Published: Thursday, 28th February, 2008 10:40
Helping children face crisis
By Adam Hewitt
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Brian Main breaking the soil for the first borehole providing clean safe water to a rural village in Uganda.
A CHARITY working around the world to beat poverty and relieve people in crisis threw open its doors to the Chronicle to show just what they do.
Feed the Children (FtC), based in Twyford, ships out food as well as children’s clothing, blankets, toiletries, some medicines and educational supplies as well as experienced project leaders to all corners of the globe.
The charity works on long-term anti-poverty projects in countries such as Uganda and Kenya, and provides emergency relief after disasters such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the Kashmir earthquake in 2005. It also works with local agencies to audit donated packages, to ensure every one arrives exactly where intended.
Chief executive Brian Main, recently back from one of the Ugandan villages where FtC works, said: “We have a duty of care to the people who donate, to ensure everything gets to its destination.
“We get written reports, thick books of receipts for the boxes when they arrive, and nothing we send is ever allowed to be for sale.”
Donated supplies are sorted and packed at their Tavistock Industrial Estate warehouses in Twyford, then transported by sea.
FtC has existed in its current form for six years, and relies on its network of 100 volunteers on top of its 11 staff at its Twyford, Bristol and Birmingham offices.
It runs a range of aid projects, such as helping to dig boreholes in Uganda, with maintenance work funded from a kitty paid into by villagers – making it clear that the community and not the charity are responsible for its upkeep.
It is also working on another Ugandan problem – 'jiggers’, or sand-fleas, which live in the dust and burrow into bare feet, laying eggs which eat away at flesh when they hatch.
FtC has started concreting floors and teaching the best ways to kill the parasites – they want villagers to soak their feet in disinfectant, rather than pick the creatures out with sticks or pins, which carries a huge infection risk.
But the charity also needs day-to-day packing and administration help back in the UK.
Claire Duffy, who volunteers in the Twyford office, said: “This is what I feel I can give. It’s my way of helping.”
For information on donating to FtC, call 0118 932 0095 or visit www.feedthechildren.org.uk.
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