Welcome to our latest annual Newsletter; I hope you found the previous editions interesting and informative. As a MAP supporter, you will remember that at the time of the last newsletter we had just received the sad news of the death of MAP’s founding father Jack Hughes. Jack set up MAP after seeing the film '5 Minutes to Midnight' in Canada Hall in 1981. The film revealed the desperate need of people in the Third World for clean water, sanitation, medical help and aid in cultivating land for food. Jack had seen poverty in India during his navy service and recognized that even small amounts of money could dramatically change the lives of the poor and handicapped. (nowhere was this better illustrated than the Eye camps in India where £2 or £3 can restore someone's sight).
In 1982 MAP was registered as a charity with the objective of relieving poverty in the third world. The idea was to do this on a "village to village" basis, helping people to help themselves by making direct contributions to the people in need. Many of the early projects financed by MAP were water-related and proved highly successful. Jack and his wife Mary worked with their Committee with great energy and enthusiasm in the years that followed, raising funds in a variety of ways. Jack toiled tirelessly in his garden and two allotments to grow plants, fruit and other produce whilst various "bring and buy" sales, coffee mornings, etc, were held at their home to add to MAP funds. Other monies were raised as a result of Jack's sponsored walks to Land's End and John O'Groats, and his hair cutting sessions when he became a village hairdresser! Jack also visited schools and young people's groups in Merstham to explain the work of MAP and raise awareness of the problems in the Third World. He also used his connections in the village to identify friends and neighbours who were sympathetic to MAP's aims so as to widen the base of the charity in Merstham. In the early years funds were also raised by an annual Street collection, Jumble Sales and on one occasion to Jack's delight, (granny) Mary doing a parachute jump!
Jack maintained regular contact with the people who received our donations and with our sponsored volunteers working abroad, encouraging them to visit at the end of their project to tell the committee about their work and experiences. These contacts enabled Jack to prepare regular (lengthy) Newsletters for MAP supporters, keeping them up to date with conditions abroad and how money allotted was being used. Jack was the first to appreciate the help and support he received from Mary and all the various members of the committee - many of whom raised funds themselves to add to the MAP purse.
The enduring tribute to the life of Jack Hughes, however, lies both in the fundraising he inspired, thereby enabling the quality of life to be improved for so many people worldwide and in some small way, in bringing the residents of Merstham together as a result of MAP events such as barn dances, quizzes, coffee mornings and jumble sales.
Despite the chill financial wind blowing and thanks to everybody’s generosity, we still managed to raise a goodly sum for our charities this year and with your help, we will do so again in 2012. . For those of you are up on such things, you can keep up-to-date with MAP events via our Facebook page – just search for Merstham Aid Project - to get information on our activities and see pictures of past events.
Annual General Meeting 2011
Once again, thanks to the generosity of St Teresa’s church, we were able to hold our AGM, free of charge, in their church hall. Lizzie was able to report that MAP had another successful year, providing grants of nearly £6900, spread between 12 different organisations and that MAP had now raised over £140,000 since its inception. Our treasurer reported on the details and noted that this compared favourably with previous years, producing a graph to prove it!
During the year, the committee also spent some time going through our constitution, which is of course now 30 years old, cutting out some dead-wood and updating the language. The changes were accepted by the members at the AGM and subsequently approved by the Charities Commission.
Our speakers this year were Sarah and Steven Nunn, who told us about SCRIPT (Securing Childhood, Restoring Innocence, Preventing Trafficking) the charity they had recently set up in India. They set the harrowing scene of poor families selling their young daughters for the equivalent of a few pounds for the promise of a ‘better life’, which in reality was prostitution and abuse. Working with local people, they plan to set up a night shelter for the children of the working girls, and eventually to provide the children with the minimal education that would allow them to enter the Indian Education system. They also plan to set up a business to employ the working girls so that they can give up prostitution – the business would support the charity in due course. MAP is happy to support this worthy enterprise which ticks all the right boxes – money direct to the people in need, support for self-help and local contacts (through the Reeves family).
2011 Projects
Tools for Self Reliance
Amazingly, surplus-to-requirement sewing machines (Singer round bobbin, manual, preferred) and old woodworking tools still turn up for us to pass on TFSR’s eager volunteers in Carshalton for them to work their magic on, as do haberdashery articles (knitting wool, pieces of material, pins, needles and other sewing/knitting paraphernalia) which are also gratefully received. A recent beneficiary of these materials has been the Ghana Young Artisans Movement, for whom TFSR are providing start-up equipment and training in carpentry, dress-making and entrepreneurial skills for vulnerable young people in rural Northern Ghana. Projects such as these are helping to reduce the drift of young people away from the poorer northern region of Ghana, giving them a chance to stay in their home village and prosper. Similar projects are supported by TFSR in Zambia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.
