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We are very sad to report the death on 17 August 2009 of Mary Hughes co-founder of MAP

Mary, inspired by a film ‘5 Minutes to Midnight’, enlisted the support of her husband, Jack and between them they gained MAP’s charitable status, formed the initial committee and continued be the driving force behind MAP for over 10 years.

 A lovely and generous lady who will be sadly missed

Our sincere sympathy to all her family

Provisional Dates and Venues for 2010 - Very Provisional!

23rd January           Coffee morning                             Nutfield Road

20thFebruary         Jumble Sale                                   Canada Hall

29th May                Pancake brunch                            Nutfield Road

Tba                        Safari Supper                                 Merstham

Tba                        Bacon Butties                                tba

12th July                 AGM                                             St  Teresa’s Hall

tba                          Treasure Hunt                                tba

25th Sept                 Autumn Harvest                            Canada Hall

30th Oct                  Jumble Sale                                   Canada Hall

20th Nov                 Wine and Wisdom Quiz                Epiphany H

all

Pictures of  25th Anniversary Celebrations.

Chairman’s  Report

John Dungay reported that he was standing down from the chair.  He had been ‘temporary ‘ joint chair with Jan for nearly 5 years and felt it was time for a change.

He thanked everybody for their support over this period, particularly those people who had donated time and materials (particularly foodstuffs at various events) free of charge and for the recent generous donations of money from Pat Watson on her 80th birthday and Don Neal’s daughter Liz on her recent wedding.

John noted how our methods of fund-raising had changed from the early days (street collections, plant sales) to the present (jumble sales, quizzes, safari supper etc) and felt that the ‘new blood’ would come-up with new and innovative approaches for the future.

John concluded by mentioning the recent graduation of Rika (initially trained in speech Therapy by Becky Wickens, the last VSO volunteer supported by MAP).  With Rika’s successful graduation our financial commitment is now ended. 

Treasurer’s Report

Ted Aston presented his first Treasurer’s report, thanking John for his help during the transition.

The key points were that this year we had provided grants of nearly £7000, spread between 9 different organisations (including the final payment to Rika) and had raised nearly £3000 from events and received around £6000 from regular donors, tax recovery and other sources. This compared favourably with the previous year.

The total money raised by MAP now exceeds £132,000.

Changing of the guard

Lizzie Webb-Martin was elected as Chair

In recognition of his work on behalf of MAP over the last 15 years, Lizzie presented John with an illustrated wine-cooler (signed by MAP committee members, past and present) and a certificate from Send-a-Cow for the most recent donation to this worthy cause.

All other officers and committee members were re-elected

A.O.B.

The meeting was also asked to remember Hilda Walters, a long-standing supporter of MAP and early committee member, who had recently passed away.

Speaker - Nicky Jeffreys, UK Director of Target Tuberculosis (TT)

Nicky told us that TT was a Brighton-based charity, established in 2003 by the Ryder/Cheshire foundation, with a small staff but a worldwide reach.

Their vision was a world free of TB, and their focus, vulnerable and marginalized groups, mainly in South and Central Africa and South Asia, where increasingly TB was associated with HIV/AIDS. She noted that TB, which killed over 2 million people a year, was a disease of poverty which could be successfully treated, particularly if the underlying poverty was addressed.

Key achievements of TT since its inception were:

• providing access to diagnosis and treatment for 25,000 people
• training 4000 volunteer workers
• providing health education to 12 million people
• supporting over 8,000 people co-infected with TB and HIV.

Current work was aimed at:

• strengthening the health programmes of the Governments of the countries they worked in
• improving their links with local, village-level, organisations
• supporting World TB days
• help volunteers to reach the people who most needed treatment by providing transport (bikes, motor cycles etc) and equipping mobile clinics.

Plan for the next 3 years:

• was to develop partnerships
• focus on prevention
• raise the global profile of TB
• expand their income
• strengthen their management team.

Nicky finished by mentioning a case study of a 9 year old girl in Tamil Nadu, India, with extra-pulmonary TB who had been successfully treated with drugs (at a cost of only about £40)

John Dungay was able to report that 2007/08 had been another good year for fund-raising, particularly when the events were associated with eating (bacon butties, pancake brunch, safari supper, dinner dance).  Old-faithfuls such as the jumble sales and the quiz evening also helped to swell the coffers.  The total raised (and donated to worthy causes) by MAP since it started more than 25 years ago has now exceeded £120,000.

After the formal part of the meeting, we were addressed by David Knowles CBE, owner of Godstone Glass, trustee of St Dunstan’s, the charity dedicated to blind ex-servicemen and women and treasurer-general of the World Veterans Federation. David spoke about his charity work as a representative of the Royal British Legion and for the St Dunstan’s trust. He also told us about a blind ex-Army major who has worked tirelessly in northern Ghana to reduce disease-induced blindness and has now set up his own charity to further this work. Because this work doesn’t benefit ex-service personnel directly, the St Dunstan’s trust cannot support him; however we are in the process of establishing links with this project with a view to providing support in the near future. In particular we are hoping to buy some ceramic water filters, which help to reduce the incidence of blindness caused by water-borne parasites.

Impact Foundation

About 5 years ago we made a donation to a local organisation, the Impact Foundation based in Haywards Heath to support their work in The Phillipines. Last year we donated money to another of their projects, the Jibon Tari Floating Hospital in Bangladesh, which brings healthcare and health education to the many isolated communities in this poor, mostly rural country. Partly as a result of the full and rapid feedback we received from Impact, we decided to support another of their healthcare projects this year – an immunisation programme in Asia. This project has two strands,  inoculation of children to protect them against polio and inoculation of women to protect them against against Rubella (german measles). Our donation will provide lifelong protection from these diseases for 500 individuals.

