SAVE LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN WITH OUR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS - DONATE NOW

Registered Charity No. 1113505

DONATE

COMPASSION DIRECT - OUR FUNDING GOES DIRECT TO THOSE IN NEED

EARTH IS THE HOME WE SHARE - LEAD THE CHANGE

Registered charity 1113505 since 2004, run by professional volunteers keeping overheads low!

Compassion Direct has been changing peoples lives abroad for over 20 years with water, workshops, wind power, goats, gardens, libraries, educational buildings & development.  We provide environmentally sustainable solutions & self help projects in the developing world.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT Compassion Direct? 

  • We consult with local people who advise us on their needs for a sustainable future.
  • We work directly with people & organisations avoiding unnecessary expenses.
  • We consider the environmental impact of our work & plant trees to reduce CO2 emissions.
  • We provide environmentally sustainable solutions such as solar power, biogas cookers & windmills where appropriate.
  • We encourage people to help themselves by providing practical, self help projects.
  • We are professional volunteers & have low overheads so your money goes where it is most needed avoiding expensive office rental, salaries & administrative costs.
We can do nothing without your support, please donate now and/or volunteer!

2025 NEW YEAR APPEALS

CRISIS TO CORNFIELDS IN SOUTH SUDAN - YOU CAN HELP US TO GIVE PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO RESETTLE MORE THAN 100 FAMILIES INTO SAFE SUSTAINABLE FUTURES IN A NEW VILLAGE OF ROUNDHOUSE WHERE THEY CAN REBUILD THEIR LIVES. SEE MORE ON OUR PROJECT PAGE 

Sudan appeal  WATCH THE CROWDFUNDER VIDEO AND DONATE TO RESETTLE UP TO 600 REFUGEES. THANKYOU.

COMPASSION DIRECT RWANDA PROJECT - RESTORE A FOOD PROGRAMME

SAVE LIVES OF HIV MOTHERS, EDUCATE CHILDREN, LEAVE NO ORPHANS:
JUST 100 PEOPLE MAKING A STANDING ORDER OF £5 A MONTH WILL ENABLE US TO RESTART THE FOOD PROGRAMME . Go to our  FUND A FOOD PROGRAMME page & DONATE OR FUNDRAISE.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

Make a quick donation on your phone, text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5. 
Make Compassion Direct UK your Pay Role Giving choice at your place of work. 

  • EXISTING CAMPAIGNS

  • KNIT FOR KIDS AT A SYRIAN REFUGEE CAMP  Go to our Knit for Kids page.

  • MAKE PILLOWCASE DRESSES & BERMUDA SHORTS FOR RWANDAN CHILDREN FROM RECYCLED DUVETS- go to our Pillowcase Dresses page.

  • SHOP ON LINE RAISE CASH FOR CDUK https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/cause/compassion-direct-uk/

  • RAISE MONEY TO HELP US SINK A VILLAGE WELL WHERE CURRENTLY PEOPLE HAVE TO TRAVEL 7K FOR FRESH WATER

How will your donations be used?  We are all volunteers so your donation goes so much further - WE HAVE ALMOST NO OVERHEADS & WE GIVE OUR TIME FREE!
 LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED!

WHAT MIGHT YOUR DONATION BUY?

£5 will buy pencils & stationary for a school or sewing patterns
£10 will buy 10 yards of dress material
£25 will buy material, scissors, cottons
£25 will buy a bike
£50 will provide two cutting tables
£50 will buy a bike and tools for a man to be come a gardener
£100 will provide a sewing machine to teach a woman a trade
£150 will buy 10 fruit trees
£250 to set up & buy chickens for a safe chicken pen
£500 to buy a herd of goats
£600 a month will run a food programme feeding 160 malnourished children
£1000 will build a Round House in South Sudan to house a family of refugees.
£2000 will sink a village well
£10,000 will begin to set up an orphanage
£15,000 will furnish an orphanage
£20,000 wiLL run the orphanages for a year

YOUR DONATION WILL MAKE REAL FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES TO THE LIVES OF DISADVANTAGED PEOPLE AND GIVE THEM SUSTAINABLE FUTURES

Compassion Direct have provided wells, fruit trees, a woman & child development centre in S America,a school in Ghana, a Sewing Cooperative in Rwanda, vegetable gardens, wind turbines, educational materials, rainwater harvesting tanks, industrial sewing machines & workshops, latrine doors, goat herds, libraries & we send hand knitted clothing to refugees in Syria & dresses & shorts made from recycled materials by our volunteers to Rwanda and so much more.

Photos: 1. Dresses made from unwanted pillowcases for girls in Rwanda. 2. Refugees in South Sudan 3. Putting in water tanks at a church school in Rwanda that fed 120 children a day, 60 of whom were orphans of HIV mothers - the food programme closed during Covid and we want to reopen it with your donations 4. The Sewing Cooperative we built to help HIV mothers learn a trade, make a living and feed themselves and their children.
  