So, if you have any unwanted tools, sewing machines or haberdashery items, MAP secretary, John Phillips, is happy to take them off you so that this valuable work can continue.
CARECO (Rodrigues)
In contrast to the upbeat messages received from Rodrigues last year, this year has been less encouraging. Some promised grants have not come through and sales in the shop have fallen dramatically. As a result staff in the workshop were put on a three-day working week. Sadly also, their beekeeping expert and our long-standing contact with the organisation (and past Redhill resident), Paul Duggan, died this year. His expertise and enthusiasm will be hard to replace. Despite all their difficulties, courses at the Learning Centre have continued, providing hope and valuable skills to local children with special needs so that they can be integrated into ‘normal’ society and be able to earn a living producing the high-quality honey and handicrafts they are justly famous for. We trust that our contribution this year will help this valuable organisation to come through its present difficulties. [Ken Chapman]
Target TB
Donations we have been able to make recently are being used to fight TB, a completely preventable and curable disease, amongst the poorest of the poor in Dehradun, India. As part of a project with Raphael TB Hospital, nearly 4000 people have been tested for the disease this year and nearly 500 treated, either as in-patients or as part of their local community programme. The success rate for cure is better than 85% and as one infected person can infect 15 healthy ones, this programme has contributed to an enormous reduction in the spread of the disease in this city. We are proud to be a part of the worldwide effort to eradicate this disease and will be pleased to continue contributing to this organisation so that they can pursue their aim of eradicating this terrible disease. [Joan Hodge]
Azafady
The most recent projects that we have contributed to in Madagascar, namely Project Tanana Mev, the provision of individual and communal sanitation in the Fort Dauphin region of Madagascar, and Project Lanirano, the improvement of small-scale agriculture in the Anosy Region, have been great successes. The sanitation work, which is nearing completion, has brought financial rewards as well as health benefits to the local population. The increase in tourism now that the beach and surrounding areas are clean has bought in money and the agricultural programme has resulted in increased income for families taking part and increased status for participating women. Azafady are extending these programmes to other area of the island and we are actively considering how best to contribute. [Ted Aston]
Ben Doree
The orphanage at Ben Doree farm continues to flourish. Sadly however, Dizzie Bostock is no longer as fit as she was and so feels that she can no longer take in as many new young children as she would like. Knowing Dizzie, this won’t interfere with her plans and her (UK-based) sister tells us that she is actively seeking other local charities to help her out. Our donation this year of £500 has been much appreciated. [Jan Dungay]
Intercare
As in previous years, we have been able to provide some limited support for this charity, which collects drugs and medical equipment that are no longer needed here, but still have a long shelf life, and sends them to the needy of the third world. This year’s contribution of £250 will help with their transport costs. [Jan Dungay]
ZANE
This year we have been able to provide some support for a charity close to Lizzie’s heart, ZANE (Zimbabwe A National Emergency). The need for support in Zimbabwe is as alive as ever with inflation running at 600% and politics little improved. ZANE’s focus is on projects that help to create sustainable communities, supporting pensioners - the forgotten generation, orphans and assisting with primary care clinics in the impoverished communities around Harare, where there is extensive disease and limited access to health care. As part of this support, ZANE is involved in a club-foot correction programme. Fortunately for Zimbabweans, ZANE has many supporters. In July 2011 Mr Tony Benyon MBE (aged 69) walked from Lands End to Westminister, a total of 335 miles, to raise money and awareness. [Lizzie Webb-Martin]
St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital
Support for organisations dedicated to saving the sight of people around the world has been one of our long-standing aims, and so this year we have been pleased to be able to send a further donation of £520 to the St John Eye Hospital, the main provider of eye care to the Palestinian population of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. This donation will allow numerous cataract operations to be performed, returning the precious gift of sight and thereby economic security to many people for whom access to specialist healthcare is limited. As a result of regular news updates via our local contact in Oxted, we can be sure that our contributions are being put to good use. [John Dungay]
Kids 4 Kids
This charity, set up and run by Patricia Parker, a Dorking resident and 2 assistants, does fantastic work in Darfur (Southern Sudan) helping displaced refugee families and particularly the children, to integrate back into village life. This is done by supplying them with the basic necessities including mosquito nets, blankets, farm tools and seeds and a donkey, and loaning them 6 goats for two years. When the loan period is up, the family pass on 6 offspring to another family and so on. We were privileged to have had a visit from Patricia last year to hear about this work at first hand and have been happy to contribute £500 this year to help in this wonderful work. [Jan Dungay]
SCRIPT
After hearing all about the plans for this new charity at the Annual General meeting (see earlier), it was encouraging to hear that SCRIPT was now up and running in India, with their workshop producing belts made from discarded rubber, which they will be selling in the UK soon. Sarah and Steve were advised that their best course of action was to stay in the UK at present and send out money raised and so we are sure that our contribution of £500 this year will get to where it is needed. [Sue Reeves]
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