update!

14th February 2015

banner to be unfurled at opening

school at build date in November 2014.. now completed

new well and pump for water for school and adjacent village

new van bought to be transported to the new school and used as a school bus with Revd Wilbert

The fact that there has been no entries here for a while does not mean I have been sleeping or hibernating for the winter... becoming Cabinet member for Health on Walsall Council and hands on trying to do my very best for the residents of Walsall in these very difficult times of cuts to budgets has left little time to do such write ups! However enough of politics...
Since last entry we have put a lot of effort into building a new school in Zimbabwe... in outskirts of Harare. The Minister Revd Wilbert Sayimani came over here with his wife Irene 3 years ago to take up post administering 3 churches here in Walsall including Blakenall URC of which I am an elder and member. They had started a primary school in Harare before they left for the UK and a year ago the premises they were using and were part of the church were given notice to leave and find new ones. We had set about building a replacement school and a number of organisations, churches and individuals joined in... with the result we have built a new school ( to hold up to 130 pupils) provided a water pump, well and storage tank plus a generator to drive the pump... The build was visited by a group from Walsall in August 2014 ... they helped to do some teaching and took over a number of items such as very basic computers for the children. The school was opened in January 2015 and Revd Wilbert went to Harare to open the school .. we have bought a transit van that now needs transporting to Zimbabwe filled with more items to furnish the school .. this will be via Tanzania , through Zambia and so arrive in Zimbabwe .. to be converted into the new school bus to transport the children.
we have joined in and arranged a series of containers to go to supply our two hospital projects in Kasguma ( Kashmir) and in Gurjrat ( Northern Pakistan) to help their progress.. Main cargo was the 7000 quilts and curtains from the halls of residence of Warwick University together with hospital equipment and beds.
We contributed to a number of free eye camps in Pakistan .. we ran some very successful free meal sessions during Ramadan as a joint venture .. Christians with Muslims supporting those fellow human beings who have fallen onto desperate times.
We also aim to move forward in a low key way to support youth work bringing Muslim and other groups together to combat the evil misinformation that is around us fuelled by dreadful events in France and elsewhere.
we are determined to continue to provide direct help where we can , demonstrating our great care in ensuring that this help goes only to those who are in greatest need, with 100 % of funds going to them with no costs , overheads or expenses.