All of you are Christ's body and each one is part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27
| Text size: +/-Area 1 District Projects
- Channel Islands District
- East Anglia District
- Southampton District
- Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District (BEH)
- London District
- South East District
Individual churches have local and overseas projects that they choose to support. These include local projects such as NCH and Methodist Homes, Mercy Ships and Mission Aviation Fellowship (see Prayer Concerns for Channel Islands)
There is no "island" project in Guernsey at present.
Jersey hope to find a new project to replace the CLEM project, supporting women in Bolivia through the sale of CLEM goods, which has been supported by them for several years.
Latvia Link is our District project, the aim of which is to develop a link with the women of the United Methodist Church in Latvia.
Initially, we shall provide funding for a woman to attend the 2006 General Assembly of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women. We shall then explore the possibility of inviting Latvian women to the District and for women from East Anglia to visit Latvia.
Women's Network in the Southampton District have chosen to support an overseas project for 2002-2003 which is The Matthew Rusike Children's Home in Zimbabwe.
Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District
At the suggestion of the current District Women's Network President, we decided to support the work of Eaves Housing Project (which runs the POPPY project for women who have been trafficked). On learning more about Eaves, we decided our money should go towards the fund for women with "no recourse to public funds".
Because of her immigration status, a woman who has "no recourse" cannot access income support, housing or other benefits. It also means that organisations and charities are unable to access the funds needed to support them.
The following groups of women have "no recourse to public funds":
- Women in the country illegally (this includes women from non-EU states who have been trafficked into prostitution and other exploitative situations)
- Women from EU states who are allowed to work but not to claim benefits if they are unable to work (this also includes trafficked women)
- Women who are in the UK on the basis of marriage (these women may be forced to stay with violent and abusive partners because women's refuges are not able to access funding).
Eaves tries to help whenever possible, but a lack of funding means that they are forced to turn women away even though they have been trafficked or escaped violent relationships. They can only make an informed guess at their fates, but further exploitation and abuse is a likely outcome. Click here to visit Eaves
London District
We continue to raise funds in support of Pellegrino Della Terra, a project in Palermo, Sicily, supporting African women who have been trafficked. A cultural centre offers help and advice, food parcels and medical help. It assists women to leave prostitution, gain legal resident status and seek permanent work.
The project was chosen by the District Executive to coincide with the Women's Network social action project on Trafficking. This is the second of two years' support for this project.
The new District chose as its first fund-raising project "PELLEGRINO DELLA TERRA", a Methodist project in Palermo, Sicily, supporting African women who have been trafficked. So far, 140 women have been helped by the project, which runs a cultural centre offering help and advice, food parcels and medical help.
The project was chosen by the District Executive to coincide with the Women's Network Social Action Project on Trafficking. How we support it, and for how long, remains to be decided, as the two former Districts now coming together have had differing approaches in the past.
