Churches and Church Schools Raise Big Funds for Good Causes

21 Jan 2002

For immediate release

More than £101,000 came in from churches, schools and others in the Diocese of Southwark as a result of the Bishop's Lent Call last year. With donations from across south London and east Surrey, the Diocese gave grants totalling £97,000 to charitable projects in Barbados, Delhi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and here in Camberwell, south-east London. A further £7,500 is being held for drugs and medical supplies in Zimbabwe as required.

For Lent 2002, which runs from Ash Wednesday, 13 February till Easter, the Bishop, the Rt Rev Tom Butler is asking people to give again. He writes: "Lent is a time of preparation for the great gift of Christ himself at Easter. As we prepare to receive this gift, it is fitting that we should deny ourselves and give to others."

Details of Lent Call 2002

These are the projects he is supporting:

• Springfield Community Flat, Clapham, south London - a breakfast club and after-school club for young children.
• Kids for Kids, a new charity working with the children of Darfur in West Sudan, to provide water and goats for family and community development.
• Christian Engineers in Development / COME (UK) project, to restore a pumped water supply (destroyed by war) to the St Philip's Cathedral compound in Gulu, Uganda.
• A Church Missionary Society children's home in Georgia
• Aid for various works in Zimbabwe:
  • YWCA Women's support and income generating project, supported by Christian Aid;
  • AIDS relief and education for orphans in Matabeleland;
  • purchasing breeding cows in Central Zimbabwe;
  • books and library provision for theological education in Manicaland.

More details

Summary of grants made in 2001

Library for Codrington College, Barbados £15,000.00
St Stephen's Hospital children's centre, Delhi £20,000.00
Replacing flood-damaged worship books, Mozambique £5,000.00
Zimbabwe:
Nyamarimbira water supply £10,000.00
Matebeleland: 1) AIDS orphans 2) Bibles, teaching & prayer books £9,000.00 Manicaland: roofing the diocesan office £9,000.00
Central Zimbabwe: breeding cows £9,000.0
Shaftesbury Resources Centre, Camberwell £20,000.00

Total: £97,000.00

Additional funds held for Zimbabwe £7,500.00

Another £1,000 received late from the 2000 appeal went to the Just Children Foundation, a drop-in shelter for street children in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Ends.