CRY IN ACTIONRescuing and Restoring Young Lives Broken By Poverty
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Children playing in the street // CRY Supports: Refugee Support - Turkey
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Spring 2018
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P4: Father’s Refuge - Philippines
P6: Nasri’s Story
P7: Fundraising
P8: Good News From Around The World
P11: Cross - Over Project - Zimbabwe
P12: Refugee Support - Turkey
P13: New Projects 2018
P14: Dagestan - Russia
P15: Ray’s Top Tips
CONTENTS
Care and Relief for the Young is a Christian charity dedicated to rescuing and restoring young lives broken by poverty, oppression, exclusion and abuse. UK Registered charity: 1011513
A NOTE FROM THE CEO
K FACEBOOK.COM/CRYCHARITYl [email protected] WWW.CRY.ORG.UK
CATCH UP ON THE SHOPS
“Whilst travelling into the CRY office today I
realised that it is one year exactly since I first
made the journey to Hedge End. It has been
a pleasure to work with this wonderful team
of people and help with CRY’s work in various
places throughout the world. I could recite facts
and figures but it is the stories written in this
CRY in action magazine that show why working
for CRY has been so special to me.
In 2017, CRY’s 25th birthday year, we were able
to increase our support to children by over ten
percent which makes an enormous difference to
their lives. Thank you for your support!”
Chris Tait
A few highlights from the last 3 months:
Appointing new managers in our Cosham and Parkstone shops .
Reaping the benefits of our new recycling contract with Pre-cycle which has seen a 50% increase in revenue to CRY.
Recognising Stan and Roy, volunteers in our Eastleigh shop, for helping us generate over £13,000 in book sales in 2017 and their unfailing support to CRY over many years.
The biggest highlight though has been the support between all the shops in such a challenging year.
All our staff and volunteers have been a great credit to CRY and we are very proud of them all.
3FACEBOOK.COM/CRYCHARITY
Chris Tait
Martyn’s travel diary“We drove out of Beirut over the mountains
and down into the Bekaa Valley. The Syrian
refugees seem to mostly live in camps of
about 100-500 tents, with up to 500-2000
people in each camp. They live in very
poor makeshift accommodation, wherever
they could be squeezed in at the edge of
small towns. We spent a couple of hours
talking to very friendly people there, and
I sat down with the men and talked over
the war and their situations. Not only does
CRY provide food, medical and hygiene
products, but we have also supported the
setup of little ‘schools’ for the children
to receive some basic education. What
a work of God there is going on here!”
Martyn Dunsford
Project Development Officer
LEBANON, BEKAA VALLEY, THURS 23 MAR 08:00AM
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We have been supporting this project since 2014, when we heard of a minority group
(the Badjao) who are marginalised by society and are living on stilts above the water in
dirty, diseased and desperate conditions. With CRY’s help, the village was able to build
new walkways around the village to make it much safer. They were also provided with
weekly meetings to learn about hygiene, better nutrition and parenting skills.
Sadly, a large fire swept through the village in September 2017 and destroyed the
whole village in just two torrid hours. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and we were moved
to hear about their escape route from the village to safety. Months before, we helped
towards the building of a bridge and it was named ‘Bridge to Life’. It is an incredible
testimony that the bridge ended up being the very thing it was named after; most of
the lives were saved by using this bridge as an escape route from the fire. Without the
bridge, we fear the result of the fire would have been much worse. Though no one was
hurt, 1500 families lost their homes, all their belongings and their livelihood. They were
faced with the prospect of living on the streets for the foreseeable future and having
no way to feed themselves or earn an income.
FATHER’S REFUGE - PHILIPPINES
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CRY stepped in. We stepped in to rescue and restore these lives broken by this fire.
Thanks to your support, we were able to send £5000 to go towards food and clothing
kits. The Badjao people were then given some land on a mangrove swamp, which is
a good placement as it means their livelihood is protected and they can continue
to support their families in the future. Our project partners are currently working on
rebuilding the whole village, which is developing really well, and the activities we
were previously providing have continued, such as education support and games for
the children to keep their spirits up during this hard time. We continue to pray for the
protection and development of this project, and thank you for joining with us in this.
Emergency response:
TEXT: CRYX12 £5 to 70070
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My name is Nasri and I am 7 years old. I live at Hope for Orphans with 3 of my brothers and sisters. Our mother left us, and our father could not care for us. I am now protected and loved in a new home. I like to sing, colour pictures, listen to stories and play with my friends.
