St Joseph’s One World Group
Annual Report 2019

The One World Group exists to build our awareness as a parish of the situation of poor and excluded people, and why they are poor and excluded – and to support them with understanding, money and prayer. What we have realised increasingly, but do not live up to, is that it is also about changing us – how we see the world and how we live.

We work closely with the CAFOD parish representative in all we do. CAFOD is a large organisation able to support and supervise large projects. We as the OWG try to support groups or individuals where there is a personal link to the parish – which helps understanding and confidence. The different goals may seem contradictory, but are not – we need the efficiency and expertise of large agencies such as CAFOD but we also find meaning and security in personal links.

At times we have had precious visits from people we have supported – they have talked to the parish and to the school.

In the past year, at the beginning of 2019 we welcomed Father Naz as our new parish priest. He immediately became one of the OWG.

The activities of the Group have included:

• Fr Naz talked to the parish in Lent on 'Malawi: the Warm Heart of Africa'.
• Chris Louise, another new member, gave us a talk on his work as a peace maker with the United Nations, in Liberia and other places.
• Two of our members led a workshop with class five in St Joseph's School, on why refugees come here and the problems they face. The children's poems were displayed on the notice board in church. One of the children, Sam Richardson, made the winter appeal for support around the theme of refugees.
• We led the meditation for the Parish Stations of the Cross on one of the Sundays in Lent, very aware of our friends who live in such hardship and deprivation.
• In December we also organised a parish discussion on the Amazonian Synod, aiming to understand both the severity of the Amazon's problems and what the trend to consultation through 'synods' means for us.
• We spent time developing terms of reference for a new fund to use the generous legacy left to the group by Meg Robinson on her death, to use as we wish. We will use it to take forward our learning as a parish and our awareness of the needs of the poor and marginal. An explanation of the purpose of the fund and the application form can be found here. This information can also be obtain in paper from the Parish Secretary.

Most importantly, you have responded generously as always to our appeals in the summer and at Christmas time, and the parish has been able to send £1,600 to each of our four projects overseas and £800 to the local Maggs which is setting up a Day Centre in Malvern.

To remind you of our projects:

• Jesuit Missions. Our link with them came through two families in the parish who had brothers with Jesuit Missions. Through the organisation we support students in Georgetown university, Guyana, and four Kenyan sisters working in a remote part of the country.
• In Bolivia we have a long-standing relationship with Sister Sylvia, who works with children in a very poor high region of the country with a desperately harsh climate. She has family in Malvern and many of you have met her.
• We also support Reaching the Unreached, the project started by Brother James in India, working with the homeless, often orphan children. Brother James died this year and Father Antony is now in charge. Viv Jones’s grandson, Daniel, did an internship with Brother James seven years ago.
• Fr Pat has been telling us about his visits to Tanzania and the importance of and need for education.We have been giving support through the Arusha Project, based in Derby, to two young people, Esupat Mamyia, now doing her A levels, and Honest Mollel (Patrick Peter Lemahati, whom we had been supporting, has completed his time at school and been able to move on to further education). Once these two young people complete their studies, we have decided to move our support to the school's Tanzanian project.

We are most appreciative of the parish's generosity – we publish the accounts regularly in the parish magazine. And we would love more members to work with us! Might you have some time? Ring Tim or Rosemary (01684-562769) for more information or to volunteer.

One World Group: Income and Expenses

1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019

 NOTES
RTU: Reaching the Unreached

The OWG account is a virtual account within the Parish accounting system. It is maintained by the OWG Treasurer and audited by the Parish Accountant.

Income from the Christmas Thanksgiving appeal enters into the accounts of the next Diocesan Financial Year which starts on 1 January.

In general all income from appeals and other sources is for any or all of our causes. However, in some cases a donation is to be used for only one of the projects or income is derived from a special event for a specific purpose; these are marked ‘Restricted’.

The OWG had at 31 December 2019 £10,673.01 available to allocate to the parish’s causes; £10,000.00 of this is Meg’s legacy and is in the Meg Robinson fund.