PARISH PROJECT FUND
Launched in 1996
Purpose - to pursue the church’s
Parishioners’ donations have been channelled to carefully selected schemes, mainly abroad
Total allocated so far - Over £22,000
We favour schemes where the Parish has personal links – the funds can be channelled direct and we know how the money is spent.
In recent years much of our fund has been allocated to the Courier Orphan Fund in
See a report on the success of one of these projects Rose Swane's Safe Haven; she is very proud of the outstanding matric results achieved by some of her orphans. Fr Richard was impressed by her work when he visited last year and Virginia will be meeting her again shortly.
We have also supported Fr Cashin’s (a former Ledbury PP)
mission in
At home we have contributed to such causes as the Samaritans at
Recently contributions from parishioners have dropped off and we need more support. The method is simple: envelopes labelled “Parish Project” are available at the back of the Church and donations, large or small, regular or from time to time, can be placed in the collection plate.
Cyril Stone
PARISH PROJECT December 11 Report
It is part of the Church’s Mission to help those suffering from hunger and deprivation. The Parish Project is the means by which the Parish as a whole has the opportunity to share in this mission. Since it began 15 years ago the Project has channelled around £24,000 to carefully selected schemes, largely in places abroad where people are poorest and the need greatest. The funds accrue from regular or occasional contributions from parishioners.
Envelopes are available at the back of the church for this purpose.
We hope all parishioners will consider whether they can support the parish mission in this way.
The latest allocation of funds is as follows:
Samaritans Hereford - £300. It is a sad fact that their help is particularly in demand in the Christmas period, and financial support has fallen off recently.
The Passage Westminster - £200. Founded by Cardinal Basil Hume to help homeless people. Half their expenditure has to be met by voluntary donations. They not only help people sleeping rough- especially important with cold weather coming on – but run a day centre and residential projects to help people transform their lives.
Courier Orphan Fund - £500 Helps to feed and clothe children orphaned by AIDS in the northern territory of South Africa Cyril Stone
December 2010
The end of year allocation of funds after careful research
about the charities is
Courier Fund £600
Samaritans Hereford £300
Passage
(homeless charity in Westminster Archdiocese)
£300
Feet First £300
Helping treat physicla disability worldwide and particularly club foot in Malawi
Parish Project Update June 2010
Thanks to the generosity of contributors to the Parish project we have been able to contribute £500 for the Courier Orphan Fund- see below for more information
The generosity of parishioners enables us to ease in this way the burdens others are carrying. We hope supporters of the Parish Project approve of their committee’s choices.
Contributions can be regular or occasional, and of any amount. All you have to do is take an envelope labelled Parish Project from the back of the Church and put your contribution in the collection plate. All contributions are anonymous.
If you are a taxpayer your tax can be reclaimed if you write your church covenant number on the envelope.
Cyril Stone
Fr Richard's talk on the Parish Project September 2010
Ledbury Parish Project
Fourteen years ago parishioners came together to see how they could get help directly through to those in the greatest need without the usual overheads of charitable giving. Since then our parish has collected over £20,000 for distribution, mainly overseas. Though, especially, at Christmas time, we aim to help the homeless and the needy in our own country. We can never forget that, as we celebrate together, there are so many in this country for which Christmas is just another time of poverty and loneliness.
When giving overseas we favour projects where the parish has personal links so that we know the money is getting through. In the past we helped Mgr O’Leary, a priest of our archdiocese, who worked in Ecuador not only to serve the spiritual needs of the people but also helped to attend to their most basic needs e.g. clean drinking water.
Each year we help Fr Cashin who, as a young man, gave great service to our Parish as its priest from 1976 – 1983. He is now working in Zambia.
Currently the Courier Orphan Fund in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa, receives the bulk of our money. This is an ecumenical, Church Together, initiative that aims to ensure that orphans are not malnourished. Indeed, the numerous orphans survive only because of the extended families comprising grannies, aunts and not infrequently older siblings and these receive food parcels and supplementary rations. Desperately poor, often afflicted with HIV/AIDS, nonetheless some with our help will grow into responsible, employable young adults with a viable future thereafter.
Your giving means many children will be fed from locally grown food, a plain balanced meal five days a week. Additionally, where funds permit, school-going youngsters have shoes and school bus fares paid from our fund. One of our younger parishioners, George Sharpe, and his friends raised a considerable sum to enable school shoes to be bought and last year raised money to give an “additional” food hamper at Christmas to the gogos (grannies). As Virginia Carlton will verify there is neither waste nor largesse at the feeding centres – rather good humour amongst the children and Zulu helpers administering to their own people, unpaid and stoic.
Every pound given alleviates suffering and provides subsistence to so very many in need. A daunting endless challenge. Faith, Hope and Charity and the greatest of these is Charity.
The Project works by parishioners making donations, gift aided if possible. There is no set some, nor do you have to do it every week. But please take some envelopes and whatever you can spare will make a difference not only to those who are helped but also to the love and mission of our parish.
We continue to support this project in
KWA ZULU
In some districts of the north coast unemployment has reached chronic proportions. The result is that by the time the child becomes orphaned, deep poverty has already struck its dehumanising blow and child headed families struggle to exist. In the main the funds are used to support feeding schemes and food parcels for the vulnerable.
Projects supported by the Courier Fund visited by a parishioner February 2007:
Bread for Life –
Shakaville’s United Reformed Church – 120 orphans/vulnerable children receive 6 meals every week. Pastor Simone’s wife Eunice runs this with very little help. Creche has 67 children and at lunch time about 70 older children arrive after school. For most this will be their only meal of the day.
NOAH (Nurturing Orphans of Aids for Humanity)
Runs crèche and feeding scheme for after school meals. Assists with school bus fees and shoes for children enabling them to go to school.
Eagles View Church – a Zulu woman living on the edge of a municipal waste dump houses 22 children and feeds an additional ten each day. She and her husband give all their income to ‘parenting’ these orphans. She receives monthly food parcels from the local church and the Orphan Fund.
Merits of this Fund
There are no administrative costs with legal, accounting and banking services given free; organisational costs are borne by the North Coast Courier; with members of the committee who are representatives of the various churches and the editors of the Courier newspaper making no charges for their time or travelling costs.
Local people provide most of the anonymous donations which make up the bulk of the Fund’s income. A lot of this money comes from people not affiliated to mainstream churches and it was particularly encouraging to see their belief in the total integrity of the Courier Orphan Fund.
There was plenty of evidence of involvement of different communities helping each other: local Indian vegetable growers contacted the fund and asked how they could help supplying soup kitchens with their ingredients. Others have done their part.
March 2007