Hope for Orphans, Ethiopia ”
WWW.CRY.ORG.UK/PROJECTS
Nasri’s story
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A BIG THANK YOU to all those who have worked hard fundraising for CRY.
We hope you have had lots of fun!
Got an idea??If you would like to fundraise for CRY then we would love to help you!
Please e-mail: [email protected] and get a fundraising pack!
THANK YOU
CRY ran two events last year; one being our 25th anniversary and the other
our annual Ladies Christmas Shopping event.
£14 & £15.32Well done Sophie, 7, who
raised £14 by baking some cakes to sell at her Dad’s
workplace. And thank you to Lily who did chores for oth-ers to raise money for CRY.
She raised £15.32!
£1323Thank you to the team in
Jersey who are always run-ning events in aid of CRY. Last year they organised
an abseil and raised £1323 towards our Celebrate Life
Campaign!
£5500A huge thank you to Grace, Evelyn, Edwin and Trevor; a family dedicated to CRY
for an amazing 10 years and have raised £5500 in that
time!
JUST LOVEWe loved talking with ‘Just Love’ about CRY, and they decided to fundraise and
support our efforts! Thank you for having us and raising
£101.39
£500Thank you to Taunton Family
Church who blessed CRY with £500. We love con-
necting with New Frontiers churches around the world.
£200Peter McIntosh took part in the Great South Run 2017
on behalf of CRY. He raised £200! Thank you Peter!
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RomaniaGOOD
NEWS FROM AROUND
THE WORLD We requested prayer for our
project in Romania to buy a
new centre in the community
to reach more children and
families. We are so excited to
hear the first room has been
bought- what an answer to
prayer!
Children in Russia who attend our Down’s Syndrome Support are learning that they are loved and should not be ashamed.
“I’m sure everything we are doing at New Way school will help them to find their place in this world. They understand they are valuable in people’s eyes and in God’s eyes.”
bamboo school
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Romania We prayed for
more children to
access education
and attend
Bamboo School,
Laos. The school
started with
28 children at
the start of the
year; it has now
increased to 70!
One of our newer projects, the Iris Zimpeto Children’s Centre
in Mozambique, is seeing dramatic changes since CRY started
supporting them. Children are accessing better nutrition such
as milk and protein products, and are putting on the necessary
weight to be healthy and happy!
In Zimbabwe the students have
started a prayer group which
is held during breaktime and they take turns to lead, almost half the school
attends it!
Roland from Togo was a young
orphan taken in by the centre
at the age of 8. Now he is 21 and
this year completed his training in
ophthalmology after six months of
hard work and study.
togo
10Students teaching their parents about farming.
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It has been a busy four months for the students at the Cross
Over project. We continue to provide education for children
who cannot afford to go to school, to help them have a better
chance of employment in the future, and better prospects.
Students have been busy with lessons and exams, and in their
latest literacy assessments most of them scored above their
expected grade level. Nutrition Day was held by the children
for their parents or caregivers. This was a way of educating the
parents on what a balanced diet consists of as most of them
tend to feed their children with mainly carbohydrate rich food.
Many of the children that come to Cross-Over live in much
poverty and tough home situations. At the end of term, the
mentors identified 8 children who were coming to school
hungry and with no food for breaktime and lunch. Home
visits revealed that there was a serious food shortage in the
homes and that these families were regularly going for several
days without meals. The staff felt that there was a need
for food packs to be organised for these children to cover
them over the holidays when they would not be getting their
daily meal at Cross Over. Food packs containing the following
were distributed to the student’s families: soya mince, beans,
matemba (a dried fish, high in protein), mealie meal, cooking
oil, sugar, salt, e-pap and rice. We love being a part of helping
families and children in both home and school life.
CROSS-OVER PROJECT -ZIMBABWE
Students teaching their parents about farming.
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“In late September the team drove to a
poor area just outside the centre of Yalova.
Having already registered 52 families in
that area alone we weren’t expecting to
meet any new faces, however after leaving
one family’s house we quickly became
surrounded by around 50 desperate
people, only a few of whom we recognised.
That day we registered 15 new families,
all of whom we visited in the following
week. One of the families, 2 parents and
7 children, live in 2 small rooms, without
windows, gas, electricity or running water.
Some of the smallest children had nasty
looking infections covering their bodies.
I asked the mum what had happened and she
simply said “I don’t have any water, I can’t keep
them clean”. When we gave her the (meal)
cards we saw pure gratitude on her face - the
sort of gratitude a desperate mother would
show after receiving a small but necessary gift.
