16 March 2018
MRDF offers a chance to meet overseas development workers face to face
'Life In All Its Fullness' offers the rare opportunity to meetthe people behind projects that have made a significant impact intackling poverty, with the help of churches in the UK. TheMethodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) will welcomerepresentatives from projects in Nepal and Uganda at a specialspeaker event on 26 November 2005.
MRDF partner organisations work at grassroots level in places ofextreme need. Project Director of Voluntary Action for Development(VAD), Benedict Male, and Prakash Wagle, Founder of Kopila in Nepalwill share their experiences of working in developing countries toenrich the lives of those living in poverty. Benedict will speakabout the dangers of a lack of safe water, the importance ofhygiene education and how VAD has provided access to clean water tothousands of people in more than 40 villages in rural Uganda.Prakash will explain how the Kopila project trains teachers andhelps children from poor and marginalized families go to school, inan area of Nepal where less than half of the population can read orwrite.
Both partners will bring their stories and images of life in thesecountries and the immense difference that projects such as thesecan make. Afterwards, there will be the opportunity to meet withthe speakers and MRDF staff, as well as pick up resources forindividual and church use.
This is the first time MRDF has hosted such an event and ProgrammeOfficer, Samantha Tuck, said: 'We hope that it will give people anopportunity to hear inspiring stories firsthand from MRDF partnersand to see what a difference small amounts of well-targeted aid canmake to the daily lives of people in the world's poorest countries.Small scale projects like these, that are requested and co-managedby community members, are the most likely to have significant longterm effects Ð we don't just want to help people survive, but tolive fulfilling and rewarding lives in the future.'
Improving access to education and clean water are two of theMillennium Development Goals that world leaders have committed toachieving by 2015. Not only can access to clean water be literallylife saving, but improved health and education also enable peopleto live 'life in all its fullness'. Supporting partnerorganisations like Kopila and VAD is one way of helping to achievethese goals, alongside joining the MAKE POVERTY HISTORY campaignfor trade justice, debt cancellation, and more and betteraid.
'Life In All Its Fullness' will take place Saturday 26 November,3-5pm at Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW15JR. Attendance is free and refreshments will be served.
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