6 minute read
Charity and the Craft
Women in Odisha state take delivery of a food kit
Weathering the storm
As the Delta variant of COVID-19 decimated India, Freemasons donated £50,000 in aid
Providing for your family is a basic human instinct. The urge to make sure the people you love have the food, water, housing and care they need to thrive is not limited by geographical borders but a fundamental feeling shared between loved ones globally.
That is why headlines and photos showing people in India and South Sudan struggling to access medical care and nutrition for their families earlier this year have struck such a chord across the world. As a result, the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity) stepped in to support those worst affected.
In May, densely populated cities in India became ground zero for the outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19. This new wave of the disease swept across the country, decimating healthcare infrastructure and endangering the lives and livelihoods of millions of families. The World Health Organisation estimated that India’s COVID-19 cases accounted for half the cases in the world.
However, thanks to a £50,000 grant from the Freemasons, through the MCF, Plan International has been able to support 1,700 of the most vulnerable Indian families with emergency food parcels.
Similarly, families in South Sudan faced an imminent threat to their food supply earlier this year, with heavy flooding destroying homes, crops, and even lives. As the UN described the resulting food crisis as the ‘worst on record’, the MCF once again partnered with Plan International. On behalf of Freemasonry, the charity gave a £35,000 emergency grant to provide 525 cooking kits to families in Pibor, one of the worstaffected regions of the crisis.
Families in South Sudan receiving cooking kits
These emergency grants come as part of the MCF’s wider work providing relief and supporting recovery efforts in the wake of natural disasters, both at home and overseas. Since the MCF’s inception in 2016, the charity has provided 44 emergency grants to 24 countries, with a total value of £954,401, and continues to be there to support people all over the world who find themselves in need.
Subscribe to the MCF’s mailing list to hear of new emergency grants, as well as updates about its work and impact at www.mcf.org.uk/FMT/subscribe.
More than £300,000 raised by Freemasons to help young people with disabilities take part
More than 30,000 young people with disabilities and special educational needs will be able to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, thanks to a grant of £300,000 from Freemasons.
Freemasons have become a strategic partner of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), funding a new national programme to upskill its team and volunteers. The scheme will also help enrol more schools and clubs to ensure all young people have access to DofE.
To make it possible, the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity) have teamed up to enable the charity to reach at least 30,000 young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by 2024. The ambition is to increase the number of centres, such as schools and youth groups, off ering DofE to young people with SEND, and train hundreds of leaders. These individuals will support groups of young people through their DofE journeys.
At least 15,000 young people will achieve a DofE Award sponsored by the 200,000-strong UGLE, to support the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
Fund gets boost by Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Freemasons
The Duke of Edinburgh Memorial Fund received a major donation of £35,000 – more than 10 per cent of the total fund – from Isaac Newton University Lodge.
The Cambridge-based lodge is primarily for past and present members of Cambridge University and the donation refl ects the 35 years that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh served as the University’s Chancellor. The fund also received a signifi cant contribution of £25,000 from Hertfordshire Freemasons, taking the combined contribution from these two Provincial initiatives alone to £60,000.
Climbing Shepley Bridge Marina as part of the DofE Award
SUPPORTING THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH MEMORIAL FUND
•Send a cheque made payable to the Masonic Charitable Foundation to Duke of Edinburgh Memorial Fund, MCF, 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ. • Transfer funds from a lodge Relief Chest to: The Duke of Edinburgh Memorial Fund Relief Chest No. DOE2021. • Lodges and individuals can also support the fund using JustGiving: mcf.org.uk/FMT/DofE or by scanning the QR code with a smartphone.
Eight noughts reached
We’re proud to announce that Freemasons have donated more than £100 million since 2016
The Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity) is thrilled to announce it has given over £100 million in grants, on behalf of Freemasonry, since its establishment in 2016.
‘This incredible milestone, fully funded by Freemasons, has helped thousands of disadvantaged individuals, families and communities across England, Wales and overseas whose lives have been changed for the better by Freemasonry,’ said Les Hutchinson, Chief Executive of the MCF.
‘The MCF would like to thank all its dedicated supporters – from volunteers, fundraisers and regular donors, to those who tell others about its work. Every act of help has meant vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our communities are being supported through life’s challenges. Thank you!’
See how you can help the MCF build better lives on behalf of Freemasonry. Visit www.mcf.org.uk/FMT/support
Helping kids get back to school
Empowering charities supporting children and young people in their quest for learning
The past 18 months have been tough for everyone, but school-age children have been particularly aff ected by the turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both government and charity reports have stressed that repeated stop-starts in children’s face-to-face education have not only chipped away at academic progress, but increased rates of mental ill health caused by social isolation.
The COVID-19 crisis has jeopardised the development of many young people, but has come at an even greater cost to students from lower-income families and disadvantaged backgrounds, who have seen the academic attainment gap between themselves and their peers widen dramatically in the past year-and-a-half.
However, thanks to the generosity of Freemasons and their families, the Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF, the Freemasons’ charity) has been able to take signifi cant steps towards empowering local and national charities to tackle the problem.
Since the pandemic began, the MCF has awarded 84 grants totalling £2,648,772 to charities supporting children and young people. Many of these focus on mental health and education.
With a new academic year just begun, the MCF is continuing to team up with charities all over the UK to help children in their return to formal education.
Supported by a £15,000 grant, Quest for Learning, in Berkshire, is one of the charities assisting children and young people to get the most out of their education during this diffi cult time.
With the MCF’s funding, they are able to run literacy and numeracy programmes for around 500 vulnerable pupils, and help compensate for the disruptions to their learning over the past months. This will support those students who may struggle more when returning to the classroom full time.
Other charities are also working hard to ensure children have access to the mental
health support they need to feel ready for their fi rst full school year in the classroom. Long periods of social isolation from family members and friends has caused as many as one in four children to experience a mental health issue. This is a problem that Young Minds – a children’s charity that the MCF supported with a grant of £85,000 – has said is likely to endure long after the pandemic is over. Young Minds is working hard to break down barriers young people face when accessing mental health support, and is equipping schools with the knowledge necessary to support pupils in need.
Find out more about the MCF’s support for children and young people, as well as their wider impact in your local area at
