Alistair and I, along with Bridget our office manager and Chris, one of our medical volunteers, were delighted to attend a function at the Hull Eye Hospital last week. The event, A Sight to Behold, was part of the Hull City of Culture and was the unveiling of a sculpture at the hospital. Part of the sculpture is a collection box for donated old/unused spectacles, aiming to create a legacy from the project. We had been invited to the event because the project will be donating these spectacles to Jacob’s Well Appeal, so that we can distribute them overseas. We were so grateful they had included us in this. These glasses are invaluable to those who can not otherwise afford them, giving them the gift of sight.
Bridget with the donated spectacles and the unveiling of the sculpture
We have just completed filling our first container to Somaliland. This is the northern region of Somalia which was once a British protectorate. We are working with a charity that was formed by British people with family members living in the region. This is a very poor area of the world with very limited medical facilities. Alistair and I are aware that we may have to visit before sending a further container, which will be quite an experience.
We are now looking forward to going to Burkina Faso next month. We are visiting our partners in Ouagadougou to work out how to help them with the hospital they are building and also to try to plan the setting up of an agricultural college. As we know nothing about agriculture we are going with two of our volunteers who were farmers, along with a school nurse and our main fund raiser. We will also be visiting the school we support in Bobo-dioulasso, Burkina’s second largest city, as well as several fruit tree projects. We are also hoping to co-ordinate a seed bank project. Please pray for the teams’ safety and success in our endeavours!
Every good tree bears good fruit – Matthew 7:17