Tadworth and Walton Overseas Aid Trust
Thank you for visiting our web site. We are a small charity active in Tadworth, Walton and Kingswood that provides support to a number of overseas aid projects that have some direct connection to this locality. Typically this might mean that someone, who has friends or relatives in Tadworth and is now working in the developing world, identifies opportunities for us to fund improvements to the lives of some of the poorest people in the world. We find that relatively small sums of money can make a huge difference, thus by providing under £1000 we helped a community of some 6,000 people in Africa to gain access to clean water. We pay the annual wage costs of £300 pa for an agricultural advisor improving crop yields in a remote area of Malawi, and we pay the £1,000 annual salary for a village school teacher in Nepal, one of the poorest nations on earth. You can see details of all the projects we currently support in the main body of our web site. The sums of money provided by TWOAT are of course tiny in comparison to the large charities but you can be sure that any money you donate to us will go to the overseas projects that we support with no deduction for any costs of administering TWOAT or soliciting donations and with a clear idea of how the money will be spent.
Mike Fox, Chair, Tadworth & Walton Overseas Aid Trust, 01737 350452
Christmas Appeal
I am delighted to report that our Christmas Appeal raised enough money so that we could send our target amount of £500 each to two nursery schools in very poor parts of Africa. One is in Madagascar and was brought to our attention by the local Mothers’ Union organiser, Laurette, whom we first encountered when she visited the Good Shepherd Church in Tadworth. A member of our committee, Bob Gunn and his wife Jill met with her during a recent trip to Madagascar and were told about her efforts to raise funds for a nursery school in a poverty-stricken mining village in northern Madagascar. We sent money to help provide a fresh-water well and ablution block and to pay for setting up the nursery school. The nursery opened in October 2011 and is providing a valuable start in life for 28 children aged 2½ to 4 years old. They can learn and be looked after while their parents work in the mines. The nursery urgently needed funding of £500 for the materials to build a shelter in which to cook lunches (the labour will be by the local community), storage for books and papers and some basic play equipment for the children. The village is called Ambondromifehy
The second school is located in Sierra Leone, where less than 40% of adults can read. It was brought to our attention by a Tadworth resident who was visiting Sierra Leone where Ruth Evans, a friend of her daughter, was working as an advisor to the government. Ruth had discovered the school operated by a local pastor in a single room with a leaky roof. He was funding payments for teachers by working part time as a builder as well as continuing his ministry. Ruth raised money amongst her friends to fund the construction of a sizeable temporary shack for the school which is partitioned into a number of teaching areas. The school has expanded to include 100 children. TWOAT has funded construction of a toilet block and agreed to pay stipends for the next 3 years for the 5 teachers now needed at a total cost of £1,000 per year. We are also using our charitable fundraising web page on VirginMoneyGiving to help Ruth gather more donations from her friends and relatives for the school. We sent £500 in September to pay the 5 teacher stipends up until March and the Christmas Appeal has provided the next £500 needed to pay the 5 Pastor’s School teachers up to August. It is incredible that we can fund teaching 100 children for so little.
For more details of the Pastor's School and to donate to it visit our VirginMoneyGiving web site here. where you can see pictures of the school and read Ruth’s account of how she discovered it
Upcoming events
Our annual Street Collection is taking place on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st April. Our organiser for this is Treasurer, John Tedder.
TWOAT will be selling Tea and Cakes in the garden at 41 Shelvers Way 2.00pm– 5.30pm on Sunday 22nd April (and again on 22 July and 19 Aug) when it is opened by Keith and Elizabeth Lewis as part of the National Gardens Scheme (admission £3).
We will also be running our usual Bottle Stall at the Walton May Fayre on May 19th. We would be very pleased to receive bottles of wine, soft drinks, sauces, shampoo or anything suitable. Please deliver these to me at 49 Shelvers Way any time before 10am on the 19th May so we can attach tombola tickets. We would also be pleased to accept them on the stall itself on the field at Howards Close after 12.00, or we can arrange to collect them if you contact me.
We will be giving you an opportunity to hear news concerning several of our current projects at one of our Teas & Talks events from 2.30 to 5pm at the Good Shepherd Hall on Wednesday the 9th May. No charge but donations appreciated. It would be excellent if you could bring a friend to introduce them to TWOAT.
John Allinson will be leading two circular walks in the local area on Friday, 25th May and Saturday, 9th June ( Note that this year there is a fortnight’s gap between the walks instead of the usual week). Each walk will start at 9.30am from the AA Viewpoint Car Park, Grandstand Road, on Epsom Downs ‘behind’ the Racecourse Grandstand ( Free Parking). The walk will first go across the racecourse, past Langley Vale and on to the Ashstead Park Garden Centre for light refreshments. From there it will go through Ashtead Park and across Ahtead Common ( “Woodpecker Wood” ) to the “Shy Horse” in Malden Rushett for lunch ( own packed lunches are OK in the Pub Garden but you would be expected to at least buy a drink ). The walk then continues to Epsom Common past a charcoal-making plant on to the “Cricketers” on Stamford Green for tea. From there the walk goes past “The Wells”, across the Dorking Road to Woodcote and then up Chalk Lane back to the AA Viewpoint Car Park. This is the least hilly of all the walks to date and is, to some extent, rather ‘suburban’ in places. However, there will be some surprises along the way. As usual, you will hear about the history of the area as we walk, thanks to the advice of Jean Clew, a local historian.
Altogether the walk will be 10 miles in length but there will be 3 points along it where there will be transport to take walkers back to the AA Viewpoint Car Park if they feel they have had enough! The walk will be suitable for everyone in “reasonable trim” ( from 16 to 70 plus !). It should should take about 7 hours including stops. There will be a small entry charge of £5 and we hope you might encourage friends and relatives to sponsor you to raise further funds for TWOAT. We have a sponsorship page for this event on VirginMoneyGiving here.
If you would like to come on one of the walks, would you please let John Allinson know by 21st May. (Tel: 01737 213347). Last year we raised over £2,800 ( including the extra from GIFT AID) through sponsorship of walkers! It would be good to beat this in our thirtieth year! Sponsorship forms are available from John. You can also ring me or John to sponsor a walker. Sponsorship can be done ‘on-line’ through “VirginMoneyGiving” as above but please contact me if you need further details or help with doing that.
Anna-Stina and Roger Ponsford have kindly offered to host a Spit Roast for us again this year 12.30pm Sunday 16th Sept at Kaprifol, 56 Meadow Walk, Walton
Previous Events
Quiz Evening
Over 60 people attended our annual Quiz evening on the evening of Saturday February 25th in Christchurch Hall and a record £700 was raised.
St Cecilia Chorus Singathon
The members of St Cecilia Chorus successfully completed a marathon 12 hours of excellent musical performances at their Singathon on Saturday the 3rd March in All Saints Church, Banstead. They were raising money for good causes including TWOAT. Sponsorship donations are still being collected and we will publish details of funds raised shortly.
Street Carol singing
We visited several streets and various pubs and restaurants in Walton and raised just over £200. We were very grateful to the Fox & Hounds and The Chequers for giving our singers some refreshments on a cold night.
Sing Carols
A choir from Walton Primary School sang for us and nearly £700 was raised.
Annual Social Meeting
Over 50 people attended our ASM and heard a presentation about St John's School for the Deaf in The Gambia and the excellent progress they have made over the last few years. We raised £900 to help them continue their work.