Mission Support
Last year the PCC asked the Mission Support Team to review the charities we support and the recommendation agreed by the team was to continue our sponsorship of Barnabus, the homeless charity in Manchester, and the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza and that we look for a new third charity and a fourth be added again as soon as our finances recovered.
The PCC accepted this and in December 2021 we added the Larchfield Children’s Home as our third charity. This March (following the presentation of favourable draft 2021 accounts) it was agreed to add the Guildford Refugee Support Scheme (renamed Camino) as a fourth.
Larchfield Children’s Home
Larchfield is a purpose-built children’s home in Tanzania which serves as a safe and secure refuge for children in the Mkuranga district of Tanzania (south of Dar-es-Salaam). Many of the children are there because their families have been dislocated and destroyed by HIV.
The project will also include a centre for vocational training in agriculture and our donations are being used to fund the planting of papaya, okra and guava trees plus peanuts and lentils to aid the agricultural project and sustainability initiative. The aim is to be able to feed the Larchfield family and also generate revenue by selling and distributing the produce in the market.
Following a visit to Larchfield in November 2022, founder Jim Berry wrote to us saying “I had a look around and saw Okra and Papaya plants etc - I have taken some photos (see below).
One thing that’s obvious is that the sandy soil needs to be enriched by good growing soil and manure mixed together. As it stands, the sand is too porous to provide nutrition where it’s needed. Once we have done this, I expect the yield to be really good. My personal thanks to you and to your congregation for their support”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLNVDZPffSM
2004 Update
Most of our regular church income comes from the voluntary planned giving of our regular congregation, who individually believe that it is right to show thankfulness for what we have by passing on a percentage to good causes – one of which is their church.
To affirm this principle corporately we in turn pass on 10% of our planned giving to other charities – one of which currently is Larchfield Children’s Orphanage in Tanzania.
Our donations to them are primarily being used to support the orphanage’s agricultural programme – which helps feed the children but also it is hoped will eventually provide extra income. Land around Larchfield has been cleared to plant maize, and work is underway to build a chicken farm. They currently have a wonderful volunteer project manager, Rob Sherman, who has stayed and worked at Larchfield several times. His efforts have significantly upgraded the agricultural programme, water storage and management. Some of the projects Rob is working on include arranging for a borehole to be drilled and building a solar farm.
Other supporters have helped Larchfield raise the funds to build a multi-purpose auditorium for which completion is expected this Summer. Once finished, Larchfield kids will have a new dining hall, which will double up into shaded classrooms and play areas. One of the existing buildings can then be freed up to admit more kids in need.
The orphanage is also now the proud owner of a brand-new minibus kindly donated by a corporate sponsor. Enjoyed by all, this has greatly increased the mobility for the kids, enabling them to be taken to outside schools and on outings.
Larchfield founder Jim Berry (a member of our Rector’s previous church in Dubai) thanks the church for our support of the children - “Your heartfelt commitment to their well-being and progress means you are an essential and your consistency really matters”.
Camino (originally Guildford Refugee Support Scheme)
Before the current Ukrainian refugee crisis, our Mission Support Team were already looking at joining the Guildford Refugee Support Scheme which currently supports 8 refugee families in Woking and 6 families in Guildford.
The PCC decided to support the suggestion, whereby we would partner with the Catholic Church in Guildford through which we would hope to jointly support a specific refugee family (probably from Afghanistan) to resettle locally. However, our support will not just be financial. We will need to be actively involved in helping the family relocate and settle in.
If you would like to be part of this initiative and represent us on the coordinating committee (training will be given) please contact: admin@parishofshere.com
Latest Camino News 2023
Our latest Mission Support project, to sponsor and support a refugee family for resettlement in Guildford has been realised.
Together with our two partners: Rev. Diane Peters and her Church in North Guildford and the Catholic Church of Guildford, we were able to acquire a two-bedroom, ground floor flat for a reasonable rent in Onslow Village. Our application for a refugee family was duly accepted by the Home Office and produced the offer of a Syrian family of three - two parents with special health needs, who would benefit from the flat’s proximity to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, and their 15 year old son. (Their four older sons remain in Syria and in Turkey)
Members took on a variety of responsibilities to refurbish and furnish the flat completely. With cupboards full of linen, household necessities and food, we were ready well before the Almidani family arrived in early December. Since then, our variously skilled team members have been kept busy setting them up with banking, benefits, medical care and language tuition. Their teenage son has been accepted at St. Peters School, has joined the local football club and will soon have a bicycle. With the help of Google Translate on his phone and his eagerness to help, he has made communication easier for us all. They are a delightful family, extremely grateful for our support.
Now that they have been here for a couple of months, the next phase will be to help them speak better English so that they can integrate more fully into local life. They also have to learn about our bus services, which are somewhat limited in the part of Guildford they live in.
Barnabus
Barnabus is a Christian Homeless Charity which has provided a lifeline to the homeless in Manchester for over 25 years. They offer help with accommodation, rehabilitation, practical support, healthcare, mediation, skills training and links to employment opportunities. In addition, they also offer a range of activities, volunteering and mentoring to help build confidence and skills.
Barnabus has a drop in centre in the city of Manchester where much of their support is provided.
Our Parish has provided the funding, for the last five years, for their IT cafe (see picture) which has enabled it to be stocked with computers and printers so that clients can seek employment, sort out benefits or talk to their families on Facebook. The facilities have also been used to help clients understand and create budgets or to become more confident about handling money.
Barnabus is passionate about helping vulnerable or rejected people and feel that it is their privilege to help them realise their hopes and dreams for new and positive futures. This Parish keeps in very close contact with Barnabus and is delighted that it can assist them with their excellent work albeit in a very small way.
