The Bridge was packed on Tuesday 28 January for our Big Charity Quiz of the Decade! Thank you to everyone who came along and donated something to our charity collection – check out the photo below to see how much we received!

Your donations will be sent to Southampton City Mission food bank. Their website says:

“When someone attends a Basics Bank food venue they are given a warm welcome and offered a drink and a chat while their food parcel is made up. … There will be enough food in the parcel for 5 days worth of food for … Read the rest

SUSU has donated a record-breaking £235,313.63 to charity over the 2018-19 academic year! This total was achieved through student fundraising and SUSU’s Raise and Give (RAG) Group.

The donations have benefited over 35 charities including Help Refugees, Anthony Nolan, Yellow Door and Trinity Winchester. The total was raised through a variety of events and activities students could get involved with, such as mountain treks, bake sales, quiz nights, 10k runs and much more.

Fiona Sunderland, SUSU’s VP Activities, says: “I’m absolutely amazed by the record breaking total raised this year. A massive congratulations to all those involved and … Read the rest

20 handmade Christmas cards created by students are to be sent out to Contact the Elderly, a national charity dedicated to tackling loneliness  amongst older people living in the UK.

Contact the elderly estimate that 3.6 million older people in the UK live alone, with 2 million of these aged 75 or older. 1.9 million older people have said they often feel ignored or invisible, and two fifths of all older people say that the television is their main source of company.

Students from WSA did their part to help tackle loneliness and social isolation amongst older people by … Read the rest

SIAYA Sole are a shoe enterprise working in partnership with Sole Support, whose mission is to reduce the spread of infection and disease from foot related injuries in west Kenya.

SIAYA Sole donate one pair of school shoes in Kenya for every pair of shoes sold in the UK. The more shoes they sell, the more they donate, so they would love to know what type of shoe you’d like to buy!

To help in their research, please complete this quick survey: SIAYA Sole Survey. Everyone who takes part will have a chance of winning one of two … Read the rest

The team received two awards from Islamic Relief for their recent Charity Week fundraising after they raised an incredible £17,743.37. 

Islamic Society received the Crystal award for the ‘most unique event’ after they held a plant sale on the Redbrick, as well as being awarded the ‘best display of unity’. “This is considered to be the most prestigious award, which we received for our Reading vs Surrey vs Southampton charity football tournament” the team says. 

Charity Week is a global initiative by Islamic Relief to raise money for orphans and children in need in 7 countries worldwide; the money … Read the rest

The Students’ Union recently donated old Freshers’ t-shirts to the charity Farm4Life, who have distributed them across various projects in Liberia.

These projects include a school for the blind, the Liberian Disability Centre, the Bob Bates Academy Liberia and the Farm4Life office in Liberia.

Farm4life is an international charity committed to empowering individuals, and organisations, to help communities flourish. They have sent aid and/or run projects in Ghana, Ukraine, Gambia, Madagascar, Uganda and many more countries around the world.

… Read the rest

What is the Students’ Union Food Drive?

Hi everyone, it’s Charlotte, your Community and Volunteering Officer for 2018/19! I’m here to announce a project I have been working on with the External Engagement team and the Students’ Union to help support the local community over the holidays.

From now until Tuesday 18 December, there is a food drive collection point on Highfield Campus (Building 42) which we hope will make a big difference to the lives of people in our local community. I, along with the External Engagement zone of the Students’ Union, have launched this project because the current levels … Read the rest

You’ve probably heard it mentioned by now, the annual fundraising hitchhike organised by our amazing RAG has seen previous year’s volunteers reach Dubai, Morocco and Hong Kong. Jailbreak is one of the most exciting charity events you can get involved in but how does it all work? 🗺✈️

It’s simple. Groups of 2 or 3 compete in a race against time to get as far away from Southampton as possible, without spending any of their own money. This year, groups are raising money for three charities, Yellow Door, Anthony Nolan and Help Refugees. Each group must raise an initial £50 … Read the rest

On Wednesday 14 November 60 members of Medical Society (MedSoc) took part in a London Underground raid which raised £2,221.57 for charities Action Aid and Southampton Hospital Charity.

The raid involves students from MedSoc spreading out across 14 London Underground stations with collection buckets and flyers. Their original target was to raise £2,000 for both charities, but MedSoc were pleased to post the following message this morning: “We are pleased to announce that we smashed that target! We made £2221.57 and we would like to thank everyone that was involved on the day”.

The team that made the most … Read the rest

Over 90 string butterflies and 38 cards created by students during Freshers’ week will now be sent as gifts to seriously ill children in the UK through the charity Post Pals.

During Freshers’ 2018 the Union held Creative Chill Outs at Highfield, Avenue, WSA and NOC campuses. If you wanted a break from the rush of Freshers’ week, these chill outs were for you! A chance to relax, meet new people, grab a snack and create some arts and crafts. This included crafting small butterflies from lolly sticks, string and pipe cleaners, and decorating greetings cards.

These butterflies and … Read the rest