Finishing Touches

The House of Joshua home for orphaned and abandoned children is almost complete.  Staff are now moving in the furniture and adding the finishing touches.

An application for the operating licence and various permits has been lodged with the Department for Welfare & Social Development.

Staff training starts in earnest next week so the first children could be moving in very shortly. Now all we need is some money to keep it running. Our main way of doing this will be through a child sponsorship scheme - please click here to find out more  Download Child Sponsorship Pack.

When the home is at full capacity (70-75 children) we estimate the running costs to be around £1,500 a month so we are going to need plenty of help!

Breakfast and Thanksgiving

I'm looking forward to Bacon Butties at Horringer Court Community Church this morning, before a special service when we give thanks to God for a year of fundraising for the House of Joshua.
Through social events, car boot sales, strawberry teas, barbecues, concerts, collecting tins, knitting scarves and just digging deep in their pockets members of the church have raised over £16,000 (as well as put on a few pounds round their waists!).
We are so grateful to everyone of you, especially Barry Eastwood who laid down the challenge to the church and got everyone fired up about it.

Habagat Relief Container Departs

Just over 72 cubic metres (7.8 tonnes)  comprising 40 pallets, plus a further 864 individual boxes, of medical supplies and equipment were crammed into a 40 foot high cube container at Aid to Hospitals Worldwide in Bury St Edmunds.
And when I say crammed I mean CRAMMED. At times a sledge hammer was used to budge pallets over by a few millimetres so the next one could be squeezed in. It took over 5 hours to complete the load because there was so much to get in and because tessellating the boxes correctly was so critical to making it fit.

 Cramming in the last few boxes

 Another pallet load is pushed up the ramp by the volunteer loading crew

A very big box to fill

All this equipment is going to Phillipine Relief and Development Services (Philrads) in Manila who will distribute it to other aid agencies and Barangay (district) Health Centres to provide medical support to the millions of people affected by the Habagat flooding in August when vast areas of Luzon were inundated by flood-waters after eight days of torrential rains.