Tools for Self Reliance

We have continued to support this worthy cause in 2008 both with a cash donation of £250 to help with the cost of shipping renovated tools and sewing machines to Africa and with old woodworking tools and a number of sewing machines (Singer round bobbin, manual, preferred) donated by supporters. These we take up to their Carshalton workshop for them to work their magic on. Your secretary, John Phillips, is happy to receive any of your unwanted tools and sewing machines.

Azafady

MAP has also provided more support this year for the Azafady programme in Madagascar, with a donation of £500. Our particular interest in this programme is a vegetable garden cultivated by villagers in an environmentally-friendly fashion. This  not only provides them with food to eat and sell, but helps to promote the ideas behind sustainable agriculture. Unfortunately, many of the vital gardening tools used in the project were lost in a recent fire, so our donation this time will help replace them. Hopefully now, this important work will continue to contribute to the well-being of local people and help protect this important and unique but fragile environment.

Elephants Pumps

Elephant pumps have received plenty of favourable press reports recently as being “very good things”.  They are cheap, simple and reliable devices to pump water from wells to the people who need it at ground level. Over the last two or three years we have provided money to Pump Aid to enable them to purchase five ‘elephant pumps’ for use in various parts of Africa. The literature and DVD they sent us showed just how useful and simple-to-maintain these pumps are and what a difference they make to the people who have them. This year we have donated a further £500 to purchase pumps destined for villages in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

Friends of Doublejoy

As a friend of Double Joy, a home and school for children orphaned by AIDS in Kenya, MAP has continued our support this year with a donation of £500. The recently received Christmas newsletter tells us that all is well with the school despite all the troubles in Kenya last year and that morale is high amongst the children, older students and staff, who now total 90. Our donation will help pay the teachers’ wages and the school fees of the children as they progress through the Kenyan school system.

Target TB

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s greatest killer diseases and the major cause of death in people with HIV/Aids. But it is curable, and with simple precautions taught by health workers, preventable to a large degree. Target TB, a Brighton-based charity that we have supported with donations of £1000 in 2007 and £500 this year estimates that £40 will provide the both the drugs to cure one infected person and the advice to prevent that person infecting 15 other people. Target TB works mainly in Africa and Asia as part of a international drive to control and begin to eliminate TB from the world by 2015. In a small way our contributions will help towards this important goal.

Bendoree Orphanage

Some years ago, an Oxted woman, Diane Bostock and her sister Audrey started a home for children orphaned by AIDS in Kitwe Zambia.  Because of the local connection, we have been pleased to support the Bendoree orphanage with a number of donations over the years. These have helped with building work for animal pens and more recently helped towards buying a donkey and cart to take the children to school and bring back water and supplies to the orphanage. Our most recent donation will go towards the construction of a new schoolroom for this ever-expanding community.

Health Help International

A charity with a local connection that we have supported for the first time this year is Health Help International. This organisation, which a has philosophy similar to MAP’s of supporting self-help groups, works mainly in Zambia helping mission hospitals, clinics, schools and shelters for single mothers and in India, helping orphanages and  clinics. We know that our donation of £500 will be put to good use.

Send-a-Cow

One of MAP’s founding principles was to give help to people so that they could help themselves and send-a-cow is a fine example of this. The cows and the training that goes with them not only provides an income for the owner with milk to sell and manure to improve their land, but acts as a focus for other local farmers to improve their farming methods and other villagers to come together to develop a local farming industry. I’m sure ‘our’ cows will be playing their part in this work in Uganda.

CARECO (Rodrigues)

For a number of years now we have been happy to support the work of a very successful honey-producing project on the remote Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues, having been introduced to the project via a local connection, Michael Duggan, a Redhill resident and Master Beekeeper.  This endeavour, which was originally known as the Rodrigues Craft Aid project, provides income for many disabled young people on the island who would otherwise have to rely on the state or family for support. Michael played a vital role in advising on the setting up of the project and although no longer able to travel to Rodrigues, keeps us in touch with developments via committee member Ken Chapman. Donations from MAP have helped to expand and develop the business and to overcome problems caused by natural disasters such as the 2003 cyclone and the 2005 new year tsunami. This year we have donated a further £500 to help with the setting up of a new apiary complex.

Sight saving

Helping to save the sight of people in the third world has been one of our long-standing aims and so this year we have sent donations of £500 each to two eye charities, the Christian Blind Mission in Tanzania and the Jerusalem eye hospital. Money donated to the eye hospital pays for corneal grafts and to Tanzania for cataract operations and trachoma treatment, which transform lives for as little as £10.

Intercare

For a number of years Intercare has sent drugs that are surplus to requirements in the UK to various third world countries. Although this valuable service was temporarily halted in 2006/07 by new EU waste management regulations, the problems were overcome so that the service could continue. Jan Dungay has been co-ordinating MAP’s effort and would be happy to receive any packages (but not bottles!) of drugs that are no longer needed but still have at least 15 months shelf life remaining.

VSO

Although MAP no longer supports VSO directly because of the size of the financial commitment now required, we have continued to support an Indonesian girl, Rika, who is training to continue the work of our last volunteer, Becky Wickens.  Monies collected from her supporters by MAP are sent off to her as and when she needs it.