Maya Angelou Libraries

Thank U is a London based Charity with the primary purpose of promoting adoption and fostering to (the hitherto difficult to reach) Black and mixed heritage community using innovative methods to engage their interest. The purpose is to reduce the disproportionately high numbers of Black and mixed heritage children in care by finding permanent homes for children in care. This helps to reduce crime ultimately – because research shows that children who languish in care are 50 times more likely to end up in prison.

Thank U’s mission

Is to be part of the solution that makes a difference in people’s lives, ultimately making society safer for all.

Aims of Thank U :

For Young People
- Advance life of young people & relieve their needs

In the UK
- Promoting Adoption and Fostering to improve the life chances of Children in Care or ‘Looked-after-children’.
- Provision of recreational and leisure time activities in the interest of social welfare and to improve the conditions of life of young people.

Africa & The Caribbean
- Relieve financial hardship, through facilitating self-sustaining job opportunities.
- Activities to promote & protect good health.
- Advance education through recycling of books from the UK, to establish libraries in communities, hospitals and schools.

Thank U activities include

For Young people
1. Promotion of Adoption and fostering:- One of the ways in which Thank U accesses it’s target group is by organising a charity event to support a worthy charitable cause in the Caribbean and another in Africa. Then in that informal atmosphere of merry-making, adoption and fostering is promoted to the ready-made captive audience. This unusual and relaxed approach has proved to be very successful in turning many of the guest into willing adoptive parents and long-term foster carers. Consequently, Thank U’s involvement with charitable projects abroad is expanding considerably
2. Discussions Across Generations:- A programme that bridges the gap between the generations and gives the young people the opportunity to learn from the older generation.
3. Youth Edutainment prom:- It gives the young people an opportunity to learn through their own
entertainment,

Thank U’s Annual Dinner/Dances supported the following charitable causes in Africa and the Caribbean:

1. Build a Canteen extension to the Osu HelpAge Ghana Centre to help feed homeless Elderly people in Accra, Ghana.
2. Re-roofing Crochu Primary School after Hurricane Ivan’s destruction in St Andrew’s in Grenada.
3. Built a tie & dye workshop at the Matt. CH 25 HIV/AIDS Centre to provide jobs for People Living with HIV/AIDS who had lost their livelihood and their jobs after news of their condition leaked out.
4. Thank U’s desire is to lift children out of poverty through our book recycling programme. Thank U has established a Milestone Library in PML Children’s Hospital, Accra and provided books for Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Children’s Ward in Accra. It is establishing a community library in the rural area of Kusenaaba in the North of Ghana.

Thank U

Patrons
Baroness Howells, OBE, of St. Davids,
Rudolph Walker, OBE

Directors / Trustees
Emmanuel Simon,
Francis Baffour,
Adina Brown (Treasurer)
Sally Baffour (Founder)

Registered Office: THANK U, 20 Abbey Gardens, London, W6 8QR. Tel/Fax: 020 7381 8362