The final place we visited was a small
derelict building where 20 people lived
(5 families). They also greeted us with
genuine thankfulness but expressed their
regret at not being able to offer us a seat
as they literally didn’t even have a carpet
or pillows to sit on. All these families face
a difficult winter - we are glad to be able
to help them cope with their situations.”
The team in Turkey continue to provide vital support to many children and adult refugees who are living in Yalova. Here’s a recent story from a member of the team:
REFUGEE SUPPORT -TURKEY
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NEW PROJECTS 2018
HOUSE OF OPPORTUNITY - VARAZDIN, CROATIA
Almost 4000 children in Croatia live in foster families or institutions. In the
Varazdin area where this project will be based, more than 450 children are in
foster families or institutions. When children reach 18, they have to leave the social
welfare system and most of them have nothing; no home, work, money, family, and
often even no idea of life outside the institution or foster family, meaning they
easily become victims of poverty, crime, prostitution and human trafficking.
We will be supporting a home called ‘House of Opportunity’ which will look after
7 young people who have gone through a foster family or institution and have
nowhere to go when they turn 18. The house provides a mentoring programme
including assistance in finding a job, training in budgeting, computer skills training,
social skills development, cooking and cleaning skills and much more. There will
be a ‘home parent’ who will provide activities, teaching, food and will be a general
parent-like figure to support the young people when they need it. Each young
person will have a membership at the house for 2 years which will be enough time
to equip them with all the necessary life skills to prepare them for adult life. We
can’t wait to hear how our support helps!
REFUGEE SUPPORT - ATHENS, GREECE
We originally supported this project as an emergency response when the refugee
crisis hit our news in 2015. We supported the setup of a distribution centre in
Athens which is used as a place to store food, clothes and medical supplies to
give out to the refugees, as well as a place to come and have shelter for the
night. Along with this, they have rooms to minister to people, providing prayer
and emotional support to the children and families displaced from their homes.
But the need is still growing. Refugees are arriving every day with nowhere
to go and little support available for them. They are still staying in derelict
buildings or in camps where the hygiene levels are terrible and they have
little food or privacy – things we so easily take for granted. We have now
decided to support this as a CRY 500 which means they’ll be getting monthly
support from CRY to ensure as much care as possible can be provided.
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In this region of Russia, families are extremely poor and the Zverohozhystvo district
is all but forgotten by the surrounding towns and authorities. The area is deprived
and densely populated, with broken roads, bad water supply and frequent electricity
cuts. There is currently no public playground or sports area for the children, and so
young people are easily drawn into street crime.
CRY decided to send a one-off donation to support the renovation of a sports
ground for the children. This will have football goals, a basket shield and case, volley
grid, lighting, shower room and changing rooms. This is a huge development for the
district and we are so pleased to be a part of ensuring children get the opportunity
to play outside and grow physically, emotionally and spiritually through the support
we are going to give there. The building work has really progressed and the sports
ground is already being used by the children in the area. It is great that the children
are given the time and care from our project partners through this sports ground to
encourage their future choices.
We are excited to see that the sports ground is looking extremely good and the
children have already enjoyed playing football with other teams and also having
some training from a sports coach.
The building of the shower rooms is still underway, but we can’t wait to see the
finished product when it is all completed, and how it will benefit so many young
people!
DAGESTAN - RUSSIA Ray’s
228,808.97 thank you
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Ray’sTOP TIPS FOR FUNDRAISING
Ray Avent along with his team of CRY
supporters in the South West have raised a
staggering £228,808.97 since 2002 for
CRY projects around the world.
a
z
Jut
My first tip would be to believe in the char-
ity wholeheartedly. I came across CRY having
spent some time in Romania and I saw that
CRY goes out of it’s way to make sure all the
money donated goes direct to the projects.
Secondly, you have to be organised with your
time for the best results. I make sure that at
the beginning of each year, I have scheduled
collection days and events, so that nothing gets
in the way of my fundraising.
Thirdly, build up relationships in your community.
I spend lots of time getting to know the peo-
ple in the area where I live and I am happy to
talk to anyone about CRY, regardless of whether
they want to support or not. It is important to
educate people about what is happening around
the world, and you never know where that con-
tact might take you further down the line.
Lastly, pray! I believe that prayer
is a vital part of supporting and
fundraising for CRY and I make sure
that I am praying for the charity
regularly, not just for the events that
I am involved with.
Fundraising
If you would like to fundraise for us, no matter how big or small, we would love to hear from you
and send you a fundraising pack with everything you need for your event to be great!
Just email: [email protected]
WWW.CRY.ORG.UK