Suzanne Fletcher's Blog

Watch out for the red and white envelope coming through the door.  It is the beginning of Christian Aid Week, so I have been delivering my envelopes through local doors.  It is quite a job getting them collected in - so please be nice, open the door and hand it back with something in!  And if you are a tax payer, please take the time to fill in the form on the envelope - don't miss a chance for the Government to donate 28% on top of what you give.

Tonight was the usual special Christian Aid Service, and we started with an explanation about how the Burma catastrophe fitted in with the collections.  All money collected this week will go into the general Christian Aid funds to be allocated according to needs and priorities throughout the world.  However if you specifically want your donation to go to helping the Burma crisis it needs to be in a separate envelope, marked for Burma. 

We were privileged to have Jeff Dale, the marketing manager of Christian Aid to speak to us.  We were reassured that money given by Christian Aid is distribute via known organisations that ensure that the Aid does get to those in need, and less than 1% of money donated goes on administrative expenses.  We say pictures on Bangladesh suffering from the ravages of climate change, and whatever anyone says on the subject climate change isn't caused by the people living there or the majority of other places that suffer natural disasters because of climate change, it is caused by those of us living more affluent lifestyles in comparative safety. Today brought together a number of things from last week, including research at Durham working on helping people in areas affected by natural disasters and Fairtrade.

John set off to Osmotherly for the sponsored walk in aid of meningitus research.  Here is the photo to prove he doesn't go everywhere in a posh car with gold chains (he has borrowed my "chain t Shirt") and yes, I have gift aided my sponsorship!  You will be able to see more of this on his blog in a few days.

GEORGE_ALAGHIAH_AT_HARTLEPOOL_MOSQUE.docI've uploaded the paper on what George Alaghiah said at Hartlepool on Friday.  Also a form to use when donating to any charity, to make sure that the charity can claim gift aid and the government will add 28p for every pound you give - just print it off and use it.GIFT_AID_DECLARATION_one_off.doc