Christian Aid
Annual Report (March 2024)
Christian Aid Week, 12-19 May 2024, is the single biggest act of Christian witness in Britain and Ireland. For thousands of people throughout the country, it's a way of answering Jesus’s call to help people in need and showing the community just how much good the church is doing in the world.
This year we will continue with our successful group house-to-house delivery format, as we have done for the past 3 years and hope that you will be able to join us again this year. So please save these dates and join us on any [or all] of the days that week. We are only out for between 30 – 45 minutes each evening. Those who wish to deliver in their own road are very welcome to do so. We are also continuing to use a JustGiving page for Wokingham Christian Aid which will have the added benefit that we will be able to tell you how much we raise in the area. Envelopes will also be provided in each church and these can be left at Wokingham Methodist Church Office. Last year’s total was £2,600. This is lower than the previous year because our events income was channelled into the Multiplier Project fundraising.
There will be other activities around that date including the Christian Aid service, a coffee morning and table sale organised by Woosehill and held at St Paul’s Parish Rooms, and the usual sponsored walk at Bix.
Christian Aid Multiplier Project
- “Empowering Left Behind Communities”
We have taken part in Christian Aid’s community partnership scheme. The project is called Empowering Left Behind Communities, and it is run by our partners in Bangladesh. We work to help all people live a life free from poverty with dignity, equality and justice, but in Bangladesh large numbers of people from ethnic minorities, people of low caste (Dalits), people with disabilities and transgender people are denied that right. In many cases they are denied access to education, to healthcare and to land rights. They often face discrimination and violence. Empowering Left Behind Communities supports the rights of minority groups as they seek to tackle discrimination; it provides training, community engagement work and supports coalitions of civil society groups as they engage with government at all levels.
The end date for fundraising for the above project, to help support the marginalised communities in Bangladesh, was 31 December 2023, although we are still able to pay in monies up to 30 June 2024.
The Wokingham CA committee set ourselves a target of £3000 which we quickly raised to £5000. Rose Street alone raised £4,220. However, at the last count, as a group, we had exceeded all our expectations and have raised £14,146, which with the EU multiplication will give the project £84,876 !! Thank you.
Judy Jones