CRY IN ACTIONRescuing and Restoring Young Lives Broken By Poverty

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Children playing in the street // CRY Supports: Refugee Support - Turkey

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Spring 2018

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P4: Father’s Refuge - Philippines

P6: Nasri’s Story

P7: Fundraising

P8: Good News From Around The World

P11: Cross - Over Project - Zimbabwe

P12: Refugee Support - Turkey

P13: New Projects 2018

P14: Dagestan - Russia

P15: Ray’s Top Tips

CONTENTS

Care and Relief for the Young is a Christian charity dedicated to rescuing and restoring young lives broken by poverty, oppression, exclusion and abuse. UK Registered charity: 1011513

A NOTE FROM THE CEO

K FACEBOOK.COM/CRYCHARITYl UKOFFICE@CRY.ORG.UK WWW.CRY.ORG.UK

CATCH UP ON THE SHOPS

“Whilst travelling into the CRY office today I

realised that it is one year exactly since I first

made the journey to Hedge End. It has been

a pleasure to work with this wonderful team

of people and help with CRY’s work in various

places throughout the world. I could recite facts

and figures but it is the stories written in this

CRY in action magazine that show why working

for CRY has been so special to me.

In 2017, CRY’s 25th birthday year, we were able

to increase our support to children by over ten

percent which makes an enormous difference to

their lives. Thank you for your support!”

Chris Tait

A few highlights from the last 3 months:

Appointing new managers in our Cosham and Parkstone shops .

Reaping the benefits of our new recycling contract with Pre-cycle which has seen a 50% increase in revenue to CRY.

Recognising Stan and Roy, volunteers in our Eastleigh shop, for helping us generate over £13,000 in book sales in 2017 and their unfailing support to CRY over many years.

The biggest highlight though has been the support between all the shops in such a challenging year.

All our staff and volunteers have been a great credit to CRY and we are very proud of them all.

3FACEBOOK.COM/CRYCHARITY

Chris Tait

Martyn’s travel diary“We drove out of Beirut over the mountains

and down into the Bekaa Valley. The Syrian

refugees seem to mostly live in camps of

about 100-500 tents, with up to 500-2000

people in each camp. They live in very

poor makeshift accommodation, wherever

they could be squeezed in at the edge of

small towns. We spent a couple of hours

talking to very friendly people there, and

I sat down with the men and talked over

the war and their situations. Not only does

CRY provide food, medical and hygiene

products, but we have also supported the

setup of little ‘schools’ for the children

to receive some basic education. What

a work of God there is going on here!”

Martyn Dunsford

Project Development Officer

LEBANON, BEKAA VALLEY, THURS 23 MAR 08:00AM

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We have been supporting this project since 2014, when we heard of a minority group

(the Badjao) who are marginalised by society and are living on stilts above the water in

dirty, diseased and desperate conditions. With CRY’s help, the village was able to build

new walkways around the village to make it much safer. They were also provided with

weekly meetings to learn about hygiene, better nutrition and parenting skills.

Sadly, a large fire swept through the village in September 2017 and destroyed the

whole village in just two torrid hours. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and we were moved

to hear about their escape route from the village to safety. Months before, we helped

towards the building of a bridge and it was named ‘Bridge to Life’. It is an incredible

testimony that the bridge ended up being the very thing it was named after; most of

the lives were saved by using this bridge as an escape route from the fire. Without the

bridge, we fear the result of the fire would have been much worse. Though no one was

hurt, 1500 families lost their homes, all their belongings and their livelihood. They were

faced with the prospect of living on the streets for the foreseeable future and having

no way to feed themselves or earn an income.

FATHER’S REFUGE - PHILIPPINES

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CRY stepped in. We stepped in to rescue and restore these lives broken by this fire.

Thanks to your support, we were able to send £5000 to go towards food and clothing

kits. The Badjao people were then given some land on a mangrove swamp, which is

a good placement as it means their livelihood is protected and they can continue

to support their families in the future. Our project partners are currently working on

rebuilding the whole village, which is developing really well, and the activities we

were previously providing have continued, such as education support and games for

the children to keep their spirits up during this hard time. We continue to pray for the

protection and development of this project, and thank you for joining with us in this.

Emergency response:

TEXT: CRYX12 £5 to 70070

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My name is Nasri and I am 7 years old. I live at Hope for Orphans with 3 of my brothers and sisters. Our mother left us, and our father could not care for us. I am now protected and loved in a new home. I like to sing, colour pictures, listen to stories and play with my friends.

