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Start up project
Members have provided basic
kitchen materials for young
people leaving care to set
up their owm homes.
Story bags
A story bag encourages literacy and cummunication. It contains a story book and various items which make the story come alive. These may include puppets, toys. puzzles, jig saws, a DVD. The story bag is a fun way of encouraging a child to read, at home with a parent or older sibling. Bags were made by deaneries to supply the Family Centres, which are run by the Diocesan Board of Social responsibility.
Holidays for families in need
Members raise funds for AWAY FROM IT ALL (AFIA), providing a week away for families who are in need of a holiday because of personal circumstances. Families may be parents and children, lone parents. Sometimes the children are sick or disabled children. The holidays are usually accomodated at the caravan owned by Llandaff Diocesan MU.
On returning from the holiday, the reaction from the family was very positive.
I was told the children thoroughly enjoyed the change of environment and it gave the whole family a much needed break which would not otherwise been possible
Family Centre Manager
Swansea & Brecon Diocesan Board for Social Responsibility
Swansea Kids In Prison (Skip)
50+ volunteers, mostly MU Members, man a Play Area in Swansea Prison. Duties consist of an afternoon of 3 hours, every four or five weeks. There are 2 hour visits in this session. The ladies work in pairs playing with the children, doing basic craft work or just drawing and colouring and talking or listening.
Children are encouraged to go back to the visit area to see their family. Many are happy just to play. It must be frightening for a child to visit Prison and the volunteers try to make this less traumatic.
Mothers appreciate the time they have with their partners, without the children, to discuss business and any problems. The Prison Officers say that this also makes the Prisoners happier.
The MU supplies some of the equipment and toys in the Play Area. Also it funds a play worker, usually a student teacher to do activities during visiting time over the Christmas and New Year period.
I found my time at the play-area to be a very rewarding experience.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to experience, what is really, a different way of life. I have certainly changed my opinion of the way I envisaged a prison to be and I feel I am a better person because of my time spent in the play-area.
Student Play worker
I am very proud of the contribution of the Church, through the Mothers’ Union, looking after the ones who were most important to Jesus, that is, children. The prison is a dark place and the work that the MU does with the children brings the light of Jesus into their lives, showing them that love, care and concern in the most practical of ways.
Prison Chaplain
Safe Houses
Many members support women and children in the various Safe Houses, throughout the diocese, by providing items that will help Mums and children who often leave their homes, hurriedly, with nothing. One MU Branch, in Swansea, keeps a basket at the back of the Church, where all church members donate toiletries, sheets, underwear, towels. The basket is never empty!
This has become a diocesan project since 2008 and members are being asked to provide funds to purchase food items for the four Safe Houses, three times a year.
Child Safety in the Home
This project was undertaken in partnership with the Diocesan Board of Social Responsibility. Members are asked to support this project, by raising money to provide essential safety equipment for homes, where there are small or vulnerable children, living in financially challenged families. Items provided include stair gates, plug defenders and cooker guards.
The Mary Sumner Prayer
All this day, O Lord, let me touch as many lives as possible for thee; and every life I touch, do thou by thy Spirit quicken, whether by the word I speak, the prayer I breathe, or the life I live. Amen
Written in 1876 by Mothers' Union founder, Mary Sumner.
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