Our Director, Tom Rae, is a Trustee of The Marble Project – a small, Essex-based charity committed to looking after children and orphans, poverty-stricken families, people with severe physical disabilities and mental health issues, as well as the frail and elderly.

Focussing on eastern European countries, the charity takes a hands-on approach by helping to build safer communities. This can be achieved through developing secure medical and residential facilities, day trips for people who have limited access to the outside world, among other initiatives.

The Marble Project

Set up by a business contact several years ago, the Charity’s mission is to help people of less prosperous areas and less fortunate circumstances live fulfilled and contented lives. Tom comments on his experience:

“Over the last few years, I’ve been truly humbled by the work that ‘Marbles’ (for short!) has accomplished to look after orphans, people with learning disabilities and the elderly, particularly in Bulgaria.

I started out by attending committee meetings, where we would discuss initiatives to raise donations – such as concerts, golf days and sporting events – as well as allocating funds towards community projects. After a while, it became apparent that the charity relied almost solely on word-of-mouth to generate interest – a great achievement, but I could see an opportunity to be more proactive.

I proposed the idea of building on this success by developing an online presence, both through a user-friendly website and social media:

As these evolve, I have provided marketing support to a cause I’ve had great belief in – not just with a view to raising The Marble Project’s profile and increase support, but also showing the wider community what difference our generous donators are making to the lives of those far less fortunate than ourselves.”