Press Release

[Home]  [Index]   [Search]   [E-mail]

record funds raised by churches & schools

12 November 2002

Churches and church schools in the Diocese of Southwark collected a record total of over £114,000 for charities at home and abroad in response to the Bishop’s Lent Call. The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, presented the following amounts to representatives of the charities at a recent diocesan meeting:

• £25,000 to restore a pumped water supply (destroyed by war) in Gulu, Uganda.

• £3,000 to a Children’s Home in Georgia.

• £25,000 for a Breakfast Club and After-school Club in Clapham.

• £25,000 to provide water and goats in Darfur, West Sudan.

• £8,000 to a Women's Support and Income Generating Project in Zimbabwe.

In addition, £8,000 each has been earmarked for projects in the three dioceses in Zimbabwe that are linked with Southwark Diocese. This brings the total being distributed to £110,000.

The Diocese includes 300 parishes and 106 church schools, spread throughout South London and East Surrey. They are invited each year to raise money through self-sacrifice and fund-raising projects during Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

DETAILS OF THE GRANTS:

£25,000 – to restore a pumped water supply (destroyed by war) to the St Philip’s Cathedral Compound, Gulu, Uganda, which houses about 800 people and provides education and welfare services. Around 5,000 schoolchildren attend most days, and approximately 10,000 people and their animals depend on the compound for their water. The project is handled by Christian Engineers in Development, based in Kingston-upon-Thames, with COME (UK) (Christian Outreach, Ministry & Education).

Georgia: Children’s Home, £3,000 – to the Church Missionary Society (CMS), working in partnership with a local organisation Zarebi. This children’s home in Akhaltzikhe, Georgia, which provides shelter, food and education free of charge for 55-60 children with learning difficulties, is in a serious state of disrepair and they want to employ local craftsmen to repair it.

Clapham: Springfield Community Flat, £25,000 for the Breakfast Club and After-school Club. The community Flat is a project on the Springfield Estate helping small children. The Breakfast club welcomes over 20 children who eat breakfast together and are taken to four local schools. The after-school club provides for them after school when their carers are working. Additional funding is needed so that more children can be helped.

West Sudan: Kids for Kids, £25,000 - Working with the children of Darfur, West Sudan, Kids for Kids is a new charity working to provide water and goats in the area. A hand pump costs £2,000 and one goat costs £9. The project lends 5 goats to a family for two years, after which a herd is built up and the family should be in a position to 'repay' five goats to another family.

Zimbabwe: YWCA Women's Support and Income Generating Project, £8,000 to Christian Aid, which is backing the project. The YWCA seeks to train a marginalised group of women in leadership skills and small business development. This should enable the women to improve their food security and provide them with some income, to purchase household items or pay for school books and uniforms.

Ends.

Diocesan Communications Officer
Tel: 020-7939 9400
Mobile: 07831-694021
Fax: 020-7939 9468