Charities

Charitable Giving at St Mark’s
Charitable giving is an important part of our mission at St Mark’s and I am pleased to report that in 2011, we donated £12,438 to various Charities. This figure is made up of three separate elements namely, £6,007 from the Charity of the Month collection, £6,000 allocated from our general funds and £431 donated through our famous Milk Churn for support of the East African Drought Appeal.
The Charity of the Month scheme has been in existence for a number of years and works on the basis that all loose plate collections received on the second Sunday of the month are donated to a selected charity proposed by a member of the church. In 2011, we donated to the Barnabas Fund, Cambridge Money Advice Centre, The Bible Society (through the Bishop’s Lent appeal), Umojo, Dadeldhura HDCS Team Hospital Nepal, Fellowship Afloat, A Rocha Kenya, Cabrini Children’s Society, Combat Street, Chilli Children of Uganda as well as our partnership with the Diocese of Gombe.
The allocation from the general fund included a donation to the Diocese of Gombe, the Children’s Society, CMS, USPG, the Medaille Trust and St George’s Church Baghdad.
We will be continuing with our Charity of the Month in 2012 and below you will find the charities that have been chosen
Stuart Lingard

Charity of the Month : 2012

Month          Charity                                        Sponsor
January        Camsight                                     Sue Payne
February       Emmaus                                      Chris Hammond
March       Bishop’s Lent Appeal
April             Mary Wallace Cancer Care              Mary Hall
May              Diocese of Gombe           Barbara Nunns
June            Hope for Justice              Jane Petkovic
July          Romsey Mill                                Maggie Guite
August       Dadeldhura Hospital Nepal          Helen Begbie
September   Umojo                                       Emma Wagner
October       Diocese of Gombe           Perrin Hardy & Andrew Watts
November    The Ghurkhas                             Miles Elliott
December    East Anglia Children’s Hospice        Maggie Guite

FEBRUARY 2012 CHARITY OF THE MONTH
Emmaus UK: Sponsored by Chris Hammond
Emmaus is the village close to Jerusalem which is mentioned in the marvellous passage in Luke’s Gospel when Jesus appears to two disciples following his resurrection. The name was chosen by Abbé Pierre when he founded the Emmaus Charity for the homeless in Paris in 1949 as it symbolizes hope. The first Emmaus Community in the UK was founded in 1991 at Landbeach, just outside Cambridge, by Selwyn Image so this year marks the twenty first anniversary. There are now 21 Emmaus Communities in the UK with more being planned.
Emmaus Communities enable people to move on from homelessness, providing work and a home in a supportive, family environment. Companions, as the residents are known, work full time collecting, renovating and reselling donated furniture. This work supports the Community financially and enables Companions to develop skills and rebuild their self-respect.
The growth of Emmaus in the UK is down to one simple reason: it’s a charity that works. Rather than offering homeless people temporary shelter or giving them handouts, it provides a long term solution by helping Companions to help themselves. There is no limit to how long people stay in a Community - it can be anything from a couple of weeks to several years. Companions can stay for as long as they need.
For some, Emmaus will fill a short term need, for example to recover from addiction, to regain their self-esteem, or to gain new skills. These people may move on to other accommodation, jobs etc. Others will stay in Emmaus for a longer time - for some it will be a permanent home. Communities benefit from having long term Companions as they provide stability and can help and support newer Companions.
Please support this wonderful charity generously on February 12th. To find out more about Emmaus do visit the website www.emmaus.org.uk.
Chris Hammond

