INFO

Bi-Monthly magazine of South Woden Uniting Church Congregation

June 2017

July 2017

Kind Hearts are the garden And thoughts are the words Kind words are the blossoms

And deeds are the fruits

Regular Sunday Service

9.30 am

Pearce Community Centre Hall

Collett Place PEARCE

Website: https://southwoden.wordpress.com

The Church Council Minister Secretary:

Rev Gary Holdsworth Email: - secretary.swuc@gmail.com

39 Mirrool Street

DUFFY ACT 2611

Phone: 6286 1057

Email:-glholdsworth@yahoo.com

Treasurer:

Chairperson: Ray Lowe

David Cran 7 Maria Place

4 Capel Place LYONS ACT 2606

FISHER ACT 2611 Phone: 6281 0089

Phone: 6288 9948 Email; rlowe@grapevine.com.au

Email: - secretary.swuc@gmail.com

Other Members:,

Libby Coates, Carolyn Curnow, Helen Fairbrother,

Joan Palmer, Kirsten Preece, Wendy Schmidt,

Bette Triglone.

Contact People

Worship Liaison Group Rosters Joan Palmer Ray Lowe

15 Oldham Court Swinger Hill 7 Maria Place Lyons

Phone: 6286 4615 Phone: 6281 0089

Email: j.palmer10@optusnet.com.au Email: rlowe@grapevine.com.au

Contact Group Helen Fairbrother

2/36 Shackleton Circuit, Mawson

Phone: 6286 4008 - 0439 864 008

Email: fairbrother@grapevine.com.au

Items for INFO.

Rosie and Ray Lowe

7 Maria Place Lyons

Phone: 6281 0089

Email: rlowe@grapevine.com.au

INFO is published bi-monthly in February, April, June, August, October December.

Contributions please for the August/September 2017 issue are due by 9th August 2017. .

SWUC and Privacy

The South Woden Uniting Church (SWUC) uses information and news provided by its members, adherents and

officers for purposes of conducting its pastoral ministry. In the course of that ministry, material published in this

bulletin may/will reach an audience wider than the immediate membership of the congregation.

If any source of such information or news does not wish the information they provided to be used for such purposes,

they can require and gain access to their personal information and request the information not to be used, by contacting

the editor of Info, Mr Ray Lowe, on (02) 6281 0089 or the SWUC Privacy Officer, currently Mr David Cran, on (02)

6288 9948.

If you have any queries in relation to the manner in which SWUC handles your personal information, please contact the

Privacy Officer, currently Mr David Cran.

Front page verse is from Yarra Yarns - magazine of Yarralumla Uniting Church

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FROM THE MINISTER Many of you are aware, that Mary-anne’s mother has not been well. She has been in and out of hospital on several occasions. This has meant several trips up to Sydney and back, more so for Mary-anne than myself. Thankfully her mother now seems to be on the mend and has once again returned to the nursing home in Emu Plains. We would like to thank you for your prayers, support, and words of encouragement during this time.

I am also aware that there have been, and continues to be members within the congregation who are struggling with their own health issues. Plus there are members of the congregation who are grieving the loss of someone close and dear to them. You are in my thoughts and prayers. I am thankful for the Pastoral care team that keeps me so well informed of the pastoral needs within the congregation, so that the Pastoral care team and I can provide care to the congregation. Winter is now amongst us, and as I prepare myself for my first winter in Canberra, I am reminded that often winter can be a time of isolation, particularly for the elderly (not that I am suggesting that you are old). During winter we tend to rug up, we seek places of warmth and we tend to stay indoors, usually in our own warm homes. Many only battle the elements if they have to restock their food supplies or keep a medical or some other kind of appointment. Or, when loneliness becomes too much, they venture out to seek human companionship through something that provides them with comfort and a feeling of belonging. I believe the fellowship of believers that make up the Church provide such a place of comfort and belonging to those who often go unnoticed and feel isolated from the world. So as the icy and cold weather of the winter months fall upon us. May we as a Church, be such a place for one another, and for those often forgotten by society. May we keep an eye out for each other, and through our presence make this winter a warmer and more welcoming season for those who find themselves isolated from the world. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and may his face shine upon you, and give you peace. Rev. Gary Holdsworth

******************************** Rosie’s Ramblings continued from page 8

LONG WALK TO FREEDOM – NELSON MANDELLA.

