News
From Kirkcudbright to Peru
Newsletter editor and Church elder Rosemary Gladstone will join a work party organised by Girlguiding Stewartry and The Vine Trust to visit Peru in October.
Children living on the streets of Lima and other Peruvian cities are often the victims of brutal violence, sexual exploitation, abject neglect, substance abuse and human rights violations.
The Vine Trust has established programmes, in partnership with Scripture Union Peru, which offer practical help, access to education and provide residential accommodation.Work parties are an opportunity for volunteers to witness the street children's project first hand, to find out more about the work, and most importantly, to make a significant difference in a practical contribution to the development of the project in Peru. These are not site-seeing holidays!
Over the next 3 months Girlguiding Stewartry aims to raise about £17,000 to fund the trip and to contribute to The Vine Trust charity. They have various coffee mornings and community events coming up and will welcome your support at these events. Look out for more information in the local newspapers.
Blythswood Shoeboxes Christmas 2008
Our regular driver Eric spent a week in Romania in December with Blythswood Care helping to deliver shoeboxes. Eric was very moved by the plight of the people he met. He reports that the already very poor Eastern European countries are suffering badly from the effects of the current economic downturn, with high unemployment and prices for basic foodstuffs and clothing soaring. He says that the recipients of the shoeboxes were very happy to receive their gifts – for many it was their only Christmas present.
Any Unused Foreign Currency?
Members and friends of the Parish Church with foreign currency left over from their holidays are invited to place this into the box in the main vestibule on Sundays or hand it into our Treasurer, Andy Bain. Any such monies with be “cash converted” and applied to the Fabric Fund.
Old Spectacles Wanted
The Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright in conjunction with the charity Vision Aid Oversees, are collecting used spectacles for onward passage to developing countries. Many of the people in the developing world are in desperate need of ophthalmic help. Vision Aid send abroad teams of volunteer optometrists and opticians to treat those afflected and to privde them with appropriate spectacles.
Thomsons (Newsagent), St Cuthbert St, Kirkcudbright, have kindly offered to collect used spectacles from the public on behalf of the Rotary Club.