cycled, walked, run or swum over 6 weeks in spring 2021! We finished Cairo to Cape Town in only 6 days, so went on to conquer the coastline of Africa, the Equator and returned to Cairo before the 6 weeks were up!

Didn’t get the chance to take part? Fear not, you are welcome to download our collated milestones booklet! Explore the 33 amazing places we visited (virtually) and read about the young lives that the Rafiki Relay teams help us transform! All we ask in return is that you sign up to our mailing list!

Events Terms and Conditions
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