After years of imprisonment, physical and emotional abuse and separation from his family, Nelson Mandela said, “I realises that they (his captors) could take everything from me except my mind and heart”. This great autobiography inspired me to forgive those who have wronged me and showed me the importance of letting hatred go. That the hatred in my own heart inspires hate in others.

There is just one more ----- The other day coming home from shopping, we turned into Launceston Street from Hindmarsh Drive (and I must say how wonderful that was-as the new traffic lights were working) and we were coming up the street when we saw a kangaroo just hopping up the footpath and I thought how lovely is that. I know of course that they can be dangerous, but just seeing one was amazing! Rosie

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FROM THE COUNCIL CHAIR We are now well and truly settled into our new phase of shared worship life. In this our fiftieth year, the future of SWUC has become a focus, as we will look to ensure that the legacy is honoured and maintained. A small strategic planning team has been formed that will plan how we as a

Congregation reach out to our wider community to grow and expand. Most critically, how we plan and implement the outreach will be a responsibility of all of us. Council has presented a five year financial outlook that argues that we are financially sound, at least out to the end of the five year period. Council will continue to keep an eye on longer term finances, as well as the annual budget. However, in the immediate term, until issues of the Manse tenancy are clearer will not be able to nail down the future - except to say we don’t consider there is a financial issue of concern. The book on the history of SWUC has had a very serious edit. The editors decided to do a complete review after the manuscript had been typeset, mainly to standardise matters such as abbreviations, terminology, and the ‘voice’. The time taken to do this means that the book will probably (hopefully!) be available to launch in September. Council has decided, after consideration of the results of the survey taken last year, to hold the launch at Pearce with outside catering. Needless to say, this will be the usual, expected SWUC grand event. I’d like to put in a plug for our website. It contains information on upcoming activities, as well as stories on past events. Most of the Reflections from our members are posted, as well as Gary’s sermons delivered at both SWUC and Weston Creek. You don’t need to keep going to the site to check: if you click the ‘Follow’ button and enter your email, you’ll be advised when there’s an update, and also receive other current information. And finally – the 2017 AGM is on 23 July. As current members of Council complete their two year terms, at least two ne members are required, including a new Chair. I can assure you that it is not an onerous role – and that includes that of the Chair And as part of that: a reminder that contributions to the Annual Report for 2017 are due on 2 July. This is an opportunity for coordinators/organisers/leaders of the various components of our community to share what we’ve achieved and done over the past year. Geoff McPherson CRS Scholarships South Woden Uniting Church has donated to the Geoff McPherson CRS Scholarship program for the last seven years. In the past few years, scholarships funded by South Woden have been dedicated in memory of members who have passed on. As in the past few years, we have donated $2,000 as part of our Wider Work program. The following citation has been provided to CRS to be included during the introduction to the scholarships:

In this year, the 50th Anniversary of South Woden, the scholarships are being dedicated to the ministers who have served our church so well. This year, six ministers are nominated:

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Rev. Geoff Bridge was the first minister, serving from January 1967 to December 1973. Rev. Granton Hay served from 1974 to 1979. Rev. Geoff Hunter served from 1980 to 1985. Sadly, Geoff passed away in April this year. Rev. Carol Morris served from 1986 to 1990 and Rev. Gereldine Leonard served from 1996 to 2000. Also included this year is Rev. David Webster, who although not in long term placement with South Woden, helped out more than once when South Woden was between ministers.

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Support to Heba By now, Heba is well known to us, having attended our worship services on several occasions. As you will be aware, Heba and her two older girls came to Australia from Egypt in 2014. She was pregnant and her baby was born in Canberra in 2015. CRS has been supporting Heba and her daughters since October 2014. She has been on a bridging visa which entitled her and the girls to a fortnightly living allowance. We have provided our Manse for this family at an affordable rental that has been supplemented by CRS.

The family are Coptic Christians and her husband is still in Egypt. Heba was not successful in her initial application for protection. Her hearing at the AAT in March 2017 affirmed the original decision not to grant her application for Protection visas for herself and her daughters.

Her sole fortnightly income from Centrelink has now ended (last payment was 19 May) so she is without any source of income, and is understandably distressed given her concerns about what returning to Egypt might mean, particularly for her daughters.

