Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts Hebrews 4:7
Hello everyone. I am sure you are all very distressed by the images and news on the TV and radio regarding Ukraine. As you will have seen from our front page and perhaps heard on the news or radio we are trying to help as much as we can. We are extremely busy at the moment – we have sent out two large lorries of dressings and two big vans loaded with medical aid, including shot-blast dressings, to Ukraine last week and we are now organising a curtain-sider of aid to go to Moldova, where are partners are looking after refugees in the after school clubs that they used to run. Later on in the month we plan to send a container of mixed aid to Ukraine. We have partners in Moldova with whom we have worked for many years. We send them two to three curtain-siders of aid each year which they distribute to the poor and needy. This always includes colostomy, as many people who have bowel surgery in Moldova are unable to afford the bags they need to make their life bearable. Our partners distribute the colostomy and medical and dental aid we send, as well as running after school clubs for poor children and nursing homes for the elderly. Moldova is a poor country but they are so willing to help their Ukrainian brothers and sisters and over 200,000 have entered Moldova. This is around 10% of the entire population of Moldova, equivalent to us taking 6,000,000. It is not in the EU and desperately needs help. We have already sent money directly to our partners. Everyone has been very generous and we have had a huge response to our appeal. Thank you for everyone who has donated and please keep supporting us.
We have a partner in Ukraine that Dr Beryl Brown knows well and who she has worked with through her Well One Clinic and he is now co-ordinating the aid that we have sent. Pray for him and his family for safety and protection.
Despite all this activity we are having a warehouse sale on Saturday (what timing!) so the warehouse volunteers are doing an amazing job of sorting aid to Moldova and Ukraine as well as putting out the stock to sell on Saturday. Hopefully we will sell a lot of things – making money and getting rid of items to clear the space for more donations. If you’re around on Saturday please drop in and see if there is anything you would like to buy!
Photo of the curtain-sider being loaded for Moldova (14/3/2022):
Our projects in Africa are still ongoing – the need is so great. We are just about to do a Reusable Sanitary Pad Project in a secondary school for about 300 girls and also we will soon be starting our agricultural projects. As well as our seedbank project we have a further groundnut project starting and a pilot project with Bambara beans. These are like a cross between a chickpea and a pinto bean and grow underground. There are particularly good for arid areas and are very nutritious.
We will also be planting so more mango trees! Hopefully more and more of the mangoes we have planted will now start to bear fruit and more communities will want to engage with us.
Please pray with me that President Putin will have a change of heart and that this terrible situation in Ukraine will come to an end. Thank you for all the support you give us. There is so much need in the world today and it is vital we all play our part to help.