Update

I would like to say a sincere thank you to everyone who has donated to the ‘Happiness Community Hall’ project. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity and also wanted to thank those who have donated offline including the SJP Principal Partners, the Sumner Wilson Trust, who have always been generous in their support, along with everyone who has given online here. Your support will make an enormous different to many lives. Thank you.

I retired from my position as Chief Executive Officer on 30th November 2023 and will retire from SJP fully on 29th February, 2024, after 31 years with the business.

Rather than a retirement gift I am marking my departure with a charitable fund raise to build a community hall to be known as ‘The Happiness Community Hall’ in a particularly impoverished community in Nepal.

This follows a very successful similar donation Lynn made early in 2023, known as The Happiness Hall, which has inspired us both.

Lynn and I intend to visit the projects which we know will bring to life the huge significance and meaning of this gift.

The new Hall will sit at the heart of a caste equality program where Dalit populations face particularly large barriers to education, good nutrition, and safe shelter.

The hall will provide a safe place to:

Run a nutrition kitchen to help impoverished children receive a proper school lunch.

Train and mobilise change makers such as teacher training and collaborative meetings for parents and officials.

Provide a peer counselling program to combat the psychological wounds of casteism.

Empower parents by providing literacy training, co-operatives and savings groups and livelihood and micra business training.

Thank you.