She is lodging an appeal with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia for a judicial review of the AAT’s decisions. She will then apply for another bridging visa which will enable her to stay while her appeal is heard by the court, but payments won’t resume unless she has a successful outcome to the appeal.

The following article provides background to the situation of Coptic Christians in Egypt https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/01/hundreds-of-coptic-christians-in-australia-to-have-refugee-claims-reassessed. Last week there was a re- assessment by the Australian Government acknowledging the risks for Coptic Christians from ISIS terrorism in Egypt. A check of news items linked to this article will provide a picture of difficulties facing people in Heba’s community in Egypt and the background to her claim for protection. Despite this change of approach Heba needs to go through the Federal court appeal process.

Heba needs assistance with living expenses, which CRS has calculated at $600 per week, plus an additional $100 per week to pay for day care for her two year old daughter. This daycare will enable Heba to continue with unpaid work experience in childcare, as part of

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her study for a childcare certificate. It will also put her in a position to seek paid employment further down the track.

Heba will also need assistance with legal expenses. She is unable to appeal unless she receives financial assistance. The amount is not known at this stage but could be of the order of $20,000.

CRS has agreed to assist her to the extent that they can, but at this stage do not know for exactly how long financial support will be required: they are working on the assumption that it will be at least three months till a hearing and another 2 months for a decision. $700 per week for 21 weeks – this will come to $14,700. This will stretch their current bank balance leaving nothing to meet the needs of other families that they are supporting.

We have waived Heba’s regular rent payment of $160 per fortnight.

Any assistance to support Heba would be really appreciated whether it is a one off or a regular weekly, or monthly contribution. If you wish to contribute that you can make a donation through the offering on Sunday in an envelope marked “Heba Fund” or through our bank account at Uniting Financial Services.

The account details are: Account name: South Woden Uniting Church Account Number: 100028331 BSB: 634 634 Reference: Heba Fund/please include your name (e.g. Heba Fund/Smith)

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II. National Church Life Survey

Following the earlier release of our NCLS Summary Profile, the full Church Life Profile of 2016 NCLS results for South Woden Uniting Church is available online. The Church Life Profile displays our 2016 NCLS results, in a detailed report. Our Church Life Profile of survey results from the 2016 NCLS provides us with our own evaluation of our church’s qualities of church life. To view our Church Life Profile, click on the link below: www.2016ncls.org.au/profile-number/select-profile?pn=TD6L2L Profile Contents

Summary Profile: 8 page summary of key findings.

Detailed Review: 20 to 28 pages of in-depth survey results. The Profile shows our Church’s results in graphs, tables and charts. Our Church Life Profile/s can be viewed anytime online:

Go to 2016ncls.org.au/profile-number

Enter our Profile Number – TD6L2L

For more information see 2016ncls.org.au/after-survey

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Wider Work in 2017 Following the decisions of the Congregational Meeting on 14 May, the approved recipients of Wider Work donations in 2017 are:

Organisation Type Amount

Canberra Refugee Support Scholarships Local $2, 000

Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital Nepal International $3, 000

Uniting Church Linbong NE India School International $2, 000

Frontier Services National $1, 000

Technical Aid for Disabled Local $1, 000

Companion House Local $2, 000

Kids Cancer Project National $1, 000

YWCA respect, communicate, choose program

Local $1, 000

Ted Noffs Foundation Local $1, 000

Safe Shelter (St. Columba’s Homeless Project)

Local $1, 000

Hamlin Fistula Ethiopa International $1, 000

Medecins Sans Frontieres International $1, 000

MyHome in Canberra Local $1, 000

Indigenous Community Volunteers National $1, 000

Flood Relief (QLD and NSW) 2017 National $1, 000

SHOUT Local $1, 000

Famine Relief in Africa International $1, 600

Co-Operation In Development Australia International $1, 000

TOTAL $22, 600

Table 1. Approved recipients for Wider Work donations – 2017

The meeting also determined that funds from Wider Work are to be added as necessary to reach a total amount of $2,000 to donate to the ACT FOR PEACE. Emergency Appeal: East Africa Famine and that the $1,000 allocated to flood relief in QLD/NSW should be targeted at assistance to a Uniting Church congregation that has suffered a loss as recommended by Rev. Gary Holdsworth.

