PASS IT ON
PASS IT ON AFRICA
In 2005 Matt, along with best friend James Macdonald, set up the charity Pass It On Africa (PIOA) with the aim to support education in Africa by providing funds for school building initiatives. Matt ran Pass It On Africa from 2005 - 2017.
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"PIOA has been a huge part of my life. Our motivation came from a trip to the Nairobi slums in Kenya and in particular our encounter with the Tenderfoot self help school. Our original goal was to run a marathon to help buy all of the schools students a pair of shoes. Due to the terrible conditions in the Westlands area, many children were getting infections though cuts on their feet. We soon discovered that the school desperately needed to build a 6 classroom block to meet the demands of the communites children, a third of whom were orphans, who wanted to go to school."
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Fast forward several years and their ambition expanded into supporting 5 school build projects in Kenya, Ghana, The Gambia and Uganda respectively and the team grew into a core of half a dozen dedicated volunteers who all shared one passion. In 2005 James and Matt set up the For the time that the charity ran they awarded £340,000 in grants to these projects, providing an opportunity for 1000's of African children to have access to a primary education.
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The video below shows the first phase of the Dreamlands school projects in Ghana that was completed in 2014 and was project 2 of 5 for Pass It On Africa.
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HEROES RUN
Running a marahton in 2004 dressed as Batman and Robin inspired Matt and James to create their own Superhero themed Brighton fun run, the HEROES RUN TM. The event is now a Brighton institution and see's 1000's of men women and children dresed as their hero run our 5km or 10km course every May on the seafront. Not only has the HEROES RUN TM helped PIOA raise the majority of its money but 25 other charities have also benefittied from the race, helping them to collectively total over £160,000 in fundraising.
In 2017, having felt like they had taken the charity as far as they could, the team decided finish Pass It On Africa.
Video below: A big thank you to James Wainman who made this short film about The HEROES RUN.
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EFFECTS ON MY WORK
"I am so fortunate to have this experience. PIOA has helped me understand my position in the world, not only as a human being but also as an artist. Having graduated from a illustration degree in 2003 I always considered myself a draftsman but not really an "ideas man". Running a charity (and all the stress that goes with it), visiting 3 beautiful African countires and creating fundraising campaigns in the process has given me something to say. My paintings are not "for charity", they are for me and about my experiences, but these happen to have been shaped "by charity" so it is impossible to separate the two."
If you would like to read more about the work Pass It On Africa did, click on one of the previous annual reports below.