I would like to start off by saying a big THANK YOU to Vic Without Barriers for allowing me the opportunity to serve the club as your president. I did not dream of this, when the vision to start the club was ignited in April 2019. Notwithstanding, I have always had this desire to both support fellow refugee-background students at the Victoria University of Wellington and bring together the refugee-background communities in Wellington. However, I wholeheartedly accepted the responsibility when I was called upon.
Before moving forward, I would like to salute the founders and visionaries of Vic Without Barriers for their endless sacrifices and tremendous efforts in taking the club off the ground and placing it to where it is today. They are (In no particular order): 1. Luis Perez 2. Jeanpaul Birikumana 3. La Nan 4. Nathan Diggs (myself) Kudos!!!
With 2019 ending, it is time to look at how the club fared over the year. Therefore, this report will briefly cover the following:
Celebrate our achievements.
Current financial status.
A glimpse into 2020.
Acknowledgment to our members, executive board, partners, individuals, and volunteers.
At the beginning of 2019, the vision to establish the club was conceived, and after several meetings and brainstorming as to what form the club should take, both a framework and a name emerged. In July 2019, we had a record number of more than 50 people that signed up with Vic Without Barriers and in that same month our first-ever AGM was conducted, paving the way for our members to vote into office an executive board.
Since then, we’ve conducted a meet and greet (Aug. 2019), Pizza and board game night (Oct. 2019) and more. 2019 can be summed up as a year of planting.
In 2019, two major achievements made us proud as a club. The first one was the Supreme Club Award, that we received from the Victoria University of Wellington.
This is the highest honour bestow upon a club by the Victoria University of Wellington. The next achievement that made us proud was the Diversity Festival 2019. This was our first-ever annual multicultural event, that brought together both the refugee-background communities, and the non-refugee background communities in wellington.
It was a night full of cultural display, both in performing arts and traditional cuisine. This event brought together almost 300 people, from around Wellington. Below, are few of the compliments we received, out of the many:
“VWB - That was incredible, what a great night!!! You’re total legends for making that happen. Our boys had a great time” M.M
“Kia Ora all, just wanted to say, Saturday’s event was literally one of the best event I have been to in Wellington,,,,,,,,,,,can’t wait for next year” A.A
Thanks a million to all the community representatives that participated in this year’s event, you guys are totally amazing. Next year, is going to be even bigger. To the cooks, kudos!!!
We officially lunched the club in July of this year, with zero (0) balance in our account to run our activities. Notwithstanding, there were few kindhearted individuals willing to help us out financially, whenever there was a need. It is worth noting that we could not access university’s funding at the time we needed it the most, because the funding’s window for the year had already closed before we knew it.
Notwithstanding, our club raised a total of $5,409.4 in 2019. Most of these monies went towards:
1. Club’s t-shirts = $409.40
2. Diversity Festival 2019 = $4,157.75
It is also worth noting that even though our total budget for the Diversity Festival 2019 was $6,000.00 we only manage to raise $5,000.00 from all sources.
I am proud to say that due to frugality and sound financial management, our club has a surplus of $ 842.25, which will be carry-over into next year’s budget.
I would like to also say thanks again, to all of the sponsors, partners, and individuals that contributed to the Diversity Festival 2019 in one way or another. We deeply appreciate every single effort, you made.
Currently, we are looking forward to a great year ahead. We are putting together a lineup of events and activities for 2020. Probably, the first event would be our AGM where new leaders will be voted into office. Most of our current executive board members have graduated, and the hunt is now on for new executive board members. We intend to make our Diversity Festival 2020 even bigger and better than this year. Therefore, planning will commence in May 2020.
I would like to acknowledge our members for standing with the club. Some of you are very busy with both work and studies but you still find the time somehow to show up, when we need you. Thanks, a million. To our executive board, thanks for serving our club, your hard work and determination are keeping our club going. Thanks to the many Individuals who continue to show their support, and encouragement. The volunteers that serve on the Diversity Festival 2019 you were amazing, thanks a million.
Last, but not the least. Thanks to everyone that made time to read through this report.
Nathan Diggs | President - Vic.Without.Barriers
E-mail: [email protected] | HP: 027-5586513
