General News...

General Seeway News - Autumn 2007

Dear Friends

Having just entered the second half of 2007 it is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the second newsletter of the year. We hope that you find all the news, comments, articles and projects of interest and encouragement. 

This year Seeway Trust became 10 years old!! It has been quite amazing to look back and see just what has taken place in this work and even more surprising for us, to reflect on just what has been achieved, tangibly seeing the difference in the lives of rescued children and being able to share with those who have supported this work, and those who have worked with us, within it. In all the "Family of Seeway Trust" has evolved. As in any family we have experienced the wide spectrum of life events too.

Jock and Imogen Strover in Essex welcomed their first child HANNAH in April, and Alfred, Carmen, and Obed Birner from Victory Life Trust India also welcomed their second son and brother DANYEL in May……see their article on India.

Double Congratulations are sent to REBECCA PARTRIDGE of Morchard Bishop in Devon, who recently qualified as an Occupational Therapist and also became Mrs Rebecca Bruce upon her marriage to JAMIE. 

As the Lord gives He also takes away. Two dear friends and supporters of Seeway Trusts work, Mrs VERA ROOKE and Mr. SID CROCKER , both of Exeter returned Home in February and March. We shall miss them. 

In going and coming this year we have sadly said farewell to PAUL GARNHAM a Trustee who has moved to Spain to live with his family, we shall miss his infectious smile and wry sense of humour!! Paul now lives a short distance away from TONY AND SUE CORDON who also moved there this year (Tony was a Trustee and Treasurer of Seeway from 1997-2005). 

Happily we have welcomed DARYL FULLS from Clyst St Mary near Exeter who is now working with the Trust as Co-coordinator for the Tanzania work. Read his introductory article inside…… 

Without question a downside has been the withdrawing of the Trusts support to the Good Shepherd Home in Ghana, while also being able to help set up a new Home and facility in Nsuaem, in the Western region of Ghana. To those who have decided to carry on supporting the work of the Trust from one Home to another we thank you so much and to those who have decided not to we also say thank you for all the support shown to the Trust over the years and hope that you will stay in touch with the "Family". 

The new Home is well staffed, the 34 children are doing fine and developmental plans are in place with full co-operation from the local Chief. 

More broadly, Seeway Trust has welcomed into the UK, JANET WHEELER our friend and co-worker in Ghana, REBECCA JACKSON AND WENDY KELLEY from Tanzania, and George once again, flew out to Ghana for a visit in February.

And so as you can see, we do Life in a rather busy way, but we do hope in a fruitful way, perhaps you would like to volunteer some time, give of your expertise, and commit to the Trust, if so, please give us a call!! I.T, ADMINISTRATION, FUNDRAISING IDEAS, etc, are some of the needs that exist and could do with a drop of "expertise"!! 

The Trust extends to you our sincerest thanks and best wishes. 

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There is little point in feeding and clothing children if you do not give them the opportunity to receive a quality education. Within the makeshift school in the grounds of the Osenase Home, three classes are held in one large room, and other children are taught under a pole and palm leaf structure. As you may imagine, the need to improve the educational infrastructure of the Osenase school population and those in the Home, has now become a pressing priority. Seeway Trust has had plans drawn up to build a new four classroom school to provide for these children. 

To start the work a very generous gift of £15,000 was received. There is now a need to raise a further £30,000 to build and equip the school. The Builder contracted to undertake this project in Ghana has told us that we will need around 30,000 blocks to build the school. 

BE A PART OF THIS PROJECT... 
For every £1 you give we can buy another block, for £10, ten blocks and for £100, one hundred blocks. Every journey starts with the first step, and every block is important, imagine a building with several blocks missing, the structure would be incomplete and unable to fulfil its purpose. 

You can be sure that all the money you send to Seeway Trust, will be used to build the School. Nothing will be taken out for administration or expenses. To become part of the answer please send your gift to Seeway Trust at the address shown on our 'Contact Us' page.