SUDAN CRISIS - SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

 CRISIS TO CORNFIELDS SUDAN RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMME CDUK 2025 APPEAL   https://youtu.be/AyApYsT3ARs

YOUR DONATIONS WE CAN SAVE MANY LIVES IN VERY PRACTICAL & SUSTAINABLE WAYS, READ ON

People in South Sudan are suffering from a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions experiencing awful trauma but with your help, we can resettle many families so that they live safe and sustainable lives in their own country.   See below for video of the proposed resettlement area & hear from Pastor Benjamin.

Refugees face hunger from famine, cholera outbreaks, fuelled by overcrowded living conditions and limited access to clean water and sanitation, all of which threatens to spread as the flood-displaced population grows. 

Compassion Direct UK are raising money through their 2025 appeal to give many  Sudanese families a safe, sustainable future.

85 miles away from the devastation of floods and famine in Maridi, is a nearby thriving church community with the compassion and will to help their neighbours. CDUK have teamed up with Pastor Benjamin and the 100's of members of their independent church, who wish to help as many of their stricken neighbours as possible, to recover, recuperate and become self-reliant. 

Liaising with the disaster area, buses will collect families who choose to relocate and take them to a safe haven where they can start anew.  See the video of the resettlement area below

 “Our church is a role model for self-reliance in Western South Sudan, said pastor Benjamin, early this year we formed a cooperative association to work on 200 acres of farmland 19 km from the town. The cooperative was formed to enable the eradication of poverty in the area amongst its members, we grow and sell food from the farm to support our community” and  “the farm grows corn, cassava, ground nuts and beans all without artificial fertilizers”. “Our area and church do not have the inter-tribal conflicts here even though church members represent many different tribes, they have learned to live together in peace and harmony without tribal clashes”

Our community-based activities ensure that orphans get access to primary education, and they support the disabled, the elderly and widows,” said Pastor Benjamin 

As CDUK has been run by professional volunteers for over 20 years, you know that the money we raise will be spent where it is needed most and not on costly offices and administration.

Church land has been donated to this project and we have enough space to build upto 100 traditional round houses on two sites, potentially resettling up to 600 people.  MORE THAN A DROP IN THE OCEAN!     

 We need to supply tents and/or traditional round houses for accommodation, transportation for buses to collect the refugees from the disaster areas, dig 2 more bore holes on the farm land to make sure it is sufficiently productive to support the new comers.  We need money for sleeping mats, jerry cans, bowls and buckets as well as extra seed, food and clothing.  We will also require funding to run training workshops and to pay for another teacher to educate the children.  The Sudanese are a business minded people however, help will be available where necessary to rebuild thier lives in the area.  

Training workshops will be available for

Agricultural practise

Retail Business

Sewing & Tailoring 

Carpentry

Simple Mechanics

Driving


Education will be available at the local school near the site but we will need to employ an extra teacher.

This will be a rolling programme where resettled people willl be encouraged to recover, find work, accommodation and a new future in the surrounding areas.  The more you are able to give or raise for us the more people we are able to help.

Your urgent assistance is required to support CDUK in alleviating part of this humanitarian catastrophe with our practical sustainable solutions. 

 DONATE NOW ON OUR DONATIONS PAGE -Thank you.

If you wish to hold local fundraising events to support this appeal, we can supply leaflets to assist your effort, get in touch with Ros at compassiondirectuk@gmail.com .  Please spread the word about thios campaign and post it on social media. Whatever you can do will help.

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

– Buddha

Below, video of land waiting to recieve new residents on the first step to making a new home in the area that welcomes them.

 (CDUK are a registered non-denominational UK charity who often work through church groups abroad)


Donate

£25

Donation Amount

GOT NO SPARE CASH BUT WANT TO HELP

18Aug

WAYS TO HELP US WITHOUT SPENDING MONEY

This is a generic blog article you can use for adding blog content / subjects on your website. Edit your Blog articles from the Pages tab by clicking the edit button.

EARTH IS THE HOME WE SHARE  - lead the change!

There are LOADS of ways you can help Compassion Direct without spending any money. 

 Even better, raise cash by recycling.

1.     Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome  don’t just LIKE our page but FOLLOW us please.  When our page was hacked, we lost all our followers & have to rebuild followers so that the algorithms recognise & work with us! We want people to see our posts! 

2.     Knit for Kids in a Syrian camp that we have been sending to for several years, go to our website page www.compassiondirectuk.org 

3.     Make dresses & Bermuda shorts from unwanted pillowcases & bed linen to send to Rwanda, go to our website.www.compassiondirectuk.org 

4.     Play the Giving Lottery on www.thegivingmachine.co.uk  for Compassion Direct UK, £1 a week could win you £25,000. We automatically get a % of your stake paid into our account.

5.      Sign up with Easy Fundraising say you support us & buy on line! Don’t go direct to Amazon, put what you want to buy into your search engine. It’s often cheaper & no delivery charge either! Easy Fundraising has 1000’s of supporter stores., say you support us & they donate to us each time you shop. We get 1-4% of sales & it costs you no more. https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk. 

6.     Hold a garage sale for us!  Get rid of your clutter, clear out some space for a good cause! We can send you leaflets if you need them! Send invitations or put up posters about your sale, have fun helping others! 

