Projects within the Diocese
The Mothers' Union here in Sheffield support a total of six projects throughout the Diocese. A brief description of our work can be found below, just click on the project you want to read about.
Virtual Babies
AFIA
Prison Creches
CART
Female Refuges
Pathways Shield
Virtual Babies
Our organisation owns 4 Virtual babies, (2 regular babies, 1 alcohol syndrome and 1 drug affected) The babies are loaned out to secondary schools, youth organisations and other agencies (eg Sure Start) for use with qualified professionals who are working with teenagers. The babies were bought when the problem of rising teenage pregnancies in South Yorkshire was brought to our attention. The idea is that teenagers take the babies home and look after them unaided, just like a real baby. The care that they give can be recorded and the adults in charge can decide if the baby has been looked after well or not.
Many of the comments that have been given by the teenagers are quite revealing , for instance…..
- I would love to have a baby but certainly not yet, I couldn’t cope.
- They are very time consuming, I don’t want one yet.
- I hated it when I couldn’t sleep for the baby crying.
We hope that this project will prevent some unwanted teenage pregnancies and also help teenagers on drugs and alcohol to realise the danger of their habit for any future babies.
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A.F.I.A.
Away From It All is a project which provides much needed holidays for families who need to get away and have a break but they do not have the means to go.
We send approx 16 families away every year to caravans on the East Coast to Haven holiday sites. The caravans are beautiful and very well equipped and the sites have many amenities for the families to enjoy. We also give the families a hamper of food.
This project is funded by our members who hold some very enterprising events, eg, Soup and Sandwich lunches, raffles, Bible auctions, Coffee Mornings and the latest event has been a sponsored Cycle Ride through the Sinai Desert by Anna Shaw, the daughter of one of our members. Anna raised £7,000 for holidays in 2008. In April 2008 Judith Nicholls, the wife of Bishop Jack of Sheffield, has held 6 Coffee mornings for AFIA which raised £500..
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Prison Crèches
Many of our members enjoy a weekly visit to a local prison to provide a crèche for the children who are visiting their Daddy, Uncle, Brother or Grandfather in prison. They need to go with their Mums but after a few minutes find it very boring so MU members provide lots of play equipment for them and they are happily taken care of while Mum has her visit uninterrupted by an unhappy child.
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CART
Christian African Relief Trust is a Christian organisation based in Huddersfield who send out crates to Africa with much needed aid. Our members love to knit blankets and jumpers for Africans. We also collect ends of candles for a candle business in Africa, along with spectacles and hearing aids. CART also has a shop which sells second hand items to pay for the high shipping costs of the crates. We have also recently taken hundreds of pairs of children’s sandals to CART. These were donated by a very generous business man. We take a car full of aid to CART about every 6 weeks.
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Female Refuges
There are 4 Women’s Refuges in our Diocese and we support each one with toiletries, food hampers and gifts at Christmas.
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Pathways Shield
These are two centres in Sheffield and Doncaster for victims of HIV/Aids. Members have donated clothing , toiletries and food and spent many a happy hour playing Beetle or just chatting with the friends who find these centres so helpful.
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