Irish Times Notes
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’
Saturday 21 July 2012
Bishops’ Appeal: Project Funding 2012
Ms Lydia Monds, the Education Advisor of the Bishops’ Appeal, the Church of Ireland’s principal agency for supporting the developing world, recently reported on the projects which have been supported by the fund.
Since the beginning of 2012 a substantial sum of money has been allocated by Bishops’ Appeal to projects in 17 countries in the Majority World. The three main ‘Educate for Life’ projects 2012 have already received €33,000 each: Mother’s Union for their literacy programmes in Burundi, Tearfund for their community development programmes in Myanmar and SAMS for their higher education and youth leadership training in Peru. Further money has been released to a food security project in Uganda (€21,650), HIV/AIDS programme in India (£19,434), two separate school building projects in Rwanda (16,672), a skills training programme in Palestine (€19,710), a community project in Ethiopia (€16,633) and a disaster preparation and prevention project in El Salvador (€22,705).
At the most recent Bishops’ Appeal committee meeting, £30,000 and €15,000 was released for poverty alleviating projects around the globe:
£10,000 was assigned to USPG Ireland for two community run HIV/AIDS education programmes in Swaziland. One of the programmes will focus on training grandmothers as educators who can then teach their grand daughters about healthy living using traditional customs and family roles to break the cycle of HIV/AIDS in the little Southern African kingdom. Currently, approximately 43% of the population is HIV positive. In order to break the poverty cycle for the upcoming generation, education on how to prevent contracting the virus is crucial.
Christian Aid received €15,000 for a project in Cambodia seeking to conserve and manage natural resources, improve food security and to enable rural communities to become more resilient to natural disasters. The money will be spent on community pump wells, ponds, fish, pigs, cows and biogas tanks.
£20,000 was allocated to Dr. Graham’s Homes in India for a restoration project after a girls’ boarding house was severely damaged in an earthquake. The homes have provided education and care to mainly impoverished and deprived Anglo–Indian children since 1900.
The total amount of money allocated in the first half of 2012 is therefore €223,830 and £49,434 respectively. This does not include the ongoing fundraising throughout many dioceses, not least the four dioceses with specific ‘Educate for Life’ link projects supporting initiatives that lift people out of poverty in Haiti, Rwanda, Swaziland, Kenya and Nigeria.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh, the Rt Revd Ken Clarke, will preside and preach at the re–dedication of St John’s church, Clonbrony, Ballinalee, Co. Longford. The church has been closed for seven years while funds were raised by the local congregation to re–roof and repair the building. Clonbroney is part of a group of parishes based on Mostrim, Edgeworthstown where the rector is Canon Janet Catterall.
The Ardamine union of parishes Summer Bazaar will be held on Wednesday evening at 7pm in Riverchapel Community Centre.
The 32nd St Barrahane’s Church Festival of Music continues in Castletownshend on Thursday evening when there will be a piano recital by Finghin Collins. At lunchtime in St Peter’s church, Portlaoise, there will be an organ recital by Derek Verso. This is part of a series of concerts organized by the rector, the Revd Stanley Monkhouse, a former organist of St Ann’s church, Dublin. Other recitalist in this summer series, ‘Easy on the ear; Music while you lunch’, will include Mark Duley, Paul Mullen, Charles Marshall, Andrew Burrows, David O’Shea and the rector.
Church of Ireland Notes from ‘The Irish Times’