7.     Sell or donate unwanted gifts on E-Bay or Gumtree & donate the proceeds. 

8.     Sign up for Pay Role Giving at work if your employer offers a pay role giving scheme such as Give as you Earn. You can donate from your pretax salary & benefit from full income tax relief. 

9.     Throw an office party at work & encourage everyone to contribute. Send round a donation tin to collect for us, maybe your employer will match the donations you collect? 

10.     Hold a fundraising event for us, small or large it all helps.  You can set up a Just Giving page to collect the cash.

10a     Lots more ideas on our fundraising pages

11.      Make a Standing Order to restart a food programme at a jungle school in Rwanda. 

12.     Make a £10 donation by text message, text CDUK to 70191 or £5 to 70970 

YES, I KNOW THE LAST COUPLE OF IDEAS WERE ABOUT MAKING A DONATION BUT YOU KNOW, IF YOU DON’T ASK! LOL.

HAVE YOU HEARD OF MORSBAGS?  They care for the environment by making bags from recycled materials and GIVE THEM AWAY FREE  to save plastic waste and create a little kindness.  To donate fabric please contact them @HarboroughMorsbags@gmail.com f: harboroughmorsbags or nationally at www.morsbags.com .  They make bags that money can't buy. 

Thank you all, tell us about your ideas and send pix of what you do so that we can post it on Facebook and/or our website.  If you need leaflets to promote your event just ask! 

Registered charity No. 1113505 W: www.compassiondirectuk.co.uk T: 07773470384



Read More  

PILLOWCASE DRESSES & BERMUDA SHORTS

Pillowcase Dresses & Bermuda shorts for African children

Pillowcase Dresses & Bermuda shorts for African children

Compassion Direct encourages recycling to conserve the earths depleted resources. . Click on the link to find out more. To send dresses made from unwanted cotton pillowslips and Bermuda shorts for boys from recycled curtain material and bed linen. If you like what we do & want to support our work, you can make a quick donation on your phone, just text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5 or go to our donate pages to give a little more. We can do nothing without your financial support. Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

Learn More

KNIT FOR KIDS IN SYRIA

Knit for kids

Amazing donation of jumpers all from one special lady in Stratford upon Avon

EARTH IS THE HOME WE SHARE - KNITTING GROUPS
All your knitting will be sent by container to a refugee camp in Syria. 

Knitting groups enable you to help others, meet new people & have fun sharing a favorite craft.
A Compassion Direct knitting group makes your experience worthwhile as you get that feeling that comes from helping others, knowing that you are doing something useful. Even if you don’t know the person who is receiving your home made garment, knowing that it is out there in the world is a great feeling.
Joining a knitting group is sociable activity & if you are new to knitting it is a great way to pick up new ideas, share patterns, recycle unwant wool & have someone to help you through any difficult projects or explain a new technique. For knitters of all skill levels, joining a group is a wonderful way to make time for your hobby.
Compassion Direct have sent hand knitting to Ukraine, Palestine, France & Greece.

Follow us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

If you like what we do & want to support our work, you can make a quick donation on your phone, just text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5, or if you can afford to give a little more, go to our donate page.  We can do nothing without your financial support.  Thankyou

Take or post your knitting to Chris who lives in Kineton, near Warwick she collects & packs our shipments.
Faith Cottage
5 Bridge Street
Kineton
Warwick
CV35 OHP
Phone: 07981 667534

Below are a few tips on getting a knitting group started in your area:-

FINDING MEMBERS

  • Send an email or phone friends telling them you want to start a new group & suggesting a time and place to meet up.  Tell them a bit about the work of CDUK and where some of their knitting can be sent if they wish.
  • Not all your knitting has to go to Compassion Direct projects, family and friends are important too.
  • Ask them to ask their friends
  • Post a notice at your local knitting store, the library, church, or community notice board.
  • Write to the community page of your local newspaper
  • Post on your social network site – Face book, My Space or Tweet about it on Twitter
ORGANIZING YOUR GROUP

Knitting for charityKitted out for winter in Ukraine wearing hats & scarf from Warwickshire

  • Pick a date, time and location for a getting to know you meeting
  • Get everyone to introduce themselves & talk a bit about their knitting experience & maybe explain what they would like to get out of the group
  • Maybe have an informal discussion about how you would all like the group to develop
  • How often do you want to meet
  • Where do you want to meet
  • Do you want to rotate at different persons homes
  • Do you want to develop a more formal meeting with talks and demonstrations
  • Have a look on line for free knitting patterns, tips & ideas there is lots out there
  • Ask friends for spare wool, many of us have the odd ball tucked away that we might never need.
WHAT CAN CDUK DO TO HELP

  •  Get updates on our Face book page at www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome please follow us to be kept up to date
  • We can provide leaflets on our work in Europe, South America & Africa.
  • Our Chairman - Ros, can give a zoom talk to your group about our work or you can find out more from our website. www.compassiondirectuk.org
  • Compassion Direct can provide a charity tin so that you can collect small donations from your members at each meeting.  Although we are all volunteers at CDUK we still have to find money for printing, insurance, transportation etc. & for our projects.
  • We can advise you on fundraising events.
Many thanks for caring enough to participate. Ros Grant – Chairman of Trustees. T: 07773470384

FUND A FOOD PROGRAMME

Save 100's of lives give £ 5 a month or what you can afford

                     DONATE £5 A MONTH OR WHATEVER YOU CAN AFFORD TO SAVE 100's OF CHILDRENS LIVES.  

