CHRISTIAN Aid Week was launched in Stourbridge at a special event featuring a visit from the secretary of state for international development.
Justine Greening MP was invited to a coffee morning at St Thomas’ Church Hall, in Market Street, by town MP Margot James.
As well as hearing from local representatives from Christian Aid, the event also provided a chance for Ridgewood High School to raise awareness of their Project Gambia initiative to the international development chief.
Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, said: “Being Christian Aid week, and as a great admirer of what they do, I thought it would be a great idea to invite Justine here to talk to people in Stourbridge about the work her department does.
“I think the people of Stourbridge are so generous with their time and money for people not just overseas but back here at home.
“What Ridgewood are doing is demonstrating the impact that one individual school can achieve on a global scale.
“We can all do our part and I think that everybody who has a decent life has a responsibility to do something to help others.”
Justine Greening MP said both Christian Aid and Project Gambia are helping to give people living in poverty the most important thing they want – their independence.
She added: “Installing the water pump needed money from the people of Stourbridge, but the village can now use that independently to improve other aspects of their lives.
“But it is not just the impact these projects are having on the lives of people that are being helped, but also those people, especially the young students of Ridgewood, who are going out to poverty hit countries and making a difference while out there.
“I can only praise what the people of Stourbridge are doing for other countries.”
Bev Hodt, Ridgewood High School’s assistant headteacher and Project Gambia leader, said it was “great” for the school to be invited to the event so they could speak about what the project has done during the past nine years, adding: “Many people would have read about the Well of Life appeal in the Stourbridge News, but our students were here to speak to the public, as well as the international development secretary, about their first-hand experiences.
“They were also able to tell how the project has influenced their lives, with many of our students going on to study international development at university off the back of their Project Gambia experience.”
The main aim of the coffee morning event was to increase the awareness for Christian Aid Week – which runs until Saturday (May 21) – with Jill Stone, Stourbridge resident and Christian Aid’s regional co-ordinator, saying she was “delighted” to be invited by her MP.
Jill said: “I think it’s actually the first time an MP has approached us rather than the other way around.
“This year we have been working with the people in Bangladesh to help rescue their homes from floods which are devastating their communities.
“The people of Stourbridge are very supportive of Christian Aid. 16 churches in the town worked together to raise about £12,000 for the charity last year, a huge amount in these times, and we hope people will be as generous once again this year.”
For more information about Christian Aid Week visit www.caweek.org
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