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Rosie’s Ramblings

In our last INFO I was talking about our 50th Birthday morning tea and talking about some of us who were interviewed by Stephen, well I neglected to mention Melda and Bob Crawford who were part of our first church service – so sorry for that!

Pat Hadfield has been talking to Doreen Connop on the phone and as we all know Doreen was part of our family for well over 30 years – Doreen left Canberra to be closer to her family in Victoria. Well Pat says “Doreen is well and settling into her new surroundings, her room is nice, big and comfortable. The meals are good’, just like home cooked”. Pat said she sounded happy. Her new address is Unit 43, The Regis, 17 Bay Road, SANDRINGHAM, Victoria, 3191, and her telephone No. is 03 85305638 for anyone of us who would like to ring or write to her.

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On the 28th May we at South Woden had a fantastic luncheon organised by our own Willa Mauldon. After lunch Willa and Roger gave us a sing song and one of the songs was BIBLE STORY and I thought you may enjoy reading it – so here it is:-

Bible Stories

Chorus (x2)

Young folk, old folk, everybody come to South Woden Sunday School and have a lot of fun. Bring your padded cushions and sit down upon the floor, and we’ll tell you Bible stories that you’ve never heard before.

Adam was a gardener and Eve became his spouse. They got the sack for stealing fruit, and started keeping house. They lived a very quiet life, ‘twas peaceful in the main, until they had a baby boy and started raising Cain.

Noah was a carpenter who built himself an ark. But when he got it finished he had no place where to park. So he hitched it to a trailer and went to the local zoo, where he roundeed up the animals who boarded two by two.

Chorus (x1)

Joseph had a coat of many colours that he wore. His brothers hadn’t any and it made them awfully sore. So they took their little brother and they threw him in a pit, then they sent him off to Egypt just to see how he liked it.

King David and King Solomon lived wild exciting lives, composed of wars and entertaining other people’s wives. And in the lonely evenings when their conscience gave them qualms, Solomon wrote the Proverbs, and David wrote the Psalms.

Chorus (x1)

Jonah was an emigrant, so goes the Bible tale. He took the cheapest passage in the belly of a whale. It was crowded in the belly which was damp and quite compressed, so Jonah pressed the button and the whale did all the rest.

Here we have been listening for fifty golden years, to the Bible’s stories as they’ve filtered through our ears. Let’s hear them for another fifty years or even more — our favourite Bible stories that will make our spirits soar.

Chorus (x1)

I get YARRA YARNS from Yarralumla Uniting church and they get our INFO, well in their magazine was this piece:

WITHOUT LOVE …THE “DAZE OF THE WEEK” ARE; SADDAY MOURNDAY TEARSDAY WASTEDAY THIRSTDAY FRIGHTDAY SHATTERDAY ***SO BE IN LOVE EVERY DAY – GOD’S LOVE IS EVER PRESENT EVERY MOMENT.

And this one too: Rosie’s Ramblings continued on page 3

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VALE – Rev. Geoff Hunter.

Geoff was South Woden’s 3rd Minister after Geoff Bridge who was our Methodist Minister and Granton Hay who was our Congregational Minister and then Geoff Hunter who was our Presbyterian Minister and just then we all became The Uniting church in Australia – Geoff used to conduct Bible study once a month starting at Carlene and Jon Hancock’s home in Pearce – then the Hancock’s moved to Queensland and Bible Study came to Rosie and Ray Lowe’s home in Lyons. When Geoff left our church – he was offered the ITIM ministry and was commissioned at Civic where the City Uniting Church is today, where the Congregational Church was.

There was a big hole in the ground when they knocked the church down to build City Uniting and Geoff was commissioned in the hole wearing a hard hat on his head – Geoff also conducted the marriage of our 2 children Steven and Judith as he was their Minister and also their friend. Now please read Evelyn’s words that she read at his funeral. Rosie .

I first met Geoff when he was the minister of South Woden Uniting church and I was the ELM lady organising programmes and courses for the Presbytery of Canberra. Geoff ran a lot of programmes for me, and we had many a yarn over the phone in the process. So, when I came to join ITIM I felt very much at home with him and the rest of the team which comprised of Pamela Phillips and Jon Cope.