We need at least 100 wonderful people to ask their bank to pay Compassion Direct UK £5 a month  to help us realise our dream of getting 160 children each year educated & out of the cycle of poverty.  

WE URGENTLY NEED TO START THE FOOD PROGRAMME NOT ONLY TO FEED THE CHILDREN BUT THEIR MOTHERS TOO!  MANY MOTHERS  ARE WALKING UP TO 10K 3 TIMES A WEEK TO LEARN TO SEW SO THAT THEY CAN SELL GARMENTS TO FEED THEIR CHILDREN AND THEMSELVES, BUT THEY ARE DROPPING OUT OF TRAINING BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO WEAK TO WALK.  WE NEED TO FEED THEM TOO SO THAT THEY CAN CONTINUE THEIR TRAINING

Help us RESTART A FOOD PROGRAMME AT THE LOCAL CHURCH SCHOOL.  

THE PROGRAMME FOR 160 CHILDREN RAN OUT DURING COVID, MANY WERE ORPHANS WHO DEPENDED ON THE DAILY MEAL FOR SURVIVAL. CDUK WANT TO REINSTATE THE PROGRAMME SO THAT CHILDREN EAT AND GET EDUCATED OUT OF POVERTY.  

WILL YOU HELP US?    While you are reading this children are going hungry and you can help!  Families are trapped in a cycle of poverty & mothers are dying of HIV leaving orphans dependent upon goodwill of other poor people in the villages because there are no orphanages.

YOUR DONATION WILL HELP RENEW THE FOOD PROGRAMME. 

CDUK is run by professional volunteers, the charity has low overheads, around 90% of your donation will feed the children. With Gift Aid we claim tax & add 25% to your donation. Follow us on Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

Ask your bank to make a regular payment to Compassion Direct UK or go to our Donations page to download a Standing Order form to make a donation or you can make a quick donation on your phone, just text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5

Read below to find out more....


Pre-Covid 19 160 children attended school until a USA funded food programme ran out in 2021, now these children starve & receive no education. A free daily meal was a family’s incentive to send children to be educated, it kept children alive & took pressure off the families.

More than 60 of the children attended school free as they were orphans of HIV mothers & depended on the daily meal for life. Since Covid many have died of starvation & there are now more orphans than ever!

Pastor Phillipe ran the school, he told our chairman Ros  “the school closed during Covid 19 & when Bishop Enock died & his link with the USA was lost.  When the food programme ran out, without the vital incentive of a daily meal students drifted away, if we had funds for food, we could restart this valuable opportunity immediately & the children would return to eat and be educated”.


WHY DID THE FOOD PROGRAMME END?

Before Covid 19 in 2020, our chairman Ros, was researching projects & visited this once thriving church School & community centre with Bishop Enock from the Church of God’s People in Kigali. CDUK decided to help with fundamental self-help projects. In late 2020 we funded two Water Harvesting Tanks so that the school did not have to travel 7 miles for clean water. We also pledged to build a sewing workshop to help mothers with HIV learn a trade to support their children. The mothers were dying without work and the means to support their children. (We completed the Sewing Workshop in 2023 and also hope to provide a well for the village.)

COVID STRUCK

Bishop Enock died suddenly at the age of 51 from throat cancer therefore the link with the USA provider was broken & the food programme ended. Gradually pupils drifted away, the school had died & the children starved. The building stands used for Church services, before it was a thriving community hub, so much potential has been lost!

This was the situation that our chairman discovered in 2023 when she visited to equip & inspect the new sewing cooperative workshop, CDUK had funded, built behind the Church for the use of HIV mothers. The Sewing workshop run by volunteers is thriving! In time many lives will be saved. But the church school needs funds to feed their children while mothers learn!


Please help us to help this village with a proven practical project. DONATE £5 A MONTH. Read on to find out why you should donate to CDUK

WHY donate to CDUK?

If CDUK are able to fund a food programme at the Church School we can help to get more than 200 children out of poverty annually. They will grow to be useful members of their society.

BY finding 100 people who care enough to make a standing order of £5 a month we can support this village by educating & feeding their children. What a legacy! You can be part of this and know that you helped a child to learn & contribute to a better global future.

Helping people to help themselves in their native homes discourages the need to emigrate, so your donation can also help in a small way to prevent dangerous boat crossing over the channel.

Imagine the frustration of seeing your children hungry every day & knowing that you are unable to find work to earn & feed your family!

Education provides stability in life, & can never be taken away. By being well-educated you increases chances of a better future in a competitive world & can contribute to family & community.

Education provides financial security, as well as providing essential skills & can take village children & their families out of the circle of poverty. Education promotes equality, social mobility & allows self-dependency.

