Dinner gives Africa charity fund a boost

Oct 9 2008 by Sandra Walls, Hamilton Advertiser

Dinner gives Africa charity fund a boost

THE STONEHOUSE Better World Fund last week held their annual sportsman’s dinner and raised £3500 for projects in Malawi.

The SBW fund initiative began when a committee was formed in 2006, and £600 was initially raised in donations.

The committee agreed to a £20,000 target over a two-year period and since then the fund-raising has gone from strength to strength.

After the Sportsman’s Dinner which was held in the Dalziel Park Hotel in Motherwell last Friday, the £3500 was added to their running total.

The Stonehouse group are delighted to announce that they have surpassed their target, and the total raised so far amounts to more than £25,000.

A guest at the Sportsman’s dinner said the meal and facilities were excellent and the speakers including Des McKeown, ex-footballer and newspaper columnist, John McKelvie, chairman for the evening and a regular raconteur on the after-dinner circuit, and Sandy Strang, former depute head of Hutchesons’ Grammar School, were all received enthusiastically by their audience.

Organisers thanked everyone for their efforts in making the night such a success.

Bobby Brown, committee fund-raiser, said: “The evening was superb and every penny raised is given to the Church of Scotland, who forward the funds to the Mulanje Mission in Malawi.

“There are no management funds or administration costs taken from any of the money raised on the night, or over the past two years.

“We would never have reached our target, nor gone beyond the figure, if it had not been for the financial support of four local businesses: Site Services, Strutherhill Autos and Bruce Dempster Motor Engineers, all from Larkhall, and The Cross Garage, Stonehouse.

“They pledged and donated £100 per month over the last two years to get the project started and thereafter raised continual funding for Malawi. On behalf of the Stonehouse Better World Fund committee, we thank them sincerely.”

The money has gone into various projects including building a detached house for a science teacher from Ireland who had no accommodation to live in while teaching the children of a secondary school in the area. The group also funded and built a water well, to ensure clean and safe drinking water.

Other projects include £2000 towards sponsorship of five beds in the Mulanje Mission Hospital, and benches, as well as a chicken project and a loose change campaign, which raised more than £1100 by Newfield and Stonehouse Primary School pupils.

Stonehouse Primary teacher Margaret McMeeking visited the project last year with SBW fund’s Lesley Barrie.