What is ITIM? The Interchurches Trade and Industries Mission was founded In England, Coventry I think where the local Church of England had a pot of money to spend and wanted to serve the local workers in the midland towns mines and factories. The aim was to provide pastoral care from the local clergy at no cost to the companies. This was a great success and the priest whose idea it was came to Australia, via a stint in New Zealand to set up the same process. No pot of gold here but a service was offered in Melbourne and Sydney and surrounds of local mainly clergy but pastoral care to various organisations. The idea being to visit, and offering what many of us understand as hovering with intent, which may or may not lead to a deeper counselling process.

In Canberra, we had a number of clients that we visited notable Telstra, the Tax office, Federal Airport Corporation, a brick factory, Action buses and lots more that we visited weekly. In addition to our weekly visits we were involved in one to one counselling, mediation work and on a couple of occasions I conducted funerals. There were a number of critical incidents when we did de-briefing sessions. In particular I remember after a plane crash in Canberra and a time when a ranger was killed when his tractor rolled down a hill with him underneath. I remember too a number of suicides we had to deal with. So it was all serious stuff and there were times when we needed to debrief ourselves,

Geoff was our trusted leader and as well as supplying us with back up in the guise of peer group debriefing. They were good times when we all shared our experiences and discussed the issues that they raised for us. We became a very close group

An important part of our ongoing education came in the form of trips to Sydney. They were long days with 6.00 am starts with us taking it in turns to drive and stops off for meals. They were always good fun for the Canberra team and we would usually arrive full of mirth from the journey, one such sticks in my mind. At a stop for dinner on the way home we stopped at a serve yourself place to eat as much as you like. Geoff had a healthy appetite and picked up a piece of Pavlova. In his eagerness, the pav had got broken up so he called one of the staff over and she got him another piece that looked all neat and as it should. She put it down in front of him and asked him what he would like her to do with the broken one. Oh, leave it says Geoff I will Eat it. Well he did. The team set off for home full of laughter about his eating capacity. Not for long. The car stopped and the door opened,

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and back came the 2 slices of Pav. Door closed and on we travelled. There was much laughter and we travelled on with Geoff feeling much the worse for wear.

After we all retired we remained firm friends with Geoff and Elspeth and I having a weekly meal together and various trips to the theatre. They have really made me feel part of their family.

Vale Geoff from Pamela, John and myself and a number of others who floated in and out. We loved you our esteemed leader we all became better for your leadership

Evelyn Austin-Flannery

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WANTED!

We need Worship Leaders from now until the end of the year and beyond.

And there is no need to be anxious……..

You do not need to do this on your own – there are people who have been Worship Leaders

previously who would be happy to help out.

Please contact Joan Palmer to volunteer.

+++++++++++++

For removal from my garage.

This Inkel PA9100RC public address mixer/amp is available to you if you would like it, This unit along with two 100W speakers is now surplus to our requirements. It has a tape replay unit, AM/FM radio receiver and 4 inputs with full mixing facilities.

If you would like it/them contact Ray Lowe at rlowe@grapevine.com.au or 6281 0089.

This offer will be available until the end of the month then they go to recycling.

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Dear terrific folks of South Woden Uniting Church family,

Of course, we meant to send you an update some months ago – before Easter … but then life and work at Lalgadh (LLHSC) has been sooooo breathtakingly busy, we never managed to do so.

This newsletter aims to bring to focus on the suffering in particular of women and children with leprosy, here in rural Nepal, and what we try to do about it - with your kind help.

But firstly - Boy-O-Boy! IT’S HOT HERE! It’s been around 39 – 41 degrees over the past couple of weeks, and getting hotter as the monsoon slowly approaches … Meantime we are bursting at the seams trying to manage some 500 - 600 outpatients each day….

1. Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital is the world’s busiest leprosy hospital… >100,000 consultations per year Broke all records last year in crossing beyond 100,000 patient-consultations … and numbers continue to increase… Get your brain around these huge outpatient numbers from the past year (Jan-Dec 2016). LLHSC treated …

• 103,889 total patient consultations, including

• 12,375 for people affected by leprosy and

• another 91,514 general (non-leprosy) patients visits with other skin and tropical diseases.

• 19,684 children consultations = 19 % 0f all patients.

And the wide range of other diseases treated especially included poverty-related diseases, such as tuberculosis, typhoid, malaria, meningitis, malnutrition, diarrhoeal and respiratory diseases, and many weird tropical worm infestations and skin infections. So your terrific support is so meaningful and so greatly appreciated here.

