We raised over £50,000 to bring life-changing hope to communities in India and Kenya!
We've been counting up the pounds, pennies, Euros and dollars from this year's Christmas Appeal and are now ready to reveal the final total.
If you remember, we were asking for £50,000 to transform the lives of families in India and Kenya.
You didn't donate £50,000...
…you donated £52,051.81!
Vinu Paul said, "Thank you so much for this wonderful initiative that you have taken to support the work [in India] and I want to encourage you that this is sowing in Kingdom activity."
Mike Betts added:
"Thank you for your generous support of the 2017 Christmas appeal. Your giving will transform the lives of hundreds of families who have been robbed of hope, power and dignity to find sustainable pathways from poverty."
HEre's how the money will be SPENT
As a family of churches, Relational Mission have always believed that the church should be a source of hope to the broken world around us. One of the most obvious ways in which the world is broken is through poverty, which robs people of hope, power and dignity.
For many years we have made a special Christmas appeal. Rather than giving short term financial aid, we partner with friends in the UK and around the world through our Pathways form Poverty initiative, to work with the poor to empower them by providing long term sustainable routes out of poverty.
The money raised from the Christmas Appeal 2017 will support two projects, in two nations, on two continents. We will be empowering people's lives as we work to protect vital water supplies in drought stricken Kenya and transform communities living in poverty in rural India.
Please watch the video below and see how your generosity will really make a difference and empower thousands of people who have been robbed of hope, power and dignity to find sustainable pathways out of poverty.
KENYA
Building on our very strong relationship with Edward Buria and EDFRI International in Kenya we will be working to protect vital water supplies for hundreds of families affected by the recent droughts, with the renovation of two sand dams that will capture the rains when they do fall. Sand dams provide a clean, secure and local year-round water supply in water scarce environments. With the water being held under the sand, evaporation is minimal, meaning this precious resource is not lost. People are also protected from many water-borne diseases and mosquitoes can’t breed – reducing the threat of malaria. As the dams are close to villages, they stop the need for people walking for hours each day just to collect water that is often unsafe to drink, enabling children to attend school instead of looking after younger siblings and farmers to put their energies into food production rather than water collection.
INDIA
Building on a new partnership with Vinu Paul and Commission in India, we will be setting in motion a long term community transformation project in Odisha in rural India, where the majority of people are living on less than $1 per day. This project will empower local people with the knowledge and skills they need to transform their own communities, utilising the creative and natural resources they have available to them, to help them to get onto sustainable pathways out of poverty.
This project is expected see the creation of initiatives similar to those we have successfully supported in previous appeals, such as: savings and credit association schemes to help start new small businesses, alongside developing conservation farming techniques to improve the yield and income from the land and improving local access to education and healthcare, so that the whole community can see transformational benefit.