Our SCIAF Group

St Mahew's SCIAF (Scottish Catholic Intenl8tional Aid Fund) group was formed in 1992 and has focussed on a wide variety of projects:

Training ,workshop - Ethiopia
Primary healthcare for the Bushmen - Namibia
Horticultural training for people with disabilities - Bangalore, India
AIDS widows and orphans - Uganda
Children's rights in zones of armed conflict - Colombia
Sustainable farming - Zambia
Natural medicines and organic market gardening - El Salvador
St Monica's tailoring school (for girls previously held captive by rebel militia) -N. Uganda
Disabled children and their families - Nicaragua

Having a specific project helps us identify with the people ,ve are helping.

Awareness of SCIAF's work has been heightened in the parish through distribution of SCIAF literature, visiting speakers, displays of photos, and, thanks to a succession of supportive parish priests, talks from the pulpit by members of the group.

Over the years, not counting any special collections for emergency appeals, Real Gifts or the Lenten Campaign, the group has raised more than £26,000. We currently aim for £2,000 every two years, through, for example, poverty lunches, (Fairtrade) raffles, cake stalls, sponsored slimming, walks and 10Ks. The nucleus of the group is small, but we are wonderfully supported by an extremely generous congregation.

For more details, please contact: Mavourneen Watkins on 01389 841370 or David Rainey at: d.rainey@talk21.com