All services to leprosy patients are provided free… and as a Christian Mission Hospital we want to keep it that way. As it was throughout history and is even today – it is mostly Christian Hospitals - not just in Nepal but worldwide - that reach out with love and compassion to find and care for the thousands of leprosy-affected people – especially those with the terrible ulcers, disfigurements, mutilations, handicap and stigma that leprosy causes.

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2. Women, Gender-injustice and Violence … and Children … and Leprosy The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reiterated in its new Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020, the need for increased emphasis and priority focus for early diagnosis and better gender-sensitive management for women and for children with leprosy. Large proportions of the female population in the Terai areas of Nepal, near the Indian border, face significant gender bias, abuse and violence, injustice and inequality. This includes restricted movement of women, violence and cruelty related to dowry or alleged witchcraft, domestic violence and limited access to education as well as to certain economic activities, property ownership, and choice of occupation. Child and early marriage is still very common – we currently have 2 leprosy affected teenage girls as inpatients in LLHSC who were both married at 10 years of age. Violence based on accusations of crossing caste-barriers or witch-craft occur. Due to the lack of public awareness on legal prohibitions and prevalence of caste-based discrimination, and failure of authorities to pursue cases, many such cases remain unreported or unaddressed.

Education and literacy rates reflect these gender-discrimination issues. Our central-eastern area of the Terai has the highest rate (30.9%) of illiteracy in young women (15-24 years) any region in Nepal, compared with the official national rate of 16%. Some 35% of children of primary school age in this region do not make it to even primary school. By secondary school age some 19 % of children have had no schooling, primary or secondary – and 66% of these are girls. Again, these rates are among the worst for any region of Nepal.

With leprosy, children and women are a special concern. Children have an increased susceptibility to leprosy with a peak occurrence in childhood, followed by another occurrence peak in mid-adulthood. In children, leprosy affects both girls and boys in equal proportions. However, in adults in hyper-endemic areas such as ours, the male to female ratio is about 3:2 … of our 12,345 leprosy outpatient consultations, 71% are for men and 29 % for women with leprosy. It is not clear how much of this imbalance is a genuine biological reason, and how much due - more likely - to the greater social pressures and stigma that leprosy-affected women face, with an inclination to hide and only seek medical help later, on top of the restrictions and discrimination women already face in society here.

Late detection and delayed diagnosis of leprosy in girls and women increases the risk of deformity and disability, and the continued spread of the leprosy bacteria in the community. Late detection is caused by the lack of equal access to information, education and literacy. Child and early marriage, confinement to the home and the time-consuming domestic tasks, pregnancy, childcare required of many, can all reduce access to, and involvement in, the wider world. A very real fear that the stigma of leprosy can lead to rejection and ostracism by the family and wider community can result in girls and women ignoring or hiding their early symptoms often until disability is extreme, with further social withdrawal, poor self-worth and even to self-harming behaviours,

The heart-breaking tragedy of children with advancing leprosy. Children as young as 4 or 5 years slowly losing their fingers, hands and feet, and suffering from other at-times life-threatening complications of leprosy, are a real heart-breaker. Many such children come to LLHSC indicating that leprosy is still spreading fast in populations of southern Nepal and north India. WHO (The World Health Organisation) has stressed in its new Global Leprosy Strategy 2016-2020, the need for increased priority emphasis for early diagnosis and better management of children with leprosy. “The presence of new child cases indicates continued transmission of leprosy within the community. National implementation plans need to include focused case detection campaigns combined with awareness initiatives to detect all child cases before disabilities are developed” Of the three National and Global targets for Leprosy recommended by WHO, the first is to achieve zero Grade-2 Disability (G2D) among new child leprosy cases.

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3. Smashing gender-bias & focussing compassionate action for women and children with leprosy LLHSC - faced with the victims of gender-bias and discrimination issues each day, and large numbers of children with leprosy and other diseases - works hard to ensure its Hospital Services, Community Program, and Training/Education Program, program activities and approaches all attempt to undo and reject bias, injustice, inequality and stigma and demonstrate/educate patients and local community gender sensitivity and equality. There are daily literacy classes for hospitalised women and children – as many of the women and children inpatients are totally illiterate.