By joining our Special 100 wonderful people, and making a Standing Order of £5 a month you will help us to realise our dream of getting many children educated & out of the cycle of poverty. Go to our Donations page to download a Standing Order form. 

Thank you for caring enough to wish to help.

SCHOOL ECO FUNDRAISING

Environmentally aware school fundraising teaches pupils to take care of the world on which we all depend whilst having fun and raising money for a good cause.


Students learn more about the big issues that affect us all, develop essential skills that they can transfer to other areas of their lives & the curriculum, consider their own rights & responsibilities, improve their understanding of how charities like CDUK work, build empathy for others & see their actions make a positive difference.

Scroll down to download & print the free pdf file of our fundraising ideas for your school.

A volunteer compiled this guide for us, if you would like to make a quick donation for her work of £5, text CDUK to 70970, thankyou.  If you can afford to give a little more please go to our donate page.  We can do nothing without your financial support. Thankyou.

If you wish to send any ideas for fun school eco fundraising contact Ros on compassiondirectuk@gmail.com

Download FilePDF • 233KB

SEWING STRIPS FOR HIV MOTHERS

SEWING STRIPS FOR HIV MOTHERS imageSEWING STRIPS FOR HIV MOTHERS imageSEWING STRIPS FOR HIV MOTHERS image
SEWING STRIPS -  WE NEED UNWANTED SHEETS, DUVET COVERS & CURTAINS TO HELP WOMEN WITH HIV LEARN TO SEW & MAKE A LIVING,  THEY WILL THEN BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO BUY FOOD TO TAKE WITH THEIR MEDICATION SO THAT THEY LIVE TO TAKE CARE OF TEIR CHILDREN.
THERE ARE NO ORPHANAGES IN THIS RURAL AREA, BUT MANY ORPHANS OF HIV MOTHERS.!
Your support can help to prevent this!

We have more than 200 women with HIV in the village who want to learn to sew but they need to practice & sewing material is too expensive to use. As they have never sewn before they will need plenty of practice before their items are ready for sale.

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Get together with friends & collect unwanted cotton sheets & duvet covers to make Sewing Strips to send to our Rwandan Sewing Project! Organise a coffee morning or small event to help pay for the postage of parcels.

Follow us on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome 

If you like what we do & want to support our work, you can make a quick donation on your phone, just text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5.  If you can afford to give a little more go to our donate page, we can do nothing withpout your financial support. Thank you.


Cut off the hemmed edges of the sheets & the seems & fastening edges of the duvets - they can't be used for practise & are unnecessary weight to post. Please do not send artificial fibres they are not easy to use for practice.

Cut the clean material into  Sewing Strips about a meter wide.

Make up a secure parcel of just under 2 kilos & post to the Church in Kigali - capital of Rwanda. they will deliver parcels to the village where they go once a month. Address below.

Parcels over 2 kilos are considered to be commercial & taxes will be charged or they will not be delivered. When you go to the post office with the parcel you will have to declare the contents. Please declare the items as Sewing Strips so that they are allowed into the country.

STOP PRESS Evri have started send tracked parcels to Rwanda and their method might be cheaper and more reliable than some other methods. Contact Evri parcels on their website.

It would be helpful if you could let Ros know if you decide to send a parcel so that the Church can look forward to the parcel ! compassiondirectuk@gmail.com
It can take some time for parcels to arrive at the post office in Kigali, Rwanda where they have to be collected.  It will help to record the TRACKING number of your parcels in case you need to make an enquiry via the post office or via Ros on the above email or by phone on 07773 470384

 REMEMBER - DECLARE THAT THE CONTENTS ARE SEWING STRIPS FOR EDUCATION.

Send the parcel to
THE CHURCH OF GOD'S PEOPLE IN RWANDA
BP6595
KIGALI
RWANDA

2 Kilos will cost around £20 to post, so, you may wish to hold a coffee morning or other small fundraising event to raise the money for the postage.  If you need leaflets, write to Ros at compassiondirectuk@gmail.com and she will send what you need,  For more information and to keep in touch Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

We strongly advise that you do not post more than 2 boxes at the same time as they may be considered a commercial enterprise.  Please do not send the strips to the charity address as we do not have money in our very tight budget to post your gifts..

PROJECTS

Sustainable mountain school garden

They built their own boarding school & needed grow their own food in order to study or remain living in abject poverty in remote mountain areas.

The Rev. Dr. Alan Cartwright Memorial Project - Mampong, Ghana, Africa

Supporting an aging rural primary school in Ghana, " a project after Alan's heart".

Woman & Child Development Center - Florencia Varella, Argentina

"it is hard living in a shanty town as no one trusts you so you can't get work when they know where you live, people think everyone who lives here is a robber, a thief or violent & dishonest. If you are lucky you can get a job where no one knows you, cleaning rich peoples house far away from us, & then what do we do with our small children?"

Leather & Sewing Workshops

Young people & single mothers learning a trade, living in a shanty town, their tiny income might be all that supports the family.

