All We Can
(Previously "Methodist Relief & Development Fund" – MRDF)

Our Collections, Fund-raising Events and Donations

MRDF logo

Thanks to the hard work of our collectors, generous donations made by a number of people and the fundraising events we've held, we have been able to provide support for the following MRDF initiatives:

> No more Mosquitos  —  providing families with mosquito nets for their children to sleep under and training them in how to treat the net with chemicals.

> Send a Teacher to School   —  providing volunteers with the skills necessary to run classes for women in Nepal, enabling them to restart their education and gain skills so that they can eventually set up their own enterprises.

> Make a Splash   —  providing an irrigation channel for an Ethiopian family so that they can make the most of their land.

> Life Lift  —  providing transport to and from hospital for a Nepalese woman, so that she can receive a simple corrective operation for a debilitating condition.

> Get Fruity  —  providing fruit trees to help farmers in Ethiopia.

> On Your Bike  —  providing bikes for agricultural experts so that they can visit isolated villages in Togo and provide training and practical guidance to those communities.

> Literacy for Life  —  providing women in Nepal who have just finished a course in basic literacy, with the opportunity to demonstrate how much they have learned. Our donation has provided 1200 women with what they need to take their first exam.

> Drought Busters  —  supplying seeds which thrive in drier conditions, to help 130 Kenyan families to provide food for their families.

> Super Ram  —  supplying farmers in the highlands of Ethiopia with breeding rams, enabling them to increase the size and quality of their flocks, so as to eventually create a herd of hardy, disease-resistant 'super-sheep'.

     

Africa Food Crisis  —  Living below the Line

In their newsletter MRDF have said.....
 
"We believe that ordinary people working together can end poverty
and citizens of powerful countries like the UK are in a particularly influential position to bring about change. That‘s why we're stepping up our campaigning in the UK on the big issues that cause injustice such as debt, unfair trade and climate change."
logo for 'Live below the Line'
More than one person in the Circuit took up the MRDF challenge to try to live for a week on no more than £1: to glimpse what life is like for people living close to the margins every day of their life.  The following is a description of how Isobel Stanley of Trinity Methodist Church, Congleton, tackled the challenge over a period of 5 days.
 
What she spent
3 pears [50p], bread [40p], tomatoes [20p], 3 bananas [34p], 1 jar of meat paste [33p],
½ bag of potatoes [34p], ½ bag of carrots [25p], ¼ tub of margarine [23p], ½ bottle of milk [50p], 6 slices of garlic sausage [37p], 3 eggs [30p], 1 beetroot [12p], 1 cuppa-soup [12p], ½ packet of cream crackers [15p], 4 'cubes' of cheese [44p], 1 kiwi fruit [8p], 5 teabgas, 2 teaspoons of instant coffee plus tomato sauce [33p], making a grand total of just over £5.00.
 
What she ate
Thursday Breakfast banana, drink of tea
  Lunch potatoes, carrots, 2 slices of garlic sausage
  Tea meat paste and beetroot sandwiches, drink of tea
  Supper 2 cream crackers, glass of milk
Friday Breakfast egg, 2 slices of toast, drink of tea
  Lunch cuppa-soup with extra veg
  Tea paste and beetroot sandwiches, stewed pears,
drink of tea
  Supper 2 cream crackers, glass of milk
Saturday Breakfast banana, drink of tea
  Lunch potatoes, carrots, 2 slices of garlic sausage, beetroot,
milk, water
  Tea meat paste sandwiches, tomato sauce, stewed pears,
drink of tea
  Supper 2 cream crackers, cheese, coffee
Sunday Breakfast banana, cream cracker, drink of tea
  Lunch 2 slices of garlic sausage, 'veg', tomato, kiwi fruit
  Tea egg, 2 slices of bread, stewed pears, drink of tea
  Supper 2 cream crackers, coffee
Monday Breakfast 2 slices of cheese on toast, drink of tea
  Lunch egg, potatoes, carrots
  Tea cooked tomatoes, 2 slices of bread, drink of tea
  Supper cream crackers, glass of milk

 

The Kenyan Adventure of Ruth Pickles, when Vice President

Ruth Pickles of Biddulph Methodist Church, when Vice President of the Methodist Church, visited one of MRDF's partners in Kenya, Sustainable Mobilization of Agricultural Resource Technologies (SMART).  SMART are training farmers in the arid West Pokot region to diversify their crops, and to improve food storage and water systems, so that there is more food for local families.  Ruth Pickles at Tusaidie Watoto nursery school in Kibera
This includes re-introducing traditional crops such as sorghum and finger millet which, as Ruth commented, "are more nutritious than maize?.  Levels of child malnutrition in the region have decreased since SMART began working there.  Ruth also shared a meal in a village and was struck by the "generous hospitality of people who were living near the margins".
 
At one Circuit service, Dane and Trent Circuit collected £563.05 to support work of this kind. Together with a donation from Circuit funds of £250 and a rounding amount from
Trinity Church's Benevolent Fund, we were able to donate a total of £825 to Ruth's Vice-Presidential Fund, for allocation to work in Africa.
 
A detailed account of this Kenya visit is available on Ruth's blog as VP.
     
Read more about what 'All We Can' is chartered to do.