Welcome to our third annual Newsletter; I hope you found the previous editions
interesting and informative. Lizzie has settled in well as chairperson, despite all
her teaching commitments, and is getting things done her way. So now, for each of
the organisations we support on a regular basis, there is a committee member who
is responsible for liasing with them and can provide everybody with details of how
our donations are being used. 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 2011. To keep MAP’s name
in the Merstham publics’eye (and to save some money), we teamed-up with The
Merstham Society in the summer to share a stall at the Quality Street Fair and at the
Merstham Community Festival. Plenty of leaflets were handed out at both events
and at the Community Festival, Indian silk scarves were sold to raise money for TB
treatment in rural India, the scarves having been donated by Indian parents at Lizzie’s
school. We also had the opportunity this last year to spread the news of our work
to the Merstham Community Team Council. Ken Chapman and Sue Loosley gave
them a comprehensive review of MAP’s activities since day one, which was greatly
appreciated. For those of you are up on such things, MAP now has a Facebook page –
just search for Merstham Aid Project - to get up-to-date information on our activities
and see pictures of past events.
On a sad note, as this newsletter was ‘going to press’ we heard of the death of MAP’s
founding father Jack Hughes. A full appreciation of Jack’s work for MAP will appear
in the next newsletter.
Annual General Meeting 2010
Thanks to the generosity of St Teresa’s church, we were able to hold our AGM, once again
free of charge, in their church hall. Lizzie was able to report that MAP had another successful
year, providing grants of nearly £6500, spread between 10 different organisations. On top of
this we made a final payment to Rika of nearly £1500 to mark the successful completion of
her training course in Indonesia. We were able to do this because of the generous support of
our regular donors, who along with the tax-man amongst others, provided nearly £4700 in
this financial year. In addition, nearly £2500 was raised from the various events held during
the year, including coffee mornings, jumble sales, the Harvest Fair, the quiz evening and the
Safari supper. Our treasurer reported that this compared favourably with previous years, and
produced a graph to prove it! This means that the total raised (and donated to worthy causes) by MAP since it started more than 25 years ago has now reached £140,000.
Unfortunately we didn’t have an outside speaker this time, having been let down at
the last minute, so Lizzie stepped into the breach. She gave a brief outline of MAP's
philosophy, embodied in the twin aims of raising money to help the poor and needy in the third world help themselves and bringing local people together through community events.
Lizzie also sketched out the work done by many of the organisations we currently help with
our donations.
News of Projects supported in 2010
Tools for Self Reliance
It seems that we still haven’t cleaned out from Merstham all the unwanted tools
that Tools for Self Reliance (TFSR) can put to such good use in Africa, and so
the steady trickle of old woodworking tools and Sewing machines (Singer round
bobbin, manual, preferred) continues. These find their way to TFSR’s workshops in
Southampton, via their local one in Carshalton, and then to rural Africa, to grateful
recipients in countries such as Sierra Leone, Ghana, Zambia and Uganda. The
haberdashery articles we collect (knitting wool, pieces of material, pins, needles
and other sewing/knitting paraphernalia) are particularly welcome in Ghana where
girls are being trained in traditional skills so that they have no need to leave their
homes for the bright lights (and dangers) of cities like Accra. As in previous years
we continue to make small cash donations to help with the cost of transporting the
refurbished tools, sewing machines and haberdashery kits to their ultimate destination.