LLHSC’s extensive Community Programme reaches out through 101 Self Help Groups across adjacent Districts (2.5 million people) and includes microcredit programmes for women, literacy classes, training in rights-based approaches, health and maternal-childhealth classes, women’s empowerment initiatives, vocational and skills training such as book-keeping, veterinary skills, and training in money-handling and decision making empowerment and skills. Children with leprosy (or any illness) are given special attention and care, plus queue-jumping priority at Lalgadh Hospital.

A new Children’s Unit is nearing completion so that children hospitalised for leprosy or other serious conditions are provided with a good safe standard of inpatient child-care, with warm child-friendly purpose-built inpatient accommodation. It includes:

• For girls – a 6-bed girl-friendly ward – with purple-pink painted Himalayas on the walls;

• For boys – a 6-bed boy-friendly ward – with blue-green painted Himalayas on the walls;

• A class-room: purpose-built with desks tables and chairs, replacing the current use of the devotions room for daily school lessons;

• A multi-purpose recreation room: for safe children's play, stimulation, education videos, clinical training for nurses; the recreation room and classroom can be joined large gatherings of patients and staff such as for Christmas celebrations. That’s a small glimpse of the condition of women and children with leprosy in the hot Terai region where LLHSC is situated. The whole committed team at LLHSC – some of whom are themselves cured leprosy-affected folks, and many more who come from leprosy-affected families – works with compassionate care to tackle all leprosy, but with special focus on these two vulnerable groups – women and children with leprosy. Next time (can’t fit it in here) we want to update you on the continuing earthquake relief work, and the fact that 2/3 of the hundreds of thousands whose homes were destroyed by the 2015 earthquake still have not received the help they need and were promised… and then there’s lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) prevalent in this area too …. that’s for next time.

At Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital & Services Centre (LLHSC) we are managing to make a terrific difference in this remote neglected needy area of Nepal, especially because of your help – encouragement, prayers, funding and faith.

Many many many many thanks from us all

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A. Laxmi is from a very poor leprosy-affected family. She purchased a cow through a microcredit loan from our Community Program. She has now paid back the loan and is very happy earning a good regular income a supporting her family from selling milk and cow dung;

B. Women’s village group learning how to handle money and decision making – something totally new for all of them

A. Her house in ruins from the earthquake, she came to get relief which we supplied and is now going to walk uphill for 3 hours carrying 35 Kg of rice, oil, tarpaulin and blanket… and her baby. B. The despair of being alone (husband gone) and her house destroyed by the earthquake.

In high remote areas, Grandma’s job is to collect firewood – 30 Kg of it – for the approaching Himalayan winter

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We ran a health checkup at Kalika School high up in Sindhuli District. Terrible road, and then an hour’s steep climb on foot to get there. Never been a doctor up there before. Never been a foreigner up there before. Lots of malnutrition and other diseases.

Meantime … back at Lalgadh Hospital … over 600 outpatients on this Sunday. Separate queues and waiting room for women and children … and queue-jumping priority for mothers with babies or small children. These little things are much appreciated

Thank you immensely for all your support, prayers, love, encouragement… and your faith in action!

With love, thanks, and

warmest wishes from us all here at Lalgadh Leprosy Hospital – and God’s blessings on all you do!.

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Month Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

June 5 World Environment Day

6 7 8 9 10 11 Trinity Sunday Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth INFO

12 Queen's Birthday

13 SWUC Council 14 WCUC Council 15 16 17 18 Pentecost 2 Worship Leaders: Kirsten Preece and David Cran

19 20 World Refugee Day

21 22 UCA Anniversary

23 24 25 Pentecost 3 Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth Communion

July 26 27 Carers Group 28 29 30 Intl Day of Friendship Term 2 Ends

1 2 Pentecost 4 Worship Leader: TBA

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pentecost 5 Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pentecost 6 Worship Leader: TBA

17 Term 3 Starts 18 19 20 21 22 23 Pentecost 7 Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth Communion SWUC 2017 AGM

24 25 Carers Group 26 27 28 29 30 Pentecost 8 5th Sunday Worship Leader: TBA

August 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pentecost 9 Worship Leader: TBA

7 8 SWUC Council 9 WCUC Council INFO Articles due

10 11 12 13 Pentecost 10 Worship Leader: Rev Gary Holdsworth INFO