The Frontline Homeless Soup Run Group

The Living by Giving Trust has recently purchased vital equipment to ensure that a Soup Run for London homeless was able to continue it’s good work.

The Frontline Homeless Soup Run Group has been running for over twenty years simply by the volunteering and goodwill of local people in Stamford Hill, North London who make sandwiches, tea, coffee, soup, etc for homeless people in central London every Saturday evening.

Recently the majority of the Group’s equipment was lost or stolen and they had no way of continuing with no budget to buy replacements until the Living by Giving Trust stepped in. It meant that the group could successfully serve the homeless during the Christmas period (some of our photos can be seen below).

Dachau

The Living by Giving Trust has has agreed to award ASF a grant of £300 for a young graduate who is currently volunteering in Dachau. Roy Scivyer is working for a year with the group called Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste or ASF).

From Roy: "Gemany is the first nation to have undergone a formal process of reconciliation with its past. For the first time people were held to account for their actions during conflict, and other nations saw in defeat a new opportunity for a nation to grow. There were more questions than answers (How do you put a conventional jail term on someone responsible for thousands of peoples' deaths?) but the process of Vergangenheisbewaeltigung, of coming to terms with the past, was overall a healthy one.

One initiative in the post war period was Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, or ARSP, an organisation formed by the Evangelical Church of Germany in 1958. The aim was to send young Germans to nations affected by Nazi crimes, such as the Netherlands and Yugoslavia, in order to rebuild those places destroyed years earlier. This simple act of atonement has led to over 180 volunteers in countries across Europe working in projects to learn about the practical implications of reconciliation and to work towards a non violent way of resolving past conflicts.

By working at Dachau on behalf of ARSP, I hope to become part of this movement for reconciliation. I also hope to discover how Britain can also come to terms with its past. Sixty years of decline on the world stage has left Britain with a rose tinted view of WW2 as the glory days, as well as a national obsession with the war. Just go to any football match and you'll hear theme tunes from every 1960s war film you can imagine. A national dialogue akin to that envisioned in Germany and in post Communist nations would not be a bad idea.

In the next year, perhaps I'll learn something about myself and my own ideas of reconciliation, as well as something of living in a different culture."

You can learn about the charity and read Roy's excellent blog by visiting: http://www.asf-in-dachau.blogspot.com/ and see Roy's entry about us.

Cycle ride to Lourdes

Congratulations to Patrick Noble, Matthew Sharrock & their support team (Alex Turvey, James Walden, Dail Maudsley) who took up the formidable challenge of cycling from London to Lourdes (a distance of approximately 600 miles in 6 days) to raise money for the Glanfield Children's Group and the Derian House. Please view our Projects page for more information.

After arriving on 20 August, they immediately started work in the Glanfield Children's Group for the whole week.

Well done to them for this amazing achievement.

Photos (c) Dail Maudsley

Helping an Orphanage

In January 2010, much of Peru was hit by heavy flooding. It was the worst seen in decades; over 3,000 homes were destroyed and thousands of residents had to evacuate, struggling in a constant battle to prevent their homes being consumed by the rising flood waters.

At the time, GHT was not a registered charity, but looking to seize the initiative we were able to work in conjunction with The Latin American Foundation for the Future (LAFF), registered UK Charity # 1125872, to assist in the coordination of an emergency relief effort to support an orphanage in the area of Azul Wasi, to evacuate, construct flood barriers, and provide shelter, food, water, supervision and care for the children.

As part of LAFF’s Appeal, GHT was able to use its contacts within HSBC Latin America to acquire vital tools and volunteers from surrounding areas to help build defences against the flooding riverbanks.

LAFF recently advised that the children were successfully evacuated from the home and temporarily housed whilst with the help of volunteers created a flood barrier wall to protect the home. They are now working to repair any temporary damage, and the children are safely back at the home, and able to start back at school in the new academic year.

GHT & LAFF are extremely grateful for all the volunteer support and donations received at this crucial time which ensured that the home now still stands and the children remained safe throughout.

For more information on The Latin American Foundation for the Future and their continuing work in the area, view here.