We help children who can’t help themselves or we help their communities or the organisations that are trying to provide them with a sustainable and worthwhile existence.
This might be anywhere in the world and it tends to be where funding is not available or the need is not being addressed.
We do not have a ’cause célèbre’: children don’t usually choose where or how they live and neither do they choose to live in poverty. We don’t have all the answers but what we try to do is to make their lives a little better.
When Nikki and Colin Mansell first set up the charity they were visiting a street children’s Drop-in centre in Luck Street, Harare, Zimbabwe. (What’s in a name – Luck Street?) On one of the walls they saw a poster which said: ‘If everyone cared enough and everyone shared enough, everyone would have enough’. These words struck a chord and they adopted them for CFI.
We have helped in a variety of ways but what we haven’t done is impose our solutions. We have always tried to provide the right help, whether that is by way of funds or materials or our presence, directly or via third parties wherever appropriate.
Colin has been a member of the Lions Clubs International (LCI) for over 20 years and is currently a member of the Lions club of Yateley & District. LCI is the world’s largest group of volunteers and its charitable foundation LCIF is recognised as the world’s most trusted charity according to recent surveys undertaken by the Financial Times. Lions clubs exist in many countries throughout the world and so Colin has contact with fellow Lions in some of the locations in which CFI has operated. He is in regular contact with the Lions Club of Bulawayo Matopos and frequently stays with them when in Zimbabwe. In 2013 Colin was invited to the Charter ceremony for the Lions Club of Beira Corridor in Mozambique following visits he had made there for the charity. Lions clubs in Africa know what help is needed and where and how it is best delivered and working in partnership with CFI ensures that money raised in the UK is targeted appropriately and in a timely manner.