To celebrate the centenary of the dedication of St Mary's in 2006 - the parish of Our Help of Christians, it was decided at the parish AGM in 2005 to raise money for a project in the Zambian missions, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who have a convent in our parish at 99 Belmont Hill.

The Parish Council, together with the Sisters, settled on the building and equipping of a Skills & Training Homecraft Classroom at the Kacema Musuma Community School in Chingola, which will enable 13 and 14 year olds, who would otherwise have to leave school with a very basic education, to learn a skill like tailoring and craft work, to help support themselves and their families.

Our target was approximately £12,000, and we have now raised £16,000, thanks to the huge generosity of our parishioners, which should cover all contingencies, including a currently not so favourable exchange rate.

Other fund-raising events include Opera for Africa held on November 3, a Salsa supper (3 course meal and wine, followed by a Salsa lesson!) on November 25, and a T'ai Chi supper on January 19, 2007 (T'ai Chi lesson first, followed by a Chinese meal), plus the sale of Christmas cards - the latter results from a Christmas card competition for the children in the parish. For more information on our fund-raising events, click here.

Maureen O'Dwyer on her time as a volunteer in Chingola, Zambia for the Lay Associates Programme, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, has written about the Community School that we are helping - extracts also appear in issues of the parish magazine - The Blackheathan - click here for the full article.

She writes that self-sustainability is one of the key issues in any developing country, and while there is an obvious need to respond to immediate situations, development is really about implementing long-term solutions and aspiring to the day when we ourselves will no longer be required. Real development is about setting up, consolidating, handing over and moving on. Before setting up a project, we need to have full consultation with the local community to make sure that they see the project as theirs, and will take ownership of it. We also need to ensure that we work within the existing structures, such as the relevant line ministries, and not set a parallel system.

The project in which St Mary's parish is involved, Kacema Musuma Community School in Chingola, is one project which is striving very much towards self-sustainability. Children who attend a community school in Zambia do so because they cannot afford to attend a Government school. They are either orphans or come from a vulnerable family background. To maintain a Community School requires a great deal of income-generating by the local community. With this in mind, the school acquired a farm which, when fully developed, will help sustain it.

"The Skills Training Homecraft Classroom which your parish is building is really a wonderful venture as, in addition to skills training, it will be a source of income for the school. Many young people leave school after receiving a basic education as they cannot afford school fees to continue to secondary school. They badly need a skill such as Tailoring, Knitting or Cookery to enable them to earn a living.

Another dimension to skills training is Mother Craft. In Zambia, where there are many teenage pregnancies, young women need to be taught how to care for their babies from the time of conception until the child is a couple of years old. When the Skills Training Centre is up and running in Chingola, it is hoped to incorporate Mother Craft as part of the course."