Page 38 - Phonebox Magazine February 2008

To Africa with Love by Geoff Bacchus
From my very first encounter with the people of Olney I found myself among people giving aid and other assistance to the suffering peoples of Africa. The sisters at St Joseph’s Convent in West Street provide support to their convent in Nigeria. That convent provides for its people much as our monasteries did before the reformation; it cares for orphans, there is a school and there are clinics, it is indeed the local welfare provider.
Just about a year later I found a leaflet originating from the Anglicans of St Peter’s and St Paul’s and in just about no time I was one of a splendid group helping some of the people of Sierra Leone as they purposefully sought to repair their lives after ten year’s of civil war. It was this activity which first carried me into Africa.
Today Sierra Leone and Nigeria still have their problems, but both are able to show some recovery. To-day another of Africa’s people are in deep trouble. Whenever the interests of ordinary people and their politicians diverge it is always the ordinary people who do the suffering. I am not writing to review the present quarrel in Kenya but simply to remind you that right here in the middle of Olney we have a charity already working among some of Kenya’s most disadvantaged people.
ADVANTAGE AFRICA are asking for urgent funds to help supply a community right in the
middle of the fiercest conflict
in Kenya. They are publishing their own appeal and I sincerely hope we will all read it carefully. The generosity of people here in North Bucks
has long been about my greatest reason for loving the place so very much
ADVANTAGE AFRICA’s office is at 26a Market Place* and very convenient to our Thursday market. Spare a few minutes to drop in there and meet Andrew Betts, the director and his staff as I have. Allow yourself a few minutes to look, to listen and to learn. Then act and pray. GB
*or phone 01234 711005, e-mail Andrew.betts@advantageafrica.org
see page 70
NCPS member Tony Crabtree was awarded a Highly Commended Certificate for his image of Liza which has been on public display at Aylesbury.
Visit our website for club and programme information at www.newcityps.co.uk
To see more of Tony’s work visit his website at www.tonycrabtree.co.uk
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38 Phonebox Magazine
Andrew Betts
New City Photographic Society