Aid to Refugees

We have sent enormous quantities of aid to refugees in Ukraine, Greece, Palestine, France & recently focused on Syria

Luz Del Alma - Light of the Soul

" please help us" said a volunteer, " we are feeding 130 children twice a day in the soup kitchen of a shanty town in Espeletta"

Windmills & Water

"Sometimes the chioce was water or food"

Water Harvesting Tanks

When a well runs dry or there is no water there can be other options

3 minute slide show

What we do - in a nutshell

Ghana Water & a School building

A rural mountain school needed water so we sank a well, one thing led to another & we built a new school

SUDAN CRISIS APPEAL FOR SUSTAINABLE FUTURES DO TO OUR DONATIONS PAGE

Compassion Direct UK are raising money through their Christmas appeal to give some Sudanese families a safe and sustainable future.

DONATIONS & STANDING ORDERS

Earth is the home we share

£5

Donation Amount

SHOP & SAVE LIVES

YOU can make a real difference both to CDUK and to the UK economy by SHOPPING ON LINE WITH EASYFUNDRAISING CAN SAVE LIVES &  COST YOU NOTHING EXTRA.  IT'S THE IDEAL WAY TO DONATE TO CHARITY DURING A COST OF LIVING CRISIS.

YOUR SHOPPING CHOICE IS FROM 7000 BIG BRANDS WHO DONATE UP TO 4% TO COMPASSION DIRECT UK. Click the link below to sign up.  You will not receive spam as a result!

You could be helping to feed a child in Africa on a food programme & give them a chance through education to contribute usefully to the world.

You could be helping CDUK to make the lives of the TWA pigmy's who live on the boarders of Rwanda and DCR - Congo, sustainable. they have been driven from their traditional lands to mountains where they can't make a living. We hope to provide them with goats herds and water harvesting tanks.

"EASY FUNDRAISING" DONATES TO US WHEN YOU SHOP ONLINE WITHOUT YOU PAYING A PENNY EXTRA, YOU WILL NOT BE BOTHERED BY JUNK OR HAVE YOUR DATA SHARED.  

REGISTER  WITH EASY FUNDRAISING TO SUPPORT COMPASSION DIRECT UK & ASK YOUR FRIENDS TO SUPPORT US TOO.

Click on the link to sign up to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/cause/compassion-direct-uk/ 

If you like what we do & want to support our work, you can make a quick donation on your phone, just text CDUK to 70970 to donate £5

Shopping with Easy Fundraising wont cost you any extra, takes only a minute to sign up, a popup reminds you automatically when you go to one of the 7000 sites, you just accept, we automatically get a donation when you have finished shopping and you do no more but shop in peace.

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/cause/compassion-direct-uk/ 

Amazon does not support this, they have withdrawn from charitable donations.


CONTACT

  • 5 Skippon's Court, Naseby, Northampton, UK
  • Registered charity number 1113505

We are always glad to hear from our supporters! Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisearthisourhome

REACH OUT TO RWANDA

YOUR SUPPORT WILL PREVENT WOMEN WITH HIV FROM DYING & LEAVING THEIR CHILDREN ORPHANS IN A VILLAGE WITH NO ORPHANAGES WHERE CHILDREN ARE DEPENDENT UPON LUCK FOR SURVIVAL.  MOTHERS NEED WORK TO PROVIDE FOOD TO TAKE WITH THEIR MEDICATION OTHERWISE THEY DIE LEAVING ORPHANS

A donation, fundraising or a Standing Order of £5 a month can help CDUK to provide a food programme at the school to feed 150 children a day with  the only meal they have. 

THE FOOD PROGRAMME FEEDS THE ORPHANS

Your donation  could provide much needed sewing machines so that more women can be taught to sew and make a living to support their children.

In a rural area of Eastern Rwanda in Gatsibo Province is a Church supporting many poor villagers of different faiths including 100's of women with HIV who are dying because they have no food to take with their free medication, Ros - our Chairman, met 70 women during her research visit in March 2020. The women had HIV due to the legacy of the Genocide of 1994.

A Pastor at the Church had formed an HIV support group, the woman told Ros that there were many more women who could not attend nor could their children go to the school as they were too ill to travel & had no decent clothes & were ashamed.

Some of the women who work on the land tried to help the others & said that they saved a tiny amount each week for coffins so that they could be decently buried. This is their immediate future without food or work as they are unable to take their medication without eating, so they know that if they go hungry, they will die very soon & their children will have to fend for themselves.

CDUK were committed to provide a sewing workshop/cooperative for these women so that they are able to make & sell clothes at the market, provide food for themselves &their families & survive.

IN MARCH 2023 CDUK BUILT A SEWING COOPERATIVE AS WE HAD PROMISED BUT we could only afford 4 machines and need 6 more for the 100's of women who want to learn to save their lives and live to support their children.  Can you help?

We run the workshop using solar power to reduce the impact on the environment  &  overhead costs of maintaining the project. We will be planting fruit trees around the building for shade & sustenance. CAN YOU DONATE TO BUY A TREE?

We hope the HIV mothers will not need the coffins so soon as they will be able to eat, take their medication, earn a living & look after their children safely. Please help us to achieve this goal.

