21st January 2007: Millennium BreakfastThe Parish held it's first Millennium Breakfast of 2007 on the 21st January 2007. A big thank you to everyone who was helped organise the event and to all parishioners who participated. The event raised £135.50 which is our best result yet! A further £123 was counted from the Bottle, making a total of £257.50 which is now on it's way to Father Ed in Lima in Peru who will be delighted as it has the same spending power in Lima as £1800!.
Two months later, we received a report from Father Ed in which he tells us about the progress of the 4 projects he has set up to help the parishioners of Our Lady of the Missions in Lima, Peru.
- Women and Family Refuge Unit: The 'Warmi Huasi' Centre which is to be a residential centre for training community leaders and a family refuge unit now has two floors and thanks to many friends, we have the funding to start the third and final floor. This Centre will be a real asset to the community.
- Kinder-garden in San Benito: We now have land and will build the meeting hall, office and kinder-garden, from which we can run the health programmes for this town on the outskirts of Lima. This is really needed for the poor people of San Benito.
- Rebuilding of the Sacred Heart Chapel: Our Chapel was burned down last year by a person who had mental difficulties. It was damaged beyond repair and now, thanks to your contributions and Columban Far East readers, we can buy land and start building a new chapel and meeting room.
- Education Fund: We have helped young people to continue to third level studies and three of them have now graduated. Flora is teaching, Yesenia is a physiotherapist and Lourdes has completed her course in business administration. Education is very important to a developing community.
Our parish has been helping Fr Ed since 1999, when we began our Millennium Project. We have raised £11,841 from our 'Breakfasts', the 'Bottle' and the sale of Peruvian Crafts. This amount will have a spending power of about £82,887 in Peru. It is clear that we can make a difference to the lives of people in this community so please keep up your excellent support.