Hastings Helps Hastings
ROBIN GRAY explains.
The ‘Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link’ has been working since 2003 to improve the lives of the residents of another Hastings over 3,000 miles away, in West Africa. The little town was virtually destroyed during the Rebel War in the 1990s and appealed for help.
SOWING THE SEEDS OF CHANGE
Combined churches in Hastings & St Leonards (known as the LOAF Project) rebuilt thirteen simple bridges, and The Link has continued that work, helping the local people to build a community centre and to extend and refurbish the Health Centre. Perhaps the most amazing development has been the dozen school partnerships which have led to global curriculum work, teacher exchanges and the setting up of ‘school farms’. Starting with a donation of seeds from Battle Horticultural Society, The Link has funded a project that now involves some 30 schools in and around Hastings SL. The children have taken to the theory and practice of raising food with great enthusiasm, and thanks to the country’s warm, wet climate, they proudly produce more than one crop of all kinds of vegetables each year – either to improve school meals or to sell and raise funds for basic school materials.
A group of our teachers has just returned from Hastings SL where they spent their half-term holiday teaching in their partner school. Two members of the group studied the present state of sanitation in the schools, updating a survey that The Link had carried out before the Covid epidemic. We now have a clearer idea of what is needed. A reliable water supply may require a deeper well or borehole, and repairs to a water-pump or the building of a water-tower. Most schools have utterly inadequate sanitation, which has a serious impact on the education of the children, especially girls. This will be a huge and expensive undertaking over time, so The Link’s various fundraisers are vital.
FUNDRAISING FUN
Recently, Sussex Brass gave a wonderful concert in Alexandra Park for The Link, and there was also a highly successful music quiz. The two fundraisers coming up are a cryptic quiz competition and a wine-tasting evening. (The questions for the quiz are easily obtained online at hastingshastings.org.uk or from the Community Information Hub on the side of the Old Town Hall, off Priory Meadow).
This year’s theme is ‘In the Garden’. There are modest cash prizes, but above all, hours of brain-teasing amusement for the family over the Christmas holiday. The wine-tasting evening will be run by wine expert Ted Bacon at St Leonards CEP Academy, Collinswood Drive, St Leonards at 7pm on Saturday 9 December. It’s a fascinating and convivial evening, and we’ll sample wines that Ted suggests might accompany the different stages of a Christmas meal. The evening includes a raffle, a wine auction and a buffet supper. Should be fun.
Details and reservations from [email protected]
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