People often ask us what exactly it is that Grassroots does.
They might say ‘you do child sponsorship, don’t you?’
And yes, we do! We work with local church based teams to run child sponsorship schemes in Tanzania, Kenya, Romania and India (although we have yet to run one in a country that does not end with an ‘a’). You can sponsor a child for between £3.50 and £20 a month, all of which is spent on the child and will pay for things like food, education, care and even accommodation depending on the project. The lives of young people are being saved, changed and liberated thanks to our thousands of sponsors.
Then they say ‘But don’t you also have a place in Tenerife?’
Yes, we do that too. The Living Room is a drop in centre for people who work in the numerous bars and clubs of Playas Las Americas. It’s a safe space to talk, relax and for many, a lifeline to get help for the addictions and other issues that are common amongst the young there. Living Room teams both run the centre and spend the nights visiting the workers. On Sunday, a local church meet in the building and numerous lives are being changed. It is not uncommon to hear people say ‘If it wasn’t for The Living Room, I’d be dead now.’
But don’t you also run prayer events in schools and other places?
That too. In the past Grassroots has run prayer spaces at Soul Survivor and from that grew ORISON (orisonschools.org.uk) – an interactive prayer event that visits schools around the country and gently challenges children to consider what they believe and think about prayer. ORISON uses innovative technology and an unfeasibly large number of fairy lights to present issues of spiritualty under a number of themes such as ‘sorry’, ‘please’ and ‘the world zone’. The feedback from schools is always very positive. We are also working on linking schools in the UK with schools on the sponsorship schemes.
So, what else does Grassroots do?
The Grassroots Trust also acts as an umbrella organisation that provides support, guidance and a charitable funding channel to a wide range of projects. Hope and song for Freedom works with women prisoners in Peru, FISCH is a quality programme serving street children in Iringa Tanzania, Lunch sets up feeding schemes for children in the UK who go hungry during the school holidays when free school meals finish, and we have links with projects in Sudan, the Arab world, Malawi and Burma.
In short, the Grassroots Trust exists to support and develop Christian projects that bring life, hope and faith in prayerful and practical ways.
How can we help you?
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Why not join us on a Mission Trip in 2013 to:
Chennai, India : URGENT! 1 week – you provide £300 plus cost of air ticket.21-28 January 2013
Tanzania : 2 weeks – you provide £500 plus cost of air ticket. 25 July to 7 August 2013 (dates approx) & 7-20 November 2013 (dates approx)
The Living Room, Tenerife : You provide £500. 1-13 July 2013
Kenya : 1 weeks – you provide £350 plus cost of air ticket. 12-19 June 2013
Romania : 1 week – you provide £500. 12-19 September 2013
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TODAY Grassroots Tanzania urgently needs:
* 250 new sponsors for primary age children.
* 85 more sponsors for secondary school pupils.
* 5 sponsors for workers.
TODAY Grassroots “Good Neighbours” in Kenya urgently needs:
* 50 new sponsors for children who have no other way to go to school.
TODAY Grassroots Romania urgently needs:
* 33 new sponsors for children from desperately poor families.
TODAY Grassroots “SKM in Chennai” in India urgently needs:
* 84 new sponsors for children who a place of safety after school.
I know it is short notice but we would love to have a few more of you with us in January 2013 when we visit Kevin & Deborah Kamalraj and all the sponsored children at SKM children in Chennai, India. Visiting the slum is never pleasant and the stories we hear are often devastating emotionally, but the families and children love to have visitors and long to have us visit their homes to pray. How about it?