We recently had the great pleasure of hearing a very inspirational presentation by Andy & Susie Hart who are CMS Mission Partners in Tanzania. Susie is a member of the Mother's Union and the couple often write in Home & Family. Andy's holding a simple plastic botle. Fill it with water, put it on a blackened metal plate in the Tanzanian sun for six hours and it is sterilised: clean safe drinking water at no cost! In one village a Mothers' Union Branch Leader has personally taught this to over 400 households, and because the average Tanzanian household is 10 people, that's 4,000 people to whom she has given the gift of safe drinking water AND the gift of the Gospel!

The Mothers' Union in the York Diocese owns a new 6-berth caravan, situated 2 miles from Filey. This enables Mothers' Union Branches to sponsor a family or persons in need of a break to have a week "Away From It All" - A.F.I.A.

Any MU Branch in our Diocese can apply to our Booking Secretary, Peter Metcalfe, who deals with all the paperwork. A deposit of £50 is required from the sponsor but that's returnable if all is well at the caravan when our guests leave. There is a £15 charge to cover cleaning and laundry costs.

This holiday usually enables the family to recharge their batteries, enjoy each other's company, get to know their children and generally relax before returning home.

It is certainly a most rewarding project and fulfils the fifth objective of the Mother's Union: to help those whose family life has met with adversity.

Frequently a note is left by the family, maybe a picture by a child, and reading these notes says it all.

Our guests, apart from personal needs, only need to bring towels with them. There is always a wonderful food hamper to greet them and this helps to keep their costs to a minimum.

Do please support the AFIA scheme, and pray for the families who enjoy their time in our caravan.

Gillian Wilson

Thursday 19th April 2007 could have been just another ordinary day but being a member of Mothers' Union and a campaigner for Fairtrade got me involved in two events on what turned out to be a most extraordinary day...

First Event and some background:- MU has been one of the very active campaigning groups for Make Poverty History which continues with new activities. An e-mail arrived from the Northern Campaign Organiser asking for my help. On the date in question, the EU was meeting under the current German chairmanship to start discussing the renewal of its EPAs (Economic Partnership Agreements). These are its partnership trade agreements with over 70 African countries and I have written about these before. The existing agreements are very biased in favour of the EU (surprise!) and the new proposals are even worse and likely to make poverty greater than it is now. A demonstration was to take place that day outside the German Embassy in London and also at German Consulates around the country asking for the proposals to be re-considered. My e-mail informed me that there was a consulate in Newcastle so a demo was being organised there and would I help to do the same at the one in Middlesbrough!! Well, you learn something new every day and this was news to me. I was put in touch with the local main organiser and promised that some MU members would come along and support him. They and I met the demo group on the corner of Bridge Street West - the road which you turn off to go to the Transporter Bridge, a very salubrious area of central Middlesbrough - at least in the daytime. Photos were taken as we held up the German flag, a Fairtrade flag and placards asking for Fair EPAs . The consulate turned out to be a very small office in a rather nondescript building further along that road. The Consul came down to meet us as there wasn't room in the office itself! He was an Englishman, a local shipping agent, the Honorary Consul and a very cordial and welcoming gentleman. His job involved dealing with German Nationals whether residents or coming into the port on ships. He was the Registrar for their births, marriages and deaths; sorted out visas and other paperwork and dealt with any problems they might bring to him as in any consulate around the world. A letter was handed over for him to pass on to the German Government, more photos were taken and that was that. The main photo appeared in next day's Northern Echo and yours truly could be seen holding the flag but with all the roly poly bits hidden behind it, thank goodness. We had met at 10.45 am and at 11.30 am all was done and I moved on to the…

