Angstroms chosen charity for 2026

This year, we are proud to support the Building Together Foundation as our chosen charity. Their work makes a lasting difference for vulnerable children and adults in West Bengal, North East India. They focus on practical, life-changing projects, including providing education, protecting young girls, supporting adult literacy, and meeting urgent needs such as food, healthcare, and safe living conditions.

A message from the Founders, Paul & Nickie Brown:

Dear Angstrom team,

We are so delighted that you have chosen to support Building Together Foundation in 2026, and are grateful for your generous gift; a wonderful support for vulnerable children and adults in West Bengal, NE India.

Outlined below is a little about what we do and what you are all contributing to.

“Having independently supported a small team in India for a few years, we set up Building Together Foundation (BTF) in 2019; a micro trust under a UK charity called Giving Works. At the same time our contacts in India set up Building Together Foundation in India as an independent Indian charity partner.

Our Indian partners had a plan to build a school in a remote forest area, and by March 2020 Joy Academy was completed and we had the privilege of being present for the inauguration (before a mad dash home as Covid locked countries and airspace down). The school provides education for about 80 children from very poor backgrounds and our local partners have recently started an adult literacy program in the village. This project was fully funded from BTF in the UK.

During the pandemic BTF were able to fund some food programmes; to feed vulnerable people in the region as needs arose.

In 2023 BTF funded the building of a kitchen block at Joy Academy, inside the school grounds, to feed children on school days, and to feed a small number of local village widows and elderly folk who join them for a meal. We have visited the school a number of times and are visiting again in February 2026.

During Lockdown the local team became aware of many abandoned or vulnerable children, so we decided to start Jessica’s house which is a home for vulnerable girls, most of them are semi- orphans which means they have one parent left who cannot afford to look after them. Vulnerable children like this can be at high risk of trafficking, which is a big problem in this area of India due to the proximity of several international borders that are easily crossed.

Since beginning Jessica’s House, we have taken in around 50 children in 3 locations, mostly girls but with a few boys; our main site being in Siliguri, West Bengal. At the Siliguri site we have constructed a new two storey home to accommodate children. The children are home schooled using a government approved English medium curriculum, they are very well cared for and loved. This building was significantly funded from BTF in the UK, with our Indian partners also sourcing some support from within the home nation as well.

We have also provided funds towards small scale projects like installing toilets or wells in remote communities and have supported a number of Medical Camps where medical supplies and medical professionals access remote villages to provide help. We even took a UK doctor out on one such visit near the Bangladesh border.

Our current financial needs are to pay off loans taken to finish the building work (we wanted to get this done quickly so the kids could move in) and to provide play equipment for the children. Ther are also the running costs for these projects in terms of teacher’s salaries, food, clothing, educational supplies and the like.

We are working with our partners in India to see that in time they raise the running costs for these project from the home nation ensuring a sustained operation, and allowing BTF to concentrate on key project costs”

Hope that gives you a flavour of what we do, once again thank you so much Angstrom for you generosity.

With very best wishes

Paul & Nickie Brown