Latest News 2024
We had a very busy 2023-24, with the long predicted increase in numbers suddenly really hitting us when we had expected this much earlier, around 2022-3.
This was mostly to do with the housing crisis; property prices in Manchester have not fallen and landlords are using the no fault eviction notice to evict poorer tenants in favour of those who can either pay up front or pay double the current rent. Rented property is at a premium with only 200 social housing moves available annually and a waiting list of 15,000 households.
Add to this that people have really lost their resilience, can’t find work and relationships are breaking due to the pressure of poverty and poor mental health, we are now finding people are presenting as really mentally unwell. A long time ago, homelessness was mostly due to issues with destitution or people’s mental wellbeing, but now we are seeing people who should really have a mental health bed. With the cuts to funding in services, it is sad to see the numbers of people who need a mental health place but will never receive one due to their inability to remain in one place.
Alongside this we ran a very successful Music Therapy session in the Beacon, which saw 336 individuals engage with music as a way to deal with emotion and trauma. The group has also collaborated to write their first song! We also started a digital skills course which saw 76 people come in to learn how to use a computer and to set up their email.
The other good news is that we finally got our housing project up and running, It has taken longer than we wanted but we have four people in three flats on tenancies, and two people in a supported house. Small beginnings have borne fruit already, with the two people in supported accommodation doing so well that they are moving into their own rented flat, and we have been given two more properties with 8 beds between them to increase our supported accommodation portfolio! Two of the tenants are working, one received his residence permit which took 2 years and caused him a lot of worry about being deported, and one went to detox after realising that he needed to finally sort out his addiction problems. We went to visit him and he is doing so well that he is asking to come and volunteer in the Beacon when he returns to Manchester.
The tricky part was when the government decided to get through its backlog of refugee and asylum applications in October. We suddenly saw a massive increase in people sleeping rough in the city centre, and an 50%+ increase in people using our services. We worked closely with our partners and with the council to resolve this issue. Although it can’t be resolved as well as we’d like, due to the lack of housing, at least people can receive the support they need to build a life here in the UK.
There is probably so much more to tell you but I do hope to be able to come to visit and tell you face to face what an impact your funding has on the people we serve.
Our Mission support for Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza
Latest video to mark the one year anniversary of the May 2021 war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFxK7bdJRI0
The Parish supported the Hospital in the centre of Gaza city, through our donation of £2000 per year administered by the Amos Trust. The hospital treats over 45,000 patients each year, and is a beacon of hope for peace in an area fraught with political and economic problems, resulting in humanitarian suffering, disease, and social problems. Restrictions on movement and imports of basic medicines have accentuated problems caused by limited electricity, food, water, fuel and personnel.
In addition, Al Ahli provides free mobile clinics to villages across Gaza for elderly women, free care for burns injuries and underweight or malnourished children, screening programmes for early detection of breast cancer and essential psychosocial support. The hospital also partners with community organisations to provide much-needed training for local people in counselling, social work, basic first aid and medical aid, and run their own training programmes for graduate and undergraduate youth.
The Parish donated an additional £2000 for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the building of the Outpatients Department which collapsed in December 2018.
Past Charities We have Supported
Chance for Childhood
Their Vision: “A world where no child is forgotten”
Chance for Childhood: Final Report on Six Years of Parish Support.
2014 – 2020
Chance for Childhood is an award winning charity working across Africa to rescue and support vulnerable children - from the streets, from behind bars, from destitution and from all kinds of abuse, in accordance with their vision that “no child is forgotten”.
In partnership with a local charity on the ground, “Passion for Community”, they started work in Patongo, northern Uganda, to rehabilitate child soldiers and girl slaves returning from the civil war, while also seeking out the many poverty-stricken youngsters, orphaned by conflict and frequently left responsible for younger siblings.
First CFC encouraged as many young people as possible to join in the building of a large Youth Centre. Here, helped by charitable donations, they were able to provide counselling to boys and girls who had been involved in violence and teachers to give them basic education and skills training needed to earn a living. At first the Parish chose to support the popular tailoring course, which within three - four years produced a surprisingly large number of tailors in business - but more recently we have supported training in agribusiness, where climate change is demanding new farming techniques. In both cases we have been delighted to receive innumerable heart-warming, personal stories of success for hundreds of young people!
Although the Parish donation of £2,000 per annum was originally agreed for two years, it continued for 6 years, due to our reluctance to stop supporting such a deserving charity. CFC is hugely grateful for our extended support, helping them to make such an impact on the lives, not only of the youngsters themselves but on their families and the wider community. We are equally grateful for the chance to have played a small part in turning young lives around in northern Uganda.
The Cleaver Family
The Parish, through its outward giving, supported the Cleaver family from 2013- 2018, while they were working with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in Western Ukraine. After working with orphanages in Ternopil, they felt called by God to set up a transition home for vulnerable teenage girls from the age of 16, when they have to leave their orphanages. Nina and Josh, together with their children: Joni, Zebadee and (latterly)Tallulah lived with and supported 4 of these teenagers in Vinnitsa. The transition home is on the left of the photo.
When the transition home was devastated by fire in November 2016, parishioners generously gave to the re-build project. Sadly, after the re-build was completed, the Ukrainian government brought in new legislation, which prevents external groups from legally working with orphanages. Consequently, the family were no longer able to continue their work in the Ukraine. However, they prayed for guidance as to the way forward and are now preparing to live and work with the Anglican church in Moscow. See photo of the family in Moscow, on a recent preparatory visit.
As the Transition home ‘project’ has now come to an end, the Mission Support team has agreed to officially end the Parish support for the Cleaver family for the time being.
An UPDATE for 2022! Josh is now being ordained on Sunday July 3rd 2022 at Guildford Cathedral and is serving his curacy at Egham Hythe.
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