JANUARY 2012 CHARITY OF THE MONTH
Cam Sight : The January Charity
Cam Sight, a Cambridgeshire-based visual impairment charity, is our charity for January. Becky Cawdrey writes, “Cam Sight's vision is a society where visually impaired people enjoy the same rights and opportunities as other people and where no-one feels isolated or excluded due to losing their sight. Cam Sight strives to make this vision a reality by supporting blind and partially sighted people in maintaining their independence and quality of life and it aims to address the loneliness and distress associated with losing your sight. It also works to prevent avoidable sight loss and to raise awareness more widely of the reality of living with sight difficulties.
“We provide emotional support to help people come to terms with losing their sight and begin to move forward. We provide social groups and activities and support people in overcoming barriers in employment and education. We provide high quality advice, training and assessment on all aspects of technology. Cam Sight’s Equipment Centres are at the heart of its services for blind and partially sighted people. Clients may come to the two centres based in Cambridge and in Chatteris in Fenland, after learning from the Hospital Eye Clinics that their sight loss is irreversible and that medical options have been exhausted. Please contact Cam Sight if you are worried about your sight.”
Please support this wonderful charity generously on the 8th January.
Sue Payne

DECEMBER CHARITY OF THE MONTH: Chilli Children of Uganda.

Chilli Children, the December Charity
The amount collected for Chilli Children of Uganda, with Gift Aid included, was nearly £390. Many thanks to all who donated so generously.
Stuart Warren

Combat Stress : The November Charity

The collection on Novmber 14 raised nearly £460. Very many thanks to those who donated so generously. Miles Elliott

Gombe, the October Charity

The amount raised to date for Gombe, the October Charity of the Month, is £515.48. Your generous contributions are greatly valued by Bishop Henry.

September Charity of the Month : Cabrini

The collection on the 11th September raised nearly £450. Very many thanks to those who donated so generously.
Gill Kelly

Formerly Catholic Chuildrens' Society.

The Society was established in 1887 and, over the years, we have adapted our services to offer a flexible and responsive approach to the changing needs of communities.

Today our work is focused on the following areas:

•finding, preparing and supporting families for children who need to be adopted or fostered
•supporting people who have been adopted or were in our care homes to access their records and, if required, facilitate reunions
•providing flexible, affordable and accessible support and services to a diverse range of communities through our long standing neighbourhood projects
•providing a home for adults with learning disabilities
•supporting schools by providing counselling for students and support and training for teachers
•offering personalised catechetical programmes to children and adults with learning disabilities

May Charity

The Umoja Centre, is in Arusha, Tanzania. I co-founded it in April 2009 (Umoja meaning ‘together’ in Swahili) and it has been successfully running for over two years now. The Centre fills a gap in the education system for young disadvantaged people who have had minimal schooling, most leaving at primary level, but who aspire to something more. The Centre offers a year-long course which enables them to learn vital skills (English, IT, Personal Development, Civics, Business Studies and Careers) while at the same time expanding their knowledge of issues that affect them and the world. We believe that education is a vital tool in the fight against poverty. Our mission is not just to give our students a year of free education, but to see them move on to ‘the next step’. This could be secondary education, college, vocational education, such as ‘on-the-job’ training or career specific studies, or employment or self-employment. We achieve this goal through mentoring and support, both during the course and after the students graduate. This takes the form of careers education and advice, business studies and ‘post-course’ tutoring, such as interview coaching; as well as financial support, which ranges from paying school fees to providing small business loans, and other things as simple as giving our graduates access to our IT facilities or giving them a lift to an interview! Far from breeding dependence, we feel that these activities nurture independence and give our graduates a much needed ‘foot-up’ into continuing education or employment. From the 2010 graduates, 19 students are now placed back at school, seven in full-time employment, 12 on vocational training courses including two on IT courses, two more at teacher training college and four enrolled with ‘Jobortunity’, a local partner, and seven are waiting to start in the new term in August. Your kind donations to The Umoja Centre will go towards the vital running costs, which include teachers salaries, books for the library, internet connection and the students’ emergency fund. Running costs are often the hardest funds to raise, but without these simple resources there would no Centre. The Umoja Centre is supported by Umoja UK (Registered Charity. No. 1136792). More details can be found at www.umoja.com.au.