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Gifts to others
Thanks to your generosity at Harvest and at Christmas we were able to send £316 to Dreamflight and £317 to Mary's Meals.
The following letters were received from the charities.
From Dreamflight:
'I should be grateful if you would convey my thanks to all concerned at Holytown Church for the kind donation of £316 to Dreamflight.
'Our trip last October was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyed by all 192 children - especially my 16 "Flintstones"!
'After 17 years, Dreamflight is changing their logo and now will say on the documents: "Changing children's lives" -which is what we are so glad to do! With renewed thanks and best wishes,
Muriel Searl.'
From Mary's Meals:
Thank you very much indeed for your donation of £317.00 to Mary's Meals. Your donation will bring: food, education and hope to some more of the world's suffering children.
'For example we have just heard from our friends in Sudan. They are caring for 166 young people, who, because of the war and turmoil in their country, have become separated from their families and ended up living on the streets of Khartoum. Mary's Meals is helping them to operate foster homes where the children receive shelter, clothing, education and regular meals. They all bear scars - physical and mental - from their lives on the streets. Now, thankfully they have found a place of refuge where they can start to recover and even to look ahead to a better future.
'So, thank you again for your kindness that allows all this good work to take place.
'Yours sincerely,
pp Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow'
What do you know about 'Mary's Meals’?
The Church had just sent a donation to ‘Mary's Meals’ but we really did not know much about this charity. Imagine the surprise it was to find an article in the "Sunday Post" telling something of what is done.
I shall give you a short resume. The origins go back to 1992. Two brothers, Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow, from Dalmally, went to Bosnia in a jeep containing aid for the people affected by war. Their intention had been to go there once but 18 years later the charity's work has spread to 15 countries and is involved in feeding 390,000 children.
Since 2006 the charity has been working in Haiti feeding 12,000 children a day.
The Scottish-based education co-ordinator is Imogen Walsh. She was well aware of the desperate situation of Haiti's population even before the disaster struck.
Not only is food given, basic school equipment such as pencils, rubbers, sharpeners and jotters are also given to the children to help with their education.
Initially only Scottish people took an interest in this charity but it now has support from much further afield. The three main countries in which they work are Malawi, Liberia and Haiti.
Mary's Meals also runs a rice farm. This provides employment as well as food.
We, in Holytown, have played a small part in helping this very worthwhile work to continue.
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