MAP secretary, John Phillips, is happy to receive any of your unwanted tools, sewing
machines or haberdashery items {John Phillips}
CARECO (Rodrigues)
News from Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean on the progress of the honey-
producing charity we support comes in on a regular basis. Building on last year’s
award of a Gold medal at the National Honey Show, they now have a prestigious
food safety certificate, the only one in Rodrigues, which will undoubtedly increase
the already high demand for their honey. With 35 people with disabilities employed
full time and 43 children in the special needs Learning Centre awaiting their chance,
the future looks promising. Honey is already beginning to flow from the ‘sheltered’
beekeeping home network (and is sold in local hotels) and several of the graduates
from the Learning Centre want to join in. I’m sure our contribution this year of £500
will help to keep this organisation prospering {Ken Chapman}
Target TB
Earlier this year two of our committee members, Jan Dungay and Joan Hodge, were
invited to attended a reception describing the work Target TB is doing to combat this
disease. During the day, they were thanked personally for MAP’s contribution to the
fight. We are pleased to be a part of the worldwide effort to eradicate this disease and
have contributed a further £500 to this organisation so that they can continue their
good work {Joan Hodge}
Aquaboxes
Although we do not usually respond to international disaster appeals (there are plenty
of organisations much more capable than us) we did respond to the south east Asia
tsunami appeal a few years ago and contributed some ‘aquaboxes’ – simple and
cheap technology that provides clean drinkable water - in line with our long-standing
involvement with water projects around the world. This year we all felt that the
Pakistan flood disaster was another such event where the provision of clean water
would be critical to the survival of people caught up in this terrible event. So, through
the auspices of the charity Aquabox, we provided four aquaboxes, which will provide
a number of families with clean drinking water for up to 4 months and importantly,
the hope of an eventual return to normality {Don Neal}.
Send-a-Cow
We have long considered Send-a-Cow to be an excellent example of the sort of self-
help scheme that MAP was set up to support, and so we were very pleased that when
one of our staunch supporters married this year, he and his new wife elected to donate
money collected at the wedding (they already had plenty of toasters) to a charity of
our recommendation and we had no hesitation in recommending Send-a-Cow. This
organisation also fulfils one of our other requirements, that is keeping us informed as
to how they spend donations via their ‘emooz’ newsletter {Joan Bostel}.
Azafady
Following on from our support last year for a sanitation project at a primary school
in Ebakika in southeast Madagascar, this year we have been able to contribute to
a more ambitious programme to bring sanitation to the Fort Dauphin area of the
country. This area has great tourism potential but without greatly improved sanitation,
the economic development of this area as a tourist destination can never happen.
The 5 SanPlats (sanitation platforms) that we have funded, which are built by the
benefiting household with help from Azafady volunteers, provide latrine facilities for 5 extended households significantly reducing pressure on the communal facilities
being constructed as part of the overall programme. We have been provided with a
very full report on the programme, Project Tanana Meva, by Azafady {Ted Aston}.
Bendoree
We were very pleased to have a visit from Diane (Diz) Bostock this autumn to bring
us up to date on how the farm/orphanage is progressing. Her energy and successes
at fund-raising – including a recent trip to Australia to bring back a container load of
hospital and other equipment - put our efforts in the shade. Our donation this year of
£500 has helped with setting up the Aids hospice, which is now up and running {Jan
Dungay}.
Double Joy
As a friend of Double Joy, a home and school for children orphaned by AIDS in
Bondo, Kenya, MAP continues to take a keen interest in developments there. The
school now has 90 pupils and supports more than 20 ex-pupils in further education.
Many of them are doing courses at polytechnics and two are studying at University
one reading economics and the other clinical medicine. Thanks to charities like
Double Joy, many children like these will not only survive but will become valued
members of their community. We have been happy to continue our support this year
with a further donation of £500 {Ken Chapman}
Intercare
Our support for this worthy organisation, which provides much needed drugs and
medical equipment at no cost to the needy of the third world, continues. This year we
have sent both equipment (syringes etc) and money (to help with transport costs) {Jan
Dungay}
Project Uganda
This project was set up to raise funds to support the Gables Vocational Training
Centre in Rukungiri, Uganda, an area with high levels of poverty, sickness and as
with much of sub-saharan Africa, many Aids orphans. The vocational training centre
is enabling the young people to learn new skills, such as dressmaking, bricklaying,
carpentry, motor mechanics and catering as well as administration and computer skills
so that they can support their families. One of their students is already training at
Agricultural College and intends to return when qualified to teach and set up a coffee
seedlings nursery to provide extra income for the project {Mike Wood}. |
