Charity

St Mary’s Church has a programme of fundraising to support local, national, and international charities. We raise in excess of £10,000 each year for our chosen charity.

Our Charity of the Year for 2024 is:

Every Drop Counts, Nicuragua

‘Every Drop Counts’ is an appeal to help the communities of Teustepe in Nicaragua to flourish. We are working with Amos Trust to provide water capture systems, training and crop-resistant plants for 7 rural communities in Teustepe, Nicaragua. Will you help us raise £10,000?

Changing climates

The impact of the El Niño climate pattern is felt severely in communities like those in Teustepe, in Nicaragua’s dry belt. It means extreme heat and long periods of drought, followed by short periods of intense rain. Climate change now makes it impossible to predict when the rain will come, and what little rain there is comes at the wrong times of year for farming. Being able to conserve water has become critical for these communities to survive.

Amos Trust’s partner CEPAD has selected seven priority communities that they are supporting for an intervention cycle of five years. This intervention is shaped around each community’s specific needs but includes developing local leadership, supporting farmers to adapt to climate change, psycho-social support for young people, and two women’s empowerment programmes.

The first of these is a new entrepreneurship and micro-credit programme, whilst the second provides training and resources so members of the local community can use the small areas of land around their homes (patios) to grow fruit and vegetables for their families. 

Three years into this current cycle, six out of seven communities have electricity for the first time. Everyone struggled to grow anything due to a lack of water, but electricity opened up many possibilities. CEPAD has provided water pumps, meaning farmers can irrigate their crops. This is accompanied by training on how to grow a new range of drought-resistant crops.

Another huge benefit is that women and children no longer spend hours carrying water; children can focus on their education and women can take advantage of CEPAD’s microloans and training in entrepreneurship.

The new water pumps will be desperately important when El Niño next strikes — but they will not be enough. As much water as possible must be captured and used in ‘drip irrigation’ programmes so that the wells do not dry up and people still can access drinking water. 

Conserving water

To prepare for the challenging weather patterns ahead, CEPAD needs to build more micro dams. Each one holds 15,000 litres of water. The farmers do the digging, and then CEPAD provides plastic lining sheets, rubber tubing, a hand pump and the pipes needed for a drip irrigation system. 

Adapting techniques

We want to train farmers so that they can grow more water-tolerant crops as well as fruit and vegetables that are better suited to the changing conditions. They will be taught how to create organic pesticides, composts and fertilisers, and how to manage their water and soil effectively.

This training will be extended to include those women who are looking to use their patios (small areas around their houses) to grow fruit and vegetables.

Farmers and patio owners will also be provided with seeds to grow drought-tolerant crops, and with fruit and vegetable plants to increase the health of their communities and allow them to sell surplus products.

The total cost of this support is £10,000.

What could your money do?

  • £30 could provide fruit and vegetable plants, and seeds for crops that can survive and thrive in drought conditions
  • £60 could provide training and support on how to grow new varieties of fruit and vegetables, make organic fertilisers and conserve water or fund a 15,000-litre micro dam.

Please help us to reach the people of Teustepe by funding the practical help they need to survive, and thrive, in their changing climate.

For more information about the ‘Every Drop Counts’ Appeal see the website: https://www.amostrust.org/every-drop-counts

We are planning an attractive programme of fundraising activities throughout the year, with the aim of raising at least £10,000 for ‘Every Drop Counts’ during 2024.

We need your help to reach this ambitious fundraising target. Please have a think about how you might be able to get involved. Could you:

Please get in touch for further information or to volunteer to help in some way.