Hope for Orphans, Ethiopia ”

WWW.CRY.ORG.UK/PROJECTS

Nasri’s story

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A BIG THANK YOU to all those who have worked hard fundraising for CRY.

We hope you have had lots of fun!

Got an idea??If you would like to fundraise for CRY then we would love to help you!

Please e-mail: ukoffice@cry.org.uk and get a fundraising pack!

THANK YOU

CRY ran two events last year; one being our 25th anniversary and the other

our annual Ladies Christmas Shopping event.

£14 & £15.32Well done Sophie, 7, who

raised £14 by baking some cakes to sell at her Dad’s

workplace. And thank you to Lily who did chores for oth-ers to raise money for CRY.

She raised £15.32!

£1323Thank you to the team in

Jersey who are always run-ning events in aid of CRY. Last year they organised

an abseil and raised £1323 towards our Celebrate Life

Campaign!

£5500A huge thank you to Grace, Evelyn, Edwin and Trevor; a family dedicated to CRY

for an amazing 10 years and have raised £5500 in that

time!

JUST LOVEWe loved talking with ‘Just Love’ about CRY, and they decided to fundraise and

support our efforts! Thank you for having us and raising

£101.39

£500Thank you to Taunton Family

Church who blessed CRY with £500. We love con-

necting with New Frontiers churches around the world.

£200Peter McIntosh took part in the Great South Run 2017

on behalf of CRY. He raised £200! Thank you Peter!

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RomaniaGOOD

NEWS FROM AROUND

THE WORLD We requested prayer for our

project in Romania to buy a

new centre in the community

to reach more children and

families. We are so excited to

hear the first room has been

bought- what an answer to

prayer!

Children in Russia who attend our Down’s Syndrome Support are learning that they are loved and should not be ashamed.

“I’m sure everything we are doing at New Way school will help them to find their place in this world. They understand they are valuable in people’s eyes and in God’s eyes.”

bamboo school

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Romania We prayed for

more children to

access education

and attend

Bamboo School,

Laos. The school

started with

28 children at

the start of the

year; it has now

increased to 70!

One of our newer projects, the Iris Zimpeto Children’s Centre

in Mozambique, is seeing dramatic changes since CRY started

supporting them. Children are accessing better nutrition such

as milk and protein products, and are putting on the necessary

weight to be healthy and happy!

In Zimbabwe the students have

started a prayer group which

is held during breaktime and they take turns to lead, almost half the school

attends it!

Roland from Togo was a young

orphan taken in by the centre

at the age of 8. Now he is 21 and

this year completed his training in

ophthalmology after six months of

hard work and study.

togo

10Students teaching their parents about farming.

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It has been a busy four months for the students at the Cross

Over project. We continue to provide education for children

who cannot afford to go to school, to help them have a better

chance of employment in the future, and better prospects.

Students have been busy with lessons and exams, and in their

latest literacy assessments most of them scored above their

expected grade level. Nutrition Day was held by the children

for their parents or caregivers. This was a way of educating the

parents on what a balanced diet consists of as most of them

tend to feed their children with mainly carbohydrate rich food.

Many of the children that come to Cross-Over live in much

poverty and tough home situations. At the end of term, the

mentors identified 8 children who were coming to school

hungry and with no food for breaktime and lunch. Home

visits revealed that there was a serious food shortage in the

homes and that these families were regularly going for several

days without meals. The staff felt that there was a need

for food packs to be organised for these children to cover

them over the holidays when they would not be getting their

daily meal at Cross Over. Food packs containing the following

were distributed to the student’s families: soya mince, beans,

matemba (a dried fish, high in protein), mealie meal, cooking

oil, sugar, salt, e-pap and rice. We love being a part of helping

families and children in both home and school life.

CROSS-OVER PROJECT -ZIMBABWE

Students teaching their parents about farming.

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”

“In late September the team drove to a

poor area just outside the centre of Yalova.

Having already registered 52 families in

that area alone we weren’t expecting to

meet any new faces, however after leaving

one family’s house we quickly became

surrounded by around 50 desperate

people, only a few of whom we recognised.

That day we registered 15 new families,

all of whom we visited in the following

week. One of the families, 2 parents and

7 children, live in 2 small rooms, without

windows, gas, electricity or running water.

Some of the smallest children had nasty

looking infections covering their bodies.

I asked the mum what had happened and she

simply said “I don’t have any water, I can’t keep

them clean”. When we gave her the (meal)

cards we saw pure gratitude on her face - the

sort of gratitude a desperate mother would

show after receiving a small but necessary gift.