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DARYL'S TESTIMONIAL 

Hello, I am Daryl Fulls and I have been closely associated with the work of Seeway for the past 2 years. 

I had known of the good work that Seeway has been doing through a number of friends and believe I once met George at a Full Gospel businessman's dinner some years back. 

But two years ago I felt quite strongly a need to get involved in mission and humanitarian work in Africa, and at once called George and asked him to come for lunch. Three weeks later I was in Ghana with him visiting the orphanages there, working with the team to improve conditions and to develop the work. 

On my return I worked with Janet to raise funds for some small business 
ventures and also helped to raise awareness and sponsors for the orphanage work. 

Then last year George asked me to go with him to Tanzania where Seeway was supporting a new and very small project in Arusha - at the time they had four boys they were caring for in a house staffed by two Tanzanians. We planned and chatted and dreamed and decided that Seeway should get more involved and do all it could to raise sponsors for the boys and to increase the work that the team were doing there. 

Now here I am co-ordinating the Tanzanian project - we now have 12 kids in two homes - looking for a third we are raising just shy of £500 a month and things are going amazingly well - though of course there is still much to do. 

I am pleased to be working with George and Sally and the trustees of Seeway - pleased to be able to bring something to the table - pleased to be able to support Wendy & Rebecca in Tanzania and Janet in Ghana 
I commend this work to you - and ask you to join me in giving - time, money and prayer to this valuable and personal work God bless you.

Daryl

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Seeway treasurer - Julie Yelland 

Continuing in our series of "Meet the Trustees" it would appear I have drawn the short straw and it is now my turn for this issue - so here goes!! 

First of all let me introduce myself and my family to you. My name is Julie Yelland and my role within Seeway Trust is that of Treasurer. I am married to Mike who is a builder and we have two children: Kelly and Philip. We live in Okehampton - in fact, Mike lived in the same house he was born in until we got married 26 years ago! Kelly works as a lab manager for a local photographer and Philip has just started a new job involving sport which he loves. I work for the Citizens Advice Bureau as a generalist adviser covering West Devon.

We have known George & Sally for years but my involvement with Seeway Trust has only been quite recent. I have worked with charity accounts for many years so I was initially invited to carry out a routine review of Seeway Trust's procedures to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Charity Commission. As a result of this I was privileged to be invited to join the trustee board in September 2005 and take on responsibility for the administration of the finance. 

Sally and I work closely together to ensure that all donations are used for their designated purpose. As we reported in our last newsletter, our high street bank suddenly announced that we had enjoyed free banking for far too long in their opinion so they were going to change our type of account and consequently charge us for every transaction. We did not feel this was a wise use of money gifted sacrificially to Seeway so we set up a fresh account with the Co-op and wrote to everyone on our books asking you to consider switching accounts. The response has been phenomenal and we are so very grateful to everyone who has changed their standing order. 

We have a wonderful lady called Jenny who submits our gift aid claim for us every quarter. In case you don't know about gift aid, let me explain. If you are a tax payer then Revenue & Customs will pay a further £2.80 directly to Seeway Trust for every £10 you donate - that is 28%! All you have to do is sign a gift aid declaration and send it to us. You should find one in this newsletter or drop us a line and we will pop one in the post. 

As a team we are really excited about how the work of Seeway Trust is developing. Our mandate is to "Rescue Children" and we are so grateful to everyone who has caught the vision God has laid on our heart and committed themselves to supporting these children. We believe transparency in our financial dealings is vital and welcome questions about how and where your donations are spent. 

We are extremely grateful to all our supporters who are so generous in their giving. Through your financial support we are able to provide vulnerable children with a permanent safe home, medical care, education, and a hope and a future, while showing them the practical outworking of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. This enables them to become responsible adults, confident in their ability to care for their own families on attaining adulthood and impact their own communities and consequently their nation.

Thank you

Julie Yelland