Pastor Barry Ilunga from Zambia meets Wilmslow Wellls Committee and supporters
On 13th February, many of the charity’s committee members and supporters gathered together at the home of Shirley Baulkwill to meet Pastor Barry Ilunga. Barry had come to Britain to meet some of the groups which had sponsored his projects, in Zambia, and Jon Witt, from the Ivy Cottage Church, in Manchester, who had been hosting Pastor Barry, accompanied him.
Barry spoke movingly about his upbringing in one of the Zambian shanty towns and he told us about the horrendous poverty and hardship suffered by many African communities.
Jon regularly visits the projects, with which the Ivy Cottage Church is involved, and he endorsed Barry’s descriptions of the disease and deprivation, emphasising the enormous need for funding to provide the most basic facilities for these impoverished people.
In 2005, Wilmslow Wells for Africa supported the digging of a borehole for the rural community of Kapeshi, at a cost of £3300, with Barry overseeing the work. This project has brought enormous benefits to the villagers and the following report was sent to us shortly after its completion.
“Water in Kapeshi area has dried up in all wells except in the borehole. People are coming from long distance with their bicycles to get water from the borehole. Villagers are saying indeed the borehole came at the right time and now that we need so much water we have it at our disposal in the borehole. Thanks so much to the friends that helped with finances for the borehole.”
At the meeting with Barry and Jon, a clinic, which is being built at Mbila, was discussed. The clinic will serve a population of several thousand people and, having received a formal proposal, the trustee committee agreed to fund a borehole, at a cost of £9234, which will provide the clinic with a clean and constant water source.
The Inter-Church Football Challenge
St. John’s teams triumph in well contested competition
The World Cup was well under way when teams of young (and not-so-young!) footballers arrived on the playing fields of Lindow School, in Wilmslow, for the annual Inter-Church Football Challenge on June 16th. The United Reformed Church, the Methodist Church and St. John’s Church were all represented and, with the accompanying supporters, about seventy people were there to enjoy a wonderful evening of fellowship and fun. The competition was very stiff but, finally, both the junior and senior trophies were awarded to the St. John’s teams. A big thank you must go to Ian Moffitt (our webmaster) for organising this event, once again, and to all those taking part. £110 was raised for the charity.
The 2006 Gardens Day
The 2006 event raises £6,170 – a record total
July 1st dawned warm, dry and sunny and the owners of eighteen beautiful gardens in the Handforth and Wilmslow area awaited their first visitors at 11am!
Ever since they had agreed to open their gardens to the public on that day, they had worked tirelessly throughout the Spring and early Summer to ensure that the visitors would have a day to remember – and they more than achieved their goal.
The large variety of gardens enhanced the tour but they all had two things in common; they were loved by their owners and they were looking at their best – with mature trees, vegetable plots, colourful shrubs and plants, attractive water features and garden ornaments, hanging baskets, pots, rockeries and greenhouses, all much in evidence.
Many hundreds of people came from far and wide to enjoy the day, including one gentleman from Fort Lauderdale, Florida! It seems as though the Gardens Day is, also, becoming an annual focal point for family reunions – two keen women horticulturists from Birmingham and Leeds joined their sister, from Macclesfield, for a tour of the show gardens, and a retired head teacher from Wilmslow hosted her two sisters from Oxford and Frome and friends from London and Kendal. They were most impressed by beetroot flourishing in window boxes and trailing tomatoes in hanging baskets!
Wonderful home-made refreshments were served all day by the Wilmslow Wells for Africa committee in the St. John’s Church Rooms and these greatly contributed to the enjoyment of the day.
At 5pm, the gates and doors closed, the visitors went home, the gardeners relaxed (collapsed?!) and an amazing £6170 had been raised for the charity! Thank you, everyone, for your hard work and your support!