The final place we visited was a small

derelict building where 20 people lived

(5 families). They also greeted us with

genuine thankfulness but expressed their

regret at not being able to offer us a seat

as they literally didn’t even have a carpet

or pillows to sit on. All these families face

a difficult winter - we are glad to be able

to help them cope with their situations.”

The team in Turkey continue to provide vital support to many children and adult refugees who are living in Yalova. Here’s a recent story from a member of the team:

REFUGEE SUPPORT -TURKEY

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”

NEW PROJECTS 2018

HOUSE OF OPPORTUNITY - VARAZDIN, CROATIA

Almost 4000 children in Croatia live in foster families or institutions. In the

Varazdin area where this project will be based, more than 450 children are in

foster families or institutions. When children reach 18, they have to leave the social

welfare system and most of them have nothing; no home, work, money, family, and

often even no idea of life outside the institution or foster family, meaning they

easily become victims of poverty, crime, prostitution and human trafficking.

We will be supporting a home called ‘House of Opportunity’ which will look after

7 young people who have gone through a foster family or institution and have

nowhere to go when they turn 18. The house provides a mentoring programme

including assistance in finding a job, training in budgeting, computer skills training,

social skills development, cooking and cleaning skills and much more. There will

be a ‘home parent’ who will provide activities, teaching, food and will be a general

parent-like figure to support the young people when they need it. Each young

person will have a membership at the house for 2 years which will be enough time

to equip them with all the necessary life skills to prepare them for adult life. We

can’t wait to hear how our support helps!

REFUGEE SUPPORT - ATHENS, GREECE

We originally supported this project as an emergency response when the refugee

crisis hit our news in 2015. We supported the setup of a distribution centre in

Athens which is used as a place to store food, clothes and medical supplies to

give out to the refugees, as well as a place to come and have shelter for the

night. Along with this, they have rooms to minister to people, providing prayer

and emotional support to the children and families displaced from their homes.

But the need is still growing. Refugees are arriving every day with nowhere

to go and little support available for them. They are still staying in derelict

buildings or in camps where the hygiene levels are terrible and they have

little food or privacy – things we so easily take for granted. We have now

decided to support this as a CRY 500 which means they’ll be getting monthly

support from CRY to ensure as much care as possible can be provided.

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In this region of Russia, families are extremely poor and the Zverohozhystvo district

is all but forgotten by the surrounding towns and authorities. The area is deprived

and densely populated, with broken roads, bad water supply and frequent electricity

cuts. There is currently no public playground or sports area for the children, and so

young people are easily drawn into street crime.

CRY decided to send a one-off donation to support the renovation of a sports

ground for the children. This will have football goals, a basket shield and case, volley

grid, lighting, shower room and changing rooms. This is a huge development for the

district and we are so pleased to be a part of ensuring children get the opportunity

to play outside and grow physically, emotionally and spiritually through the support

we are going to give there. The building work has really progressed and the sports

ground is already being used by the children in the area. It is great that the children

are given the time and care from our project partners through this sports ground to

encourage their future choices.

We are excited to see that the sports ground is looking extremely good and the

children have already enjoyed playing football with other teams and also having

some training from a sports coach.

The building of the shower rooms is still underway, but we can’t wait to see the

finished product when it is all completed, and how it will benefit so many young

people!

DAGESTAN - RUSSIA Ray’s

228,808.97 thank you

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Ray’sTOP TIPS FOR FUNDRAISING

Ray Avent along with his team of CRY

supporters in the South West have raised a

staggering £228,808.97 since 2002 for

CRY projects around the world.

a

z

Jut

My first tip would be to believe in the char-

ity wholeheartedly. I came across CRY having

spent some time in Romania and I saw that

CRY goes out of it’s way to make sure all the

money donated goes direct to the projects.

Secondly, you have to be organised with your

time for the best results. I make sure that at

the beginning of each year, I have scheduled

collection days and events, so that nothing gets

in the way of my fundraising.

Thirdly, build up relationships in your community.

I spend lots of time getting to know the peo-

ple in the area where I live and I am happy to

talk to anyone about CRY, regardless of whether

they want to support or not. It is important to

educate people about what is happening around

the world, and you never know where that con-

tact might take you further down the line.

Lastly, pray! I believe that prayer

is a vital part of supporting and

fundraising for CRY and I make sure

that I am praying for the charity

regularly, not just for the events that

I am involved with.

Fundraising

If you would like to fundraise for us, no matter how big or small, we would love to hear from you

and send you a fundraising pack with everything you need for your event to be great!

Just email: ukoffice@cry.org.uk

WWW.CRY.ORG.UK