A Curry and Quiz organised by St Mary’s Church in barnstaple raised £925. Every penny will go to those in need. Lives are being changed. Students sponsored by generous donations study hard and, once they qualify, they can support themselves and other members of their family. Widows are being helped to set up small businesses so that, they too, become self-sufficient and can support their orphaned grandchildren.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to a very enjoyable evening.
In Barnstaple, Mary Bourne is making Christmas cards to raise money for WORK. Every card is a unique. Thank you, Mary, for your great support for WORK.
Every card a work of art.
St. Edmund Campion church in Maidenhead is a great supporter of WORK. One of the parishioners, Nadia, who had very long hair, decided to ask for sponsors to cut it shorter. She raised an amazing £1,000. What a star!
Thank you Nasia!
A very enjoyable evening in Neston Village Hall in Wiltshire raised £1,200 for WORK. These funds will enable us to help some of our orphans who, although they have their fees covered by sponsorship, they have no money to buy food. They are given a small allowance each month so they can feed themselves and have the energy to study. These young people will then support themselves and their siblings when they start their jobs as teachers, engineers, nurses, plumbers. A huge thank you to all who supported the quiz.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Kingsbridge have been selling cakes and plants to raise money for WORK. The sale has taken place each Sunday during July and August and has raised a massive £1,000 for WORK. Thanks to all we contributed plants and cakes and to those who were so generous when they bought. Times are hard for our orphan students in Kenya and this will allow us to give them a little more help. Whilst all countries of finding things difficult, countries such as Kenya are very hard hit so people suffer very badly. It is through fundraising efforts such as this that we are able to keep children in school and help widows to care for their grandchildren.
Thanks to Yvonne Oram for a delicious tea in her lovely garden. A very relaxed and enjoyable afternoon raised an amazing £400 for WORK. Thanks to Yvonne and everyone who came. Nearly everyone won a raffle prize!
Orphans studying at college and university have their fees paid by generous sponsors but they have no-one to help them to buy food or books or clothes. Some said they could not study because they were so hungry. The trusts of WORK decided to allocate some money to these students. A small allowance will make all the difference. Fundraising event such as this tea enable us to ensure that the students make the most of the educational opportunities available. When they qualify and start earning they then help other members of their family.
The 19th Maidenhead Scout Group had a cake sale on Remembrance Sunday and raised £226.89. They kindly donated this to W.O.R.K.
Huge thanks to the children and parents who baked the cakes and to the parishioners of St Edmund Campion who were so generous in buying the cakes – though they looked too good to resist!
Tamsyn Blount and her sons, Fynn and Rowan, decided to walk the distance of the Camino de Santiago to raise money for W.O.R.K. It is a 480 mile route which would traditionally start in the Pyrenees and continue across the top of Northern Spain. They walked over 3 miles every day in Cornwall to complete the same distance in their target of 20 weeks. They were out in all weathers braving the rain, the wind and the mud. Huge thanks to Tamsyn, Fynn and Rowan.
They have raised over £4,000 which will be used to build a new children’s ward. Thanks, too, to everyone who generously supported their fundraising challenge.
A huge thanks to Maidenhead Rotary Club for their very generous donation of £1,000. A new oxygen concentrator has been bought with the funds. This is urgently needed as the coronavirus spreads through Kenya. In the rural areas where WORK supports health clinics there are no ventilators but an oxygen concentrator gives patients a chance.
Erick, the Senior Clinical Officer, checking the new oxygen concentrator.
The Allendale Lions Club near Hexham have made two generous donations to WORK. The funds have been used in two ways.
The first £300 was put towards buying an oxygen concentrator which is used to help people who have low concentrations of oxygen in their blood. This can be caused by a wide range of health conditions. It has made a huge difference to many lives.
An oxygen concentrator takes regular air and purifies it to 90-95% oxygen. To do this, the concentrator uses a compressor that moves air into sieve bed filters to remove the nitrogen. It then distributes the oxygen through hoses inserted into the nostrils. The nitrogen is later released back into the air.
The second donation was used for WORK’s jigger programme. Jiggers are parasites which burrow into the skin and lay eggs. Cutting them out is painful but, without treatment, hands and feet become so badly affected that victims cannot walk or use their hands. Inflammation, ulceration and infection follow, then gangrene so that amputation is the only option to save a life. £300 from the Lions Club enabled three villages to be treated. There are many photographs on the Internet showing the devastating affect that jiggers have. Thanks to this donation, many children can continue to walk to school and adults work to feed their families.
A big thank you to the Allendale Lions Club.