This year we celebrate our 20th anniversary. During this time you have helped us raise over a ¼ million pounds to support the Mission and School.
With the current situation in Zimbabwe I am really pleased to report that in spite of the many challenges that face the country, St James Mission and School remains open for business and we continue successfully to send money to support a wide range of activities.
We need to celebrate the fact that over the year we had an income of £16K compared to £19K last year (although this is a drop on the previous year, it is still the second highest-ever income after last year). The detail of our financial activity is contained in the Treasurer’s report.
In terms of our achievements during the year, this is contained in the Secretary’s report but I would like to highlight a few items that I think you will be very interested in.
First, we continue to work in partnership with the St. James Mission Committee that was set up as an internal management committee. One of its aims is to act as the conduit from the School and Mission in Zimbabwe direct to FSJMS here. The chair of their committee is the Rector, Revd Albert Ncube, who was appointed last summer as the Priest in charge to oversee the whole mission. We have directly benefited from this appointment because Father Albert has been on the school staff for some time and he now chairs this committee. He is actively facilitating the staff at St James keeping in touch with us on progress and identifying their priorities for funds. In fact we actually managed to work together to schedule our FSJMS February committee to follow their internal committee meeting in January and this resulted in us receiving their minutes and a clear explanation of funding needs in good time for us to base our meeting upon. On the surface of it, this sounds obvious but actually, as a way of working, this is a fundamental shift and a very exciting one. The e-mail communication seems better than it has ever been although still difficult because of problems with connectivity.
Second, ‘The Babygrow Project’ at St Luke’s Church, Brislington, Bristol has finished. The fund gave many thousands of pounds to the clinic and feeding fund, but leaves a lasting legacy in the clinic which was rebuilt in the late 1990s, funded by Babygrow. Our thanks to Mike and Lesley Coppin for all their efforts. Some Babygrow supporters have transferred their giving to FSJMS, which we are very thankful for.
