Model-based software for the global securities industry
Press release
City gents and ladies hope to raise £100,000 with Kilimanjaro trek for Sense International to help the deafblind.
A group of 33 professionals working predominantly in financial services and IT in the City of London, including more than a handful of millionaires, expect to raise more than £100,000 for deafblind charity Sense International by trekking up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The trek to reach the 19,344 ft summit will take place between 8 - 16 October 2004.
The trek is organised by Sunil Shah, chief operating officer of
Coexis, producers of Syn
software
products used by investment bankers and brokers. He personally underwrote
the adventure by booking 30 airline seats in advance of prersuading
anyone else to join him.
Each trekker pays their own expenses to join the trip and is encouraged to attract sponsorship.
Richard Hawkes, Director of Sense International said: “What’s different about this trek from others we have been involved in is the huge commitment that Sunil has made to personally invite friends, family and colleagues in the financial markets to join him. We expect this to be the single most successful fund raiser in our history.”
Sunil Shah was in part drawn to the charity by the heart-rending story of Kanmani found by Sense International project workers in India. When found she was malnourished and looked the size of an eight year old, although she was sixteen. She was found naked, sitting in the sun on hot sand, curled up as small as possible to protect herself from the sunlight and baking heat. Kanmani was completely deafblind and did not know how to move in search of shade.
Deafblind people sometimes live in terrible isolation often rejected or locked away by their families. Sense International aims to make their world a better place by working with local partners to help them to communicate by developing a special sensory language – using touch, taste and smell. They depend on charitable donations to pay for sensory toys, the educational units and vocational training that vastly improves the lives of children like Kanmani.
Sense International is the only international organisation in the world working exclusively to meet the needs of deafblind people and their families. Deafblindness is a combination of vision and hearing impairments. Because 95% of all that is learned comes through sight and hearing, deafblindness causes unique problems with communication, mobility and accessing information. In Tanzania and many other developing countries in East Africa there are no health or educational services for deafblind children.
Sunil Shah says: “I’d like to thank everyone who has joined the trek. I am sure the challenge will be immensely satisfying but it’s no walk in the park. The height climbed during the trek is more than that in an ascent of Mt. Everest and we could be under canvas on the mountain with temperatures as low as –20 C.”
If anyone would like to sponsor Sunil www.justgiving.com/sunilshah or contact him for postal details.
About Sense International
www.senseinternational.org.uk,
the only international charity that works exclusively to meet the
needs of deafblind children (where a child is both deaf and blind).
Sense International have a very low administration and fundraising
cost to income ratio at approximately 15%, allowing most of
the funds raised to benefit the deafblind children.
About Syn and
Coexis
www.syn.com
Coexis, the creator of Syn®,
is an IT product provider with 30 years’ experience of meeting
the software needs of businesses in the international capital markets. Syn applications
take advantage of process-oriented, rules-based approach which free
users from the high cost of bespoke solutions and the rigidity of
off-the-shelf packages. Applications include SynSettlements,
(settlement of bonds and equities),
SynFixRouter, SynFundsSupermarket and SynCustomer.
-ends-
Press contact: Salli Roskilly Saffron Communications Limited
T: +44 (0)1763 208708 E:salli at saffroncoms.com