Trivia fundraiser for international support

AFTER months of cancellations and challenges, not-for-profit Twin Hearts is set to launch into a new program of fundraising events for the year.

Founded in 2016 by Kelly-Louise Austin, the charity aims to raise money for small grassroots organisations within Ballarat and in Tanzania.

“For each local cause or charity that we raise funds for, we also match with a sister charity in Tanzania to donate a portion of the raised funds,” Ms Austin said.

“I have spent time working and living in Kenya and Tanzania, and I am extremely passionate about helping to break the poverty cycle for women and children and Twin Hearts is my way of doing so.

“We always focus on sustainability, women, children and education.”

The first event on the committee’s schedule is the Twin Hearts trivia day set to be hosted at the Queens Head Hotel on 10 April from 2.30pm.

With a variety of sponsors already on board, for a $20 ticket, participants will be treated to hot and cold nibbles as well as a variety of games, raffles and trivia.

“We’re doing what we do best, raising money, having fun and supporting local,” Ms Austin said.

“We support local and global, my heart is over in Kenya and Tanzania and I wanted to fundraise for them as well as helping my own community so I thought why not combine them in one effort?

“When I came back from my last trip from Tanzania, we then got everything set up properly to be a registered not-for-profit organisation and since then we’ve grown into a committee of 16 members who give up their time to run these events and make a little bit of a difference.”

Having previously supported a range of local causes including First Night Care Packs, Wendouree Scouts, WRISC, and the Yuille Park Young Parent Program, Ms Austin said they are always open to new organisations to partner with.

“We would love people to contact us if they would like to work with us as far as being an organisation that receives funds and assistance from us,” she said.

“We are so aware that the little grass roots guys that we want to support, often don’t have a big name out there so we don’t know them or what they do.”

For more information and to book tickets to the event, visit facebook.com\twinheartsaus.