This year JustGiving held the second annual JustGiving Asia Pacific (APAC) Awards, recognising and celebrating the phenomenal achievements of fundraisers and charities during the past 12 months in the Asia Pacific region.

Voting for the 2015 JustGiving APAC Awards was hosted on the JustGiving Facebook page where members of the public were able to vote for their favourite charity and fundraiser and with over 7,000 votes in just six days, it showed just how much support the charities and fundraisers have.

Australian 2015 Fundraiser of the Year:

Our first finalist for Australian fundraiser of the year is Norman Clark.

Norman walked the 860km Pilgrim Walk from France to Spain to help New Beginnings Cambodia to start the first ever trade school in Siem reap. This school will assist families affected by HIV to learn skills to help support their villages, create income for their family and help secure their future. Norman’s walk raised over $14,000 and the trade school will be taking its first students next month

Our second finalists for Australian fundraiser of the year is The FireFlies Antipodes.

Inspired by the courage it takes to fight Cancer, The FireFlies Antipodes, on their inaugural Tour, cycled from Christchurch to Queenstown New Zealand – 800 km over six gruelling days. With their motto “For Those Who Suffer, We Ride” they raised over $30,000 for the Snowdome Foundation and their work making hope real for the 11,500 Australians diagnosed every year with blood cancers.

And the winner is… Lennon Maher

After seeing children in developing countries walking long distances to and from school, six year old Lennon was inspired to walk to raise money to buy them bikes. He walked his hour long journey home from school once a week for 10 weeks and raised $5,000 for ChildFund Australia‘s Dream Bike Appeal. 50 more children now have a bike to ride to school in rural Cambodia.

ChildFund Australia CEO Nigel Spence described Lennon’s award as a “well-deserved win”.

“A huge congratulations to Lennon from all of us at ChildFund Australia. It is wonderful to see that the Australian public got behind Lennon and voted him Just Giving’s Australian Fundraiser of the Year. For such a young boy to show such commitment over the course of his 10-week walking challenge is quite remarkable. He should feel very proud that, as a result of his efforts, 50 Cambodian children will now have a bike to help them get to school,” said Spence.

The results of the public vote are a testament to the inspirational work that our charities and fundraisers have carried out in 2015 across the Asia Pacific region and we look forward to celebrating even more success stories in 2016.