Hampshire Baptist Church raises generous funds

Romsey Baptist Church of Bell Street, Romsey, Hampshire has raised over £26,000 for a Compassion UK child development centre in Haiti.

The church has around 130 members and has partnered with Compassion UK for over five years. 33 children are sponsored by members of Romsey Baptist Church with 22 of those children specifically belonging to the Compassion project where the donation was received.

Compassion UK works with more than 1.7 million around the world. Working in partnership with the local church, they seek out the most vulnerable children and with the support of individual sponsors, provide them with the means to break the cycle of poverty and create a viable future.

“We had such a large number of children already being sponsored through Compassion at this particular project, then after the earthquake in 2010, we wanted to connect with the project to do more than just sponsor children. We wanted to create a stronger partnership,” explains Penny Buddell, Mission Team Leader at Romsey Baptist.

413 children attend school, after school clubs or weekend activities at the Compassion project site in mountainous Bainet, south-east Haiti. A pressing need for the site was a security wall to increase the security and safety of the children, “We tend to take safety for granted because of our secure society. This wall will give them a sense of security to enable them to move forward,” shares Penny. 

“We had such a great variety of fundraising events. We held coffee mornings with the older folk, craft days, young children collected coppers in coloured jam jars, hosted two auctions of promises, one young man did a sponsored beard shave and another man did a sponsored cycle ride across Britain. People have been very generous.”

The construction of the wall surrounding the site began in July 2015 and was completed earlier this year.

Last year the church also raised several thousand pounds for the disaster appeal after the earthquake in Nepal. Penny states, “The challenge for us is to go out and help others where the need is greatest, whether that’s in our local community or throughout the whole world.” 

For more information, photographs and interviews contact Ella Dickinson on 07840 203332.