Katie Ashbridge

Salsa Night a HUGE success!

2009-05-11T14:23:00.000+01:00

Last week, Penny and Kevan Ashbridge organised a Salsa Evening in memory of their Daughter Katie.

The funds raised are still being counted, but latest figures suggest the event raised over £6000 for our project in Villa Maria, with which 12 families will now be built new homes, Katieville continues to grow!

The night was great fun and for a great cause. Thank you to everyone who took part.

To read more about the our project in Villa Maria, click here.

Latin Dancing comes to Tewkesbury!

2009-04-09T16:10:00.003+01:00

Salsa aficionados throughout the world watch out - salsa is coming to Gloucestershire! This is the latest fundraising event being held by Katie's family, hoping to help yet more families whilst bringing out the latin diva in all of us...

The big night is Saturday 2nd May at Bredon Village Hall, near Tewkesbury, and a £20 ticket will give you a slap up supper and a night to remember.

If you would like to attend the evening, or would like to donate towards the cause or even provide an auction prize, please contact us

All five houses completed

2009-04-09T13:39:00.003+01:00

Thanks to funds from Katie's friends and family as well as work from Quest's team this year, we have completed the latest five houses, including one for a mother which looks after TWELVE CHILDREN!!!! This is a video of the fourth house.

Check back soon for more work after the Salsa night fundraiser in a few weeks.

More houses built!

2009-04-06T11:49:00.001+01:00

The next house, built for the Maruja family, well done guys, and thanks to Katie's family and friends for the donation.

Summer ends and construction begins

2009-03-27T14:42:00.002Z

Thanks from Bertha Huaquiluz Huaman for the latest house built with funds from Katie's family and friends. Four more to be built just this month, and lots more families to help. Thanks for all your support so far.

Houses now dedicated

2009-01-26T01:53:00.001Z

Thank you from all the families!

Update from Peru

2009-01-22T21:48:00.002Z

Just a sneak preview of the plaques to be put up on all the houses build thanks to funds raised by Katie´s campaign. Three were finished last year and a further five have been selected for construction in the next couple of months.

Watch back soon for more photos of the work on the ground.

Fantastic Fundraising Efforts

2008-12-17T09:27:00.002Z

Congratulations to Katie's friends and families. Thanks to your sterling efforts at the Grim Challenge, Villa Maria now has nearly £3,000 donated from your campaign, where we will be able to support SIX families with new homes. Work will begin in the new year - thank you all!

Katie's Friends take the Grim Challenge

2008-10-20T17:15:00.004+01:00

Lots of respect to Emma Taylor, Alistair Richardson, Tom Morgan, Caroline Boon, Emily Miller, Stuart Maclean and Emily Coates for signing up to the Grim Challenge. They will run 8 miles through bushes, lakes and mud in deepest darkest December, all to help raise funds for Katie's Campaign.

See details of the race here

To sponsor them for their stirling efforts, click on their Justgiving site here

Thanks from one of the families

2008-10-20T10:48:00.002+01:00

This is a short video of one of the families which have benefited from the funds raised by Katie's friends and family - thank you all!

Photos of the first house erected

2008-10-08T11:09:00.001+01:00

Well done to the guys in Villa Maria for their sterling work on Salome's new house. It may look basic, but it's now watertight, windproof and will shortly have running water and electricity. More photos and videos to come.

Three families benefit from Katie's Campaign

2008-09-15T10:47:00.000+01:00

The guys in Villa Maria had a difficult job establishing which of the many families needed the most urgent help with their homes, but work has now begun to build new houses for the following families:

Salome Gladis Chávez, single mother with four children.
Fabiola Baldeón, mother with two young children and a diabetic husband
Evaristo Ramírez Liñan, single mother with two childen.

This is Salome's house at the moment, check back in a couple of weeks to see its replacement.

Katie Ashbridge Memorial Page

2008-09-10T18:00:00.000+01:00

Helping the families of Villa Maria

During her gap year, Katie spent a month taking part in The Villa Maria Project, working in one of the poorest areas of Latin America, in Peru's capital of Lima. In her memory, we will be raising money to launch an initiative to provide improved housing to the families of the the most disadvantaged children in Villa Maria.

With over 600,000 inhabitants, Villa Maria is one of the largest shanty towns in the world and Katie taught sport, art, music and theater to some of the children living there. Katie particularly enjoyed this part of her trip and she came away having touched the lives of many of the children who she met during her time there.

The Villa Maria Project

Quest Overseas has been working with the communities of Villa Maria for over ten years now. It has focused its energies on improving the general living conditions for the children, providing summer camps, health programmes, a pre school and primary school and year round activities for all ages. It has already shown dramatic improvements, hugely reducing crime and gang warfare in the area. Space in the valley of Villa Maria is becoming increasingly limited and families are being forced to cut precarious platforms into the hillsides to erect there homes, which all lack basic facilities - water, electricity and sewage. These oppressive conditions often lead to the break up of families, leaving single parents to struggle to work and care for their children. Education, health and general well being are extremely difficult to maintain, making it hard to give the next generation the opportunity to better their situation

Katie's initiative

In her memory, we will be raising money to offer improved housing to the families of the most disadvantaged children in Villa Maria, those from broken homes, generally with single mothers. The constructions are basic , single storey wooden constructions which can be put together in a matter of days. They can be single rooms or many rooms depending on the size of the family and the funds available. The great advantage is that they cost relatively little to buy and make; a simple home for a family of 4, with electricity, water and sewage costs around £500 when available. These solid constructions will provide the warmth and hygiene which families have previously been missing. We feel that this is a very fitting project to support in Katie's name as she felt very passionate about both the people and surroundings of Villa Maria

2008-09-10T16:34:00.000+01:00

The below article was featured in the actuary.

2008-09-08T13:57:00.000+01:00