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St. Paul's Charity Fund

Our Parish Charity Fund originated from the tsunami of December 2004 that swept through the coastal areas of southeast Asia killing over 250,000 people and destroying the homes, crops, fishing boats, etc. of many more. 

We wanted to help, and the parish did send a generous donation via CAFOD to help fund the relief work.  But our response had to include organising a collection, deciding exactly what we should do, and how we should get the money to the stricken community.  It worked, but it was not as quick as we would have liked.

So the parish decided to build up a fund so that money would already be available when disaster struck some community.  Our aim is broadly to keep the Fund up to about £5,000 ready for use.

Then in order to avoid delay in responding to a disaster, we set up a small committee consisting of Fr. Martin, Deacon Gerard and two local parishioners so that we could have an immediate discussion as to what response we thought the parishioners would want us to make, and allow us to send a cheque without delay.

Furthermore, donations to the Fund can be Gift Aided subject to the usual requirements, and the relevant Gift Aid rebate is added to the Fund.

Our Parish Charity Fund is aimed mainly at providing financial aid when disaster suddenly hits a community and aid is needed very quickly.  The causes that we have helped so far are listed below.

September 2011
Another donation of £4000 has been sent to the CAFOD appeal to aid those suffering in East Africa where the rains and crops have failed, livestock are dying and tens of thousands of people are walking miles in a hopeless search for food and water.

July 2011
£4000 was sent to the CAFOD appeal to aid those suffering in the East African drought-stricken area.

August 2010
£4000 was sent to the appeal for the relief of the victims of the floods in Pakistan.

February 2010
A further £2500 was donated to the Haiti Appeal making £4500 in total.

January 2010
£2000 was sent to Haiti to help with the rescue work being organised by the international community following the earhquake.

October 2009
£4500 was sent to fund relief efforts in the Philippines, Sumatra and Samoa following the earthquakes and the tsunami.

February 2009
£1500 was sent to Gaza where after an 18 month blockade, 1.1 million people were dependent upon aid to survive.

November 2008
£1000 was sent to the Congo. The fighting in eastern Congo left hundreds of thousands homeless.

May 2008
£4500 was sent to Burma where cyclone Nargis brought misery and devastation to an estimated 1.5 million people.

December 2007
£500 was sent to Bangladesh where cyclone Sidr devastated the coast and caused widespread flooding. Many families lost everything - homes and crops.

November 2007
£1000 was sent to Zimbabwe where there was a severe shortage of food and water. CAFOD considered the situation so critical that their Harvest Appeal funds in 2007 went to Zimbabwe.