We had a team of wonderful, incredible and truly inspiring marathon runners this year who took part and completed the Virgin London Marathon to help raise vital funds for Learning for Life. They were amazing and collectively raised over £8,300 so far.

A huge thank you to all our Santa runners for completing the 5 km course around Victoria Park on 7th December. They have collectively raised about £4,000. Thank you so much for your support.

Learning for Life hosted their Diwali Dinner on 18th October 2014 at the Nepal Embassy. It was a fantastic evening and we were delighted with the turnout and success of night. We would like to say a huge thank you to all those that attended. We are very grateful that people were so generous on the night, helping us to raise in excess of £5,000. Thank you so much for the support. We would especially like to thank our trustee Dan Doherty for doing a tremendous job compering on the night. Also huge thanks to Queen Mary's Nepal Society who truly dazzled us with their traditional Nepalese dancing - they really got the party started. We would also like to thank The Broad Gallery for their continued support in providing some fabulous artwork, to Munal catering for their scrumptious food and Vintage Images for the varied authentic film posters - it added a nice new touch. Our chair Minaxi Desai made a very touching introduction speech about Diwali: "For those of you who may not be aware of the significance of Diwali, let me share. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil, and hope over despair…On Diwali night, little clay lamps are lit in Hindu homes. Most of the world recognises the importance of light as a gift. It has always been a symbol of whatever is positive in our world of experience. To Hindus, darkness represents ignorance, and light is a metaphor for knowledge. Therefore, lighting a lamp symbolises the destruction, through knowledge, of negative forces- such as wickedness, violence, greed, bigotry, fear, injustice, oppression and suffering. Our very important work, whether it is eradicating child poverty, education, or empowerment, is very much about victory of knowledge over ignorance, making people aware of their rights to enable them to overcome injustice and oppression and giving people hope over despair. To see a child working in an environment like a shoe factory, his eyes hollow, vacant and full of despair and then to see that same child, in one of our schools, having been released from that work- playing, enjoying his childhood, and eager to learn, his eyes now full of hope and possibilities.”

We would like to say a huge thank you to all who attended LfL's 20th Anniversary Party on Saturday 28th June 2014. It was a fantastic evening of delicious food, wonderful company, and we are hoping to have raised around £5000, so we are extremely grateful for the support. We would particularly like to thank all the staff at Café Spice Namaste and our two patrons, chefs Cyrus Todiwala and Dan Doherty, who really did blow the guests away with their exquisite and innovative four-course menu and canapés. We were joined by Sophia Swire, one of the charity's founders, and it was lovely to have her there to thank her for her incredibly hard work during the initial years, and to celebrate everything that has been achieved over the last 20 years. The co-founder, Charlotte Bannister-Parker, left this message: “I can’t say how incredibly proud I am of Learning for Life for all it has achieved over the last twenty years and for all the young lives it has changed. Thank you to all the staff, trustees and advisers ..past and present for making this possible through their hard work and dedication to the vision that Sophia and I had when we founded the charity. As LFL goes from strength to strength it could not be in better hands. Enjoy tonight and I look forward to continuing to support and work with LFL for years to come. All love and admiration, Charlotte”. We hope that those who attended enjoyed themselves and we look forward to seeing you again, along with those who could not make it, at our future events.