A Santander employee from Manchester was part of a 40-strong team that travelled to Nepal earlier this month to build a school for the disadvantaged Moser community outside Pokhara, as well as raise funds for Age UK and Barnardo’s, the bank’s charity partners in the UK.

Chelsey Sanderson spent five days helping to build the school near Pokhara, situated around eight hours northwest of Kathmandu. The construction of the school aims to have a long-lasting impact in the community, providing hundreds of children with a brighter future, whilst also creating jobs and helping unskilled labourers to learn valuable skills during its construction.

Chelsey Sanderson, Corporate Service Manager at Santander in Manchester commented: “The whole trip has been such a positive and rewarding experience. It’s been amazing to be able to come out to Nepal to help directly with this cause and meet some of the members of the community it will directly benefit.

“It’s also great to know that we’ve raised key funds for our UK charity partners and we thank all those customers, colleagues, friends and relatives who have supported us.”

The team worked alongside The Pahar Nepal Trust, a UK charity who work in Nepal to build secure and durable structures, helping to rebuild the lives of the Nepalese who were affected by the 2005 earthquake. As well as providing the Moser community with a new school, the challenge raised £214,955 to help Age UK and Barnardo’s provide vital support to transform the lives of some of the UK’s most vulnerable or isolated older and younger people.

Hannorah Lee, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Age UK, said: “We’d like to thank this amazing Santander team for supporting Age UK during this year’s International Challenge. The money raised for Age UK will help us to provide vital support and companionship to older people in communities across the country; people who might otherwise have no one to turn to.”

Forbes Mutch, Head of Business Development at Barnardo’s, said: “It is wonderful that so many people have pulled together to build a school that will have such a long lasting positive impact on so many disadvantaged children.

“We really appreciate money being raised for Barnardo’s which will help us continue our vital work supporting hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children, young people, parents and carers.”

Over the course of 2017, Santander is supporting a host of fundraising activities for the two charities, including a coast to coast cycle challenge and a Store Wars initiative, which saw employees from across the UK go head-to-head to raise funds in Barnardo’s and Age UK shops. The bank’s aim is to raise £3 million for the two charities by the end of 2018.
 

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Notes to Editors:

Media Contact
Stephanie Harris at Santander     Email: stephanie.harris@santander.co.uk     Tel: 020 7756 4221

The press office operates from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Outside of these hours please call 0800 5877708.

Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 30 June 2017, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c19,500 employees and operates through 826 branches (which includes 61 university branches) and 65 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.

Age UK
We work with our national partners, Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI and our local Age UK partners in England (together the Age UK Family). We also work internationally for people in later life as a member of the DEC and with our sister charity Help Age International.

Age UK believes that everyone should have the opportunity to make the most of later life, whatever their circumstances. We provide free information, advice and support to over six million people; commercial products and services to over one million customers; and research and campaign on the issues that matter to people in later life. Our work focuses on five key areas: money matters, health and well-being, home and care, work and training and leisure and lifestyle.

Age UK is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England (registered charity number 1128267 and company number 6825798). Age Concern England and Help the Aged (both registered charities), and their trading and other associated companies merged on the 1st April 2009. Together they have formed the Age UK Group (“we”). Charitable services are offered through Age UK and commercial products are offered by the Charity’s trading companies, which donate their net profits to Age UK (the Charity).

Barnardo’s
The charity has helped transform the lives of millions of disadvantaged children in the UK, and continues to help families to build a better future. In 2016/17 more than 272,000 children, young people, parents and carers were supported by Barnardo’s through more than 1,000 services across the UK, such as young carers, care leavers, foster carers and adoptive parents, training and skills or parenting classes.
 

Visit www.barnardos.org.uk to find out more. Registered charity No. 216250 and SC037605