In 2020 the Church also hosted a school with a food programme where more than 150 children received a daily meal & often, that was all the children had to eat in a week. At least 60 of the children attended school free because they were orphans or had mothers with HIV, who were unable to get work as no one would work with them & so they & their children went hungry due to lack of income & the mothers soon died leaving orphans.

There are no orphanages in this area and orphans have to depend upon the food programme at the Church or the good will of a poor rural community.

 Go to our page to make a standing order of £5 a month, we only need 100 generous people to start the programme again!

In the summer of 2020 CDUK provided the Church School with two water harvesting tanks to support the Church Food Programme & supply clean water for food preparation & better hygiene. Many thousands of young children a year die as a result of polluted water. Previously the Church collected fresh water in tanks by bike from many miles away for cooking & used rain water from muddy puddles or polluted streams for washing.

CDUK wants to sink a well near the Church for village use by people of all faiths. Currently the only clean water has to be collected & paid for at a government water source seven miles away at approximately the equivalent of one penny per litre

Volunteers have been making dresses for the girls from unwanted pillow cases and Bermuda shorts for the boys from recycled materials, they have held fundraising events to raise the money for postage to the project.  
For more information on dress & shorts patterns & how you can get involved go to our page on Pillowcase Dresses. People are also being asked to donate good quality unwanted duvets & sheets to send out to the sewing workshop as Sewing Strips so that the women who are learning to sew can practice on less expensive materials.  Send them in maximum 2 kilo packs, see separate pages for more details.
Watch a video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ixTGbzjWPP6N250ob13AvgP8H5YC3AOj/view?usp=sharing

VOLUNTEERING WITH CDUK

Raise funds, have fun, meet new people, do something wonderful today

Raise funds, have fun, meet new people, do something wonderful today

"Be the change you want to see in the world" M Ghandi. Giving is not just about making a donation it is about helping to make a difference.

Learn More
Some FUN raising ideas

Some FUN raising ideas

ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE, large or small?

Learn More
Equipement, insurance & how we support you.

Equipement, insurance & how we support you.

The boring but useful stuff! How do we support you?

Learn More
Setting up a Knitting Group

Setting up a Knitting Group

Knitting groups enable you to meet new people & have fun sharing a favorite craft.

Learn More
How do CDUK raise money -can you help?

How do CDUK raise money -can you help?

“No one has ever become poor from giving.” – Anne Frank

Learn More

POLICIES

COMPLAINTS PROCEEDURE

What we can do to help

At CDUK, we treat a complaint as an opportunity to improve our procedures and practices.

Read More  

ENVIRONMENT STATEMENT

We are all responsible for the future of our children

All activities and organisations have some impact upon the environment and CDUK wish to minimise our carbon footprint where possible.

Read More  

FINANCIAL RESERVES POLICY

Rainy Day Fund

financial reserve in line with our current income and expenditure are necessary for the effective working of the charity.

Read More  

VOLUNTEER POLICY

We are all volunteers at CDUK, why not join us

CDUK believe that our fundraising & campaigning work is a partnership between volunteers & trustees. Volunteers make a real, practical, difference to the lives of some of the poorest & most dispossessed peoples in the world.

Read More  

WORKING WITH BUSINESS

CDUK sees a future in which business makes a net positive contribution to the well-being of society and the planet.

RISK ASSESSMENT

“reasonable measures, reasonably applied”.

“reasonable measures, reasonably applied”.

Read More  

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY POLICY

cultural diversity positively enriches our lives so that everyone has an equal contribution to make to our society

cultural diversity positively enriches our lives so that everyone has an equal contribution to make to our society

Read More  

PRIVACY POLICY

Your privacy is important to us.

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies & procedures on the collection, use & disclosure of Your information when You use the Service & tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You. We use Your Personal data to provide and improve our Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Read More  

SAFEGUARDING VULNERABLE ADULTS

Treating people with respect

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Do no harm

SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY A guide for staff/volunteers/trustees on using social media to promote the work of Compassion Direct UK and in a personal capacity This policy will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, at least once a year. CDUK will amend this policy, following consultation, where appropriate. Date of last review: 13/11/2023

Privacy Policy

OUR TRUSTEE TEAM

Ros Grant

Chair of Trustees

Ros is the founder of CDUK and CEO, she believes that we have the power to change the world we live in for the better and is a keen environmentalist.

Chris Cartwright

Trustee

Chris spent time in Africa which inspired her to do all she could to help people to help themselves. She is the main collection point for our Knit for Kids project.

Leandro Ghezzi

Trustee

Leo is Argentinean and has been with CDUK from the start. He advises us on South American culture and translates Spanish for us and updates our policy's, we can't stop him planting trees!.

EARTH IS THE HOME WE SHARE

"Why should I care about supporting children and families abroad, do we not have enough problems of our own in the UK to deal with?"

CDUK's strapline is 'Earth is the Home we Share' this phrase underpins all our work.  

