Tatenda Trust raises most of its funds by selling items that have been donated.  We support an orphage in Zambia.  On this blog we hope to tell you about some of the things we have been given, what happens when we sell them, the events we put on and how the money is spent.


Greenbelt 2011 was really brilliant.  We had our best ever fundraising year there, selling vintage clothing, records and books.  One of the best comments of the weekend was somebody saying the stall was just like Greenbelt used to be in the good old days- no doubt because our prices were reasonable, some stuff even being free, and we had also brought stuff along like saucepans, mugs and blankets that people might have forgotten to bring.  I thought we would be short staffed when my husband and trusty assistant went sick the night before, but friends from High Beach Church came to the rescue and everything went smoothly.

                                    Our vinyl department at Greenbelt was always popular


Once back we got a call about some furniture.  This included a wardrobe and chest of drawers - somebody had just asked us for a wardrobe and they ended up having both, so that worked out well. 

Put a couple of dismantled tall bookshelves on Gumtree as freebies, as they didn't look like they had any resale value.  We do this rather than throw things away.  A bloke turned up for them on a bicycle - I presume he made it home ok as I didn't hear anything on the news about a nasty accident on the Mile End Road.

Got another call to clear out a disused bowls club.  It's amazing how quickly a bowling green can turn into a meadow.  Got a lot of bar furniture, a large quantity of disco records and a jar of pickled onions which had apparently been appearing as a raffle prize for years and had become a standing joke.  They were a few years out of date but we tried them with our fish and chips anyway - not the best I've had, it has to be said.

Sold a park bench we'd got from the bowls club to a theatre company and it appeared onstage the following night in Shoreditch.  It's not the first of our things to end up on the stage or screen.  Look out for a 70s dresser in Maggie Thatcher's kitchen in the film The Iron Lady - that's one of ours.

Then followed another example of inappropriate transport - a bloke turned up in a Porsche to buy a table.  Luckily it was a soft top and he was slim.

Sent off £4000 to Zambia for orphanage expenses.  This should see them through to the end of October as long as there are no emergencies.

Gave a box of odd crockery, buttons and some mirrors to the brain injury charity Headway for them to use to make mosaic models.  Really pleased that we can put our unwanted stuff to good use.