Current campaign: 'No Place Like Home'

St Helena Fundraising Campaign 2024-2025

For our 2024/25 fundraising appeal, we are partnering with the St Helena Disabled Society to launch 'No Place Like Home' - a project supporting their efforts to allow patients to stay in their homes for as long as possible.

Saint Helena, which is reliant on UK aid funding and has average wages of just £9,460, only has one small hospital and one care home, which is always at maximum capacity. To stop patients waiting in hospital for places in the care home, the Occupational Therapy Service are eager to help them live in their own homes. But they need the right equipment to do so. That is why FOTBOT will be aiming to raise £8,000 through our 'No Place Like Home' project, to buy the equipment necessary for this work.

The money will go towards a wide range of equipment, including wheelchairs, ramps, shower chairs and hoists.

Through this project, we hope to relieve the pressures on St Helena's hospital and care home, and foster better outcomes for the patients within St Helena's social care system.

Past campaigns and projects

In 2022/23, FOTBOT supported the creation of an exciting new facility in Montserrat called Eco Play. This planned multi-functional building and park is being developed by the Montserrat National Trust with the intention of creating a fully accessible eco-friendly educational and play space for children of all ages.

Montserrat is still rebuilding after the devastation caused by the volcanic eruption that left two thirds of the island inaccessible, but it is an island of hope and optimism. The National Trust wants Eco Play to provide a much-needed activity, play and education centre that will ensure that the development of the island is inclusive for young people.

FOTBOT were very pleased to raise £1,500 for this project.

2022-23 Montserrat Eco Play

In 2020/2021 we were incredibly proud to raise over £8,000 for the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust.

The appeal was to support a permanent home for larger artefacts owned by the Falkland Islands Museum and National Trust, as well their wider collection of objects that currently cannot be displayed within the Historic Dockyard Museum. The large pieces include a Sea King Search and Rescue Helicopter flown by the Duke of Cambridge (Prince William), a Phantom aircraft, tanks, landrovers and the Governor's taxi. The new Hall will also house the tale of the 1982 conflict, an exhibition on the Falklands' rural heritage, and large sections of shipwrecked vessels.

2021-22 Falkland Islands Museum

In 2019, FOTBOT was proud to be supporting the Gough Island Restoration, a partnership programme by the RSPB and the Tristan da Cunha Government, to save the loss of over two million seabird chicks and eggs each year on the island, as well as a growing threat to the adult seabird population.

Gough Island is one of the world's most important seabird breeding sites, and is noted of a World Heritage Site, close to Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic Ocean. Caused by the introduction of mice in the 17th century - which have now evolved to be 50% larger than normal house mice, with such massive losses each year there is a very real and imminent liklihood of extinction for the Gough Bunting and Tristan Albatross - both of which are Critically Endangered and are set to be extinct within the next 20-50 years. A number of other Endangered and Vulnerable species are facing dramatic declines and also the danger of extinction. The ocean dwelling birds that breed here come from far and wide - from Antarctica to the Gulf of Mexico.

The partnership led by the RSPB and Tristan da Cunha, working with the South African government, will see an active programme of island restoration in order to restore the balance on the Island by removing the mice from the island through a baiting programme. The Island is mainly an untouched paradise for seabirds, with no human habitation on the island.

We are delighted to have selected this work for our fundraising campaign for 2019. It is a huge scheme requiring specialist expertise developed in New Zealand, as well as massive logistical coordination. Air and sea transport is needed, with the chartering of highly specialist helicopters and a large vessel which can be the operational base for the work, as Gough Island has no infrastructure and sees exceptionally strong winds due to its highly exposed location.

In March 2018 FOTBOT launched a new campaign segment of our charity where each year we focus on an overseas territory to raise funds for a project in support of local efforts. 

In 2018 we chose Montserrat as our OT to support with Project Montserrat. 

Project Montserrat is a collaborative project in which FOTBOT is engaging with several organisations including Montserrat National Trust and UK-based UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum. This continues a 20 –year relationship on island between them, which we are keen to support. The project aims to protect the islands nature by working with local land owners, schools and communities to undertake actions which provide suitable habitat from some of the islands unique wildlife including by clearing invasive plants and in return growing native endemic and threatened plants. 

In addition to this beaches and rivers will continue to be cleared of plastic debris and other wastes. The benefits of which are many fold contributing to improved ecosystem services including: fresh water, the ability to grow food on the island, promote nature tourism and a more sustainable economy.

Pilot work has been undertaken over the last few years and much has been achieved including: enhancing aesthetic appeal of coastal areas and roadsides and environmental education. You can read about this here.

2018 Project Montserrat Appeal

2019 Gough Island Appeal

2017 Hurricane Irma Appeal

Ongoing project: Hanson Box for schools

In 2017, Hurricane Irma ripped through the Caribbean, affecting Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks & Caicos Islands. Homes were destroyed and infrastructure badly damaged. FOTBOT worked closely with Rotary International and other charities tied to individual Overseas Territories to help send money and resources directly to the people who needed it most.

This was our first official campaign and given the gravitas of the situation, we acted quickly to raise over £5,000 of funds within days of the disaster happening.

The Friends of the British Overseas Territories are proud to have partnered with the Don Hanson Charitable Foundation’s Schools Program to create an unique package of new resources to drive forward understanding of the UK Overseas Territories, and to inspire interest in the diversity of wildlife, cultures and history which they harbour.

FOTBOT worked with the UK Foreign Office, as well as hundreds of naturalists, photographers, conservation departments and NGOs across the Overseas Territories to create:

Britain’s Distant Lands book: a 208 page, hardcover coffee-table book, featuring over 660 stunning images exploring the wildlife, landscapes, people and cultures of each of the UK Overseas Territories.

Britain’s Distant Lands DVD: a specially designed DVD containing a 30 minute long film about the wildlife of the UK Overseas Territories, a 4 minute mini-documentary exploring each Overseas Territory, a video overview of FOTBOT featuring interviews with Philip Smith, as well as maps and photos covering all of the UK Overseas Territories.

Map of the UK Overseas Territories: a specially created, A3 size map showcasing the location and briefly introducing each of the UK Overseas Territories. Perfect for displaying on a wall!

Copies of all of the above resources have been donated to 10,000 schools across the UK and all of the Overseas Territories. These resources are sent completely free of charge thanks to very generous funding from the Don Hanson Charitable Foundation Schools Program. Approximately 4 million students currently study at the 10,000 schools to whom we are shipping these resources. FOTBOT sincerely hopes this endeavour will help young people better to appreciate and understand the remarkable heritage that the UK Overseas Territories harbour!

Britain's Distant Lands is available to buy in our shop.