Watch video "why people cross the channel in small boats to get to UK"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1saeEbno7gzUfrqVrdd89KzQX9sX09iu7/view?usp=sharing 

We believe that everyone on this planet is interdependent & that we are all in some way interrelated. We live in a global economy, we eat foods from all over the world, we export & import goods & services; sea & air pollution is blown by winds, spread by tides, climate change & environmental degradation is a global challenge for us all, so in a nut shell.

Global challenges require global solutions, they require educated minds from all over the world to come together to make the vital decisions that are needed to sustainably maintain our planet for future generations.

Imagine that maybe one of the children from one of CDUK's international projects, e.g. the Kyebi Primary School in Ghana which our supporters funded, maybe will become someone who is part of this enormous & vital global decision making process when they are adult? Imagine the goodwill if that child remembers the assistance that was given at an early age by people in the UK who cared, to their school? What goes around comes around!

What is more when the UK aids developing countries it also creates a market for our own economy, do while we are helping others we are also helping ourselves.

We are all aware of the importance of education in the UK, please help us to facilitate education & environmental sustainability at our projects

Please go to our projects page to find out more

HISTORY OF CDUK

HOW CDUK BEGAN WORKING WITH CHILDREN  & COMMUNITIES

In 2002 Ros – our chairman, & founder, visited family in Quilmes, Buenos Aires in Argentina. She was horrified at the poverty & destitution she saw in parts of the city & its environs.

An educationalist – Daniel De Scala, visited Ros & asked for her help as he had heard that she had always worked for charities in the UK. He knew that people in the UK were very generous but that they did not know much about the poverty in South America & the awful economic crash that had occurred in Argentina in 2000/2001 when the AR Peso was devalued by two thirds. Many thousands of people lost their jobs & their homes in the crash & became destitute consequently more shanty towns grew in many areas including Quilmes. They desperately needed help!

Daniel took Ros on a tour of the shanty towns – Villas, surrounding Quilmes. Ros agreed to try to help a Soup kitchen – Comador, that fed 130 destitute children twice a day – Luz Del Alma (Light of the Soul).

Ros wrote to friends, sending photos & asking for a donation of £5. When she returned to the UK some weeks later, she had to open a bank account for the generous donations that had arrived. One thing led to another, fundraising continued, Trustees were recruited & Compassion Direct UK, became registered in 2004 after a generous donation of £500 from Banbury Rotary Club.

Ros had semi-retired from being self-employed for some years after working for The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for many years as a Regional Manager. Shortly before her visit to Argentina she had intended to continue a part time Training business that had been part of her previous PR business. Somehow the training never got started because CDUK took over Ros’s life.

During this time CDUK raised money to build a security wall and gates at the Comador, built a homework room & sewing workshop for children and parents, a store room for dried food & recruited a group of local volunteers to maintain continued assistance & support to this project. As CDUK grew other projects followed &new directions were pursued.

Photos, man going to a stream for water in a shanty town, Argentina, children of mothers with HIV  in Rwanda, who will soon be orphans, children living in a shanty town in winter, Argentina

WANT TO BE A TRUSTEE?

Becoming a Trustee with CDUK will enable you to help some of the poorest & most disadvantaged people in the world.  The opportunity will enable you to participate in life changing work.

Because we are a small organisation, our trustees don't just make policy decisions round a table, we are a hands on organisation, we get down to grass roots & get involved in our local areas when we can.

Depending upon the time we have available & our personal skills, we do PR, admin, IT, applications for funds, plan strategy, or organise fundraising events, etc. working with other volunteers & local groups in the area. Working to our strengths & discussing what works with the chairman, other trustees & relevant volunteers.

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE BEING A TRUSTEE?

Most importantly we agree what time we have available & plan our workload within the time we are able to give. You may only have 1 hour a week available but if you put your mind to it, it is amazing what can be achieved in an hour when working to a plan & within a team. 1 hour or 1 day a week we can find a way to make your time count. But we prefer it if you enjoy what you are doing with CDUK & that you have some fun along the way as well as job satisfaction.

CAN I WORK FROM HOME?

Our team work remotely & meet up on Zoom or Skype etc. & at the AGM once a year. We are too busy doing what needs to be done to call meetings all the time, but we do keep in touch regularly & chat online. Facebook & Twitter keeps us up to date as does the website. This is the new normal.

IS THERE A FINANCIAL LIABILITY IN BEING A TRUSTEE?

The Trustees have a policy of never promising what we can't afford to deliver. That means that if we don't have the cash in the bank we don't do the project. This way Trustees do not have to concern themselves that we might go overdrawn or get into debt for which they might be liable. We just don't do it! Then we can all relax!

We decide what we want to do, raise the money - if we don't already have it, & do the project. Neither do we promise to projects what we can't fulfil.

We prefer that you work with us for a short time as a volunteer before becoming a trustee. Then when you get the feel of the organisation we can talk over where you feel your strengths lie & how we can fit them to a role. All trustees work a minimum 6 months probationary period & while during that time their views will be taken into account they will not be allowed to vote until they have completed their probation. They can still be part of the debate and suggestions for change.
So, if you are interested in joining the team give our chairman a call on 07773470384 or fill in the contact box on this site & we can take it from there. We are all volunteers here at CDUK , join us!