Instead of buying chocolates, flowers and lavish meals, donate a small amount to the Harrogate Advertiser's campaign to build a new care home in central Africa.

The dream of building Harrogate House 2 for children who have lost their parents to illness and disease has now passed the one-quarter mark, with donations standing at a fabulous £7,106.

More than £2,000 has been donated in the past seven days, meaning more than £6,000 has been donated in the five weeks since the New Year.

But there is still a long way to go, with almost £18,000 still needing to be raised before the blueprints can come to fruition. Give as much or as little as you can to help continue to hard work of the team of volunteers lead by former Harrogate teacher Neville Bevis.

Continued success

The Harrogate Advertiser's Raise the Roof project to collect the £25,000 needed for the orphanage follows a similar initiative in 2003 when our readers generously helped build the original Harrogate House, part of the larger Open Arms project.

Your money will go directly towards building an infants' home in Mangochi – phase two of an ambitious rebuilding project – for orphans between the ages of two and five whose parents have died or abandoned them.

The first phase of the new project, being built as we speak, will include accommodation for 40 babies. It is hoped that your donations will then fund the second home on the site which will care for the children between the ages of two and five.

Once they turn five years old, staff try to return them to family members in their original villages and towns. If this is not possible, the children are then put into foster care.

One of these homes, Rose's House, was funded by the Rose Jeffries Memorial Fund which was set up by Rose's parents, Bronwen and Steve, after the seven-year-old died in her sleep from a rare stomach condition in November, 2003.

Last month the memorial fund contributed £500 to our appeal, raised through an annual over 35's - under 35's rugby match.

Mr Jeffries, 40, who lives in Dragon Parade, Harrogate, with six-year-old daughter Liberty and two-year-old twins Tom and Scarlett, set up the first charity rugby match in aid of the memorial fund in December 2003, and there has been a game between Christmas and the New Year ever since.

Mr Jeffries says the game has grown in popularity in the five years it has taken place, with the latest match attracting 45 rugby players from Harrogate Pythons RUFC.

Mr Jeffries, who spent a week at Open Arms in October 2004, described the volunteers who work there as "fantastic and amazing".

He said: "We had seen the campaign to build Harrogate House and after the death of Rose we had quite a lot of money coming in from various donors.

"We saw Open Arms as a local charity and decided that it was one of the main projects we wanted to support.
"It is a very good cause and everything goes in to helping the orphanage. As soon as you get out to the country you can see that it is very poor and very dry, but that the people are lovely and everyone is friendly."

• Donations can be made by cheque, payable to Open Arms Malawi. Donations can be sent to Harrogate House 2 Appeal, Spout House, Church Hill, North Rigton, LS17 0DB.
To donate online, visit their Just Giving website.