Second Event which fortunately took place at the Transporter Bridge Visitor centre so not far to go. Our local Fairtrade Town Steering Committee of which I am a member had earlier volunteered to take a small part in a very special journey little knowing just where this would lead , Boom! Boom! To explain - there is an International Fairtrade Organisation (IFAT) which oversees the Fairtrade standards applied to gain the mark on products from all countries involved so that they are the same. They have a wonderful banner which had started on a Global Journey in Mumbai, India in 2003 and had been making its way around the world by all manner of means of transport and now in 2007 it was in the UK on the last leg of the Journey where it will get to London in July. As the banner was to travel from Newcastle on the 18th to York for the 20th, we volunteered to set up an event on the 19th. Bicycles were mentioned as the means of transport and contact made with a number of people including Middlesbrough's Fairtrade Town Group who had just achieved that status for the town and were keen to be involved. I and another committee colleague organised things with them - not easy as times, places and contacts kept changing right up to the last minute. However, all was sorted and this is where the banner went:

First to Hartlepool, on a lovely sunny morning, for a display of the banner with the local Fairtrade folk, the Mayor and other dignitaries and the reading of the message which was done at each venue of the journey. Then a group of cyclists, including Mike the chief organiser of the Middlesbrough event, set off with the banner which was large but light and now folded up and carried in a pannier. The cycle ride to Middlesbrough ended at the Transporter Bridge where I along with some 30 plus other local interested parties, the Mayor of Stockton and the Middlesbrough Fairtrade Town Council leader unfolded the banner and had lots of photos taken and the message was read out. We then took the banner across the Tees on the Bridge and back before a lunch provided by Middlesbrough Council in the Visitor centre. Some cyclists set off back to Hartlepool and others joined here for the next stages. I left at this point to head back to Stokesley to go to a funeral but then went to Guisborough to meet the local council leader and the, now smaller, group of cyclists at Sunneyfield House. By now the weather had turned cold and grey but the intrepid bikers set off again and I went ahead to meet them at Great Ayton for photos by Captain Cook's statue on High Green. An offer of ice cream was turned down - too cold. Then on to Stokesley for more photos outside the Town Hall and a much needed adjournment to the Yorkshire store café (sells Fairtrade coffee etc) for a cuppa and some Toasted Teacake. A few members of Stokesley MU came to meet us too which was great. Then - and I could hardly believe it - the cyclists headed back to Ayton and on up to Gribdale Car park with Mike, who had set off from Hartlepool originally, biking all the way up without stopping. I met them there (by car) and was given charge of bikes and possessions whilst they walked up to the monument, unfurled the flag and took photos before coming back down and off to Ayton again before heading home, Mike with a lift to Hartlepool to pick up his car and drive back to Skelton, the rest locally as all were members of GASBAGS - Great Ayton & Stokesley Bikers and Guzzlers Society which usually found 'home' at the end of a ride to be in the White Swan at Stokesley!

Me? - well I took the banner and drove to York to hand it over to the people who were doing their event the next day. I got there at 8.00pm, went to eat a very late meal with my niece who lives there and drove back home for 11.00pm and so to bed.

The banner reaches Great Ayton.
Note Capt. Cook's statue in the background

So never let it be said that being in MU is not full of surprises and adventure and that Fairtrade is just a few daft folk with a bee in their bonnet. Both events were about Fair Trade Worldwide and I was proud to have represented both groups on this very special day.

Joan Wilson is our new Social Policy Officer, and writes:

Young Mums To be isn't a Mothers' Union project - it is run jointly by the Health Authority and Social Services - but MU supports it administratively in the shape of Debbie Campbell-Wilson, Branch Leader of Cayton Branch But , who sits on their board. But Ann Platt spoke so warmly and enthusiastically about this project at a recent Scarborough Deanery meeting that I asked her to write a short piece about it for the web site. A member of Filey Branch, Ann emphasises that she isn't "an organiser or anything", just glad to "be of help." She writes:

Janet Andrews has filled many roles in the Mothers' Union but none so daunting as Diocesan President to which position she was elected in 2007 to serve three years and a possible six years. Janet wrote this: