SI Newcastle upon Tyne

Saturday of Service

Newcastle upon Tyne club members celebrated our Saturday of Service in March with a sewing bee! The club has supported an international project in Israel for several years. Their work with the Lazarus Home for Girls in Bethany won them the Peace and Tolerance Award at Federation Conference in 2004.

Since then funds have been raised to buy a plot of land which is being prepared for the construction of a purpose built Home. Currently 36 abandoned, and often abused, girls are cared for in three rented flats. The new Home will accommodate 50 girls together with the house mothers who care for them.

To send our love and greetings to these children, we planned and made a children's banner. We found cross stitch designs of angels and on the themes of love and joy. Also included were stitched pictures of our Tyne bridges and the whole design was surmounted by a colourful rainbow.

Several happy afternoons and evenings were spent sewing and chatting - one member learning to cross stitch in the process!

 

Then we heard that one of the Trustees was travelling out from the North East to Bethany for a week of work with the designing Architect and the construction team. Alan took the banner with him and supervised its hanging on the walls of the current Home. Many of the girls are learning new skills and we hope that they will be able to copy some of the designs to create cards and gifts for visitors to buy.

 

This week we received a photograph of the banner in place, surrounded by happy smiling faces - a reward indeed for our enjoyable Saturday of Service project.

SI Newcastle upon Tyne does not, at present, have a website