Charity & Community

Sussex Snippets Turning Tides, in partnership with Brighton Women’s Centre and Safe in Sussex, have successfully secured a Tampon Tax funding grant. This will help support women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in areas across West Sussex. www.turning-tides.org.uk Aldingbourne Trust WorkAid team won the Employee/ Team of the Year award at Arun Business Partnership Awards on 15th November at the Hilton Avisford Park Hotel, The WorkAid team work across West Sussex helping people with learning disabilities and/or autism spectrum conditions into work. For more details see: www.aldingbournetrust.org/workaid The Bright Horizons Foundation for Children opened two new Bright Spaces for Sussex Police on 21 November. The Bright Spaces are located in two Victim Suites in Sussex police stations. Victims and witnesses across Sussex are now able to give evidence in a safe and secure environment without having to travel a long way or have to face their perpetrators in court. The Home of Rolls-Royce was recently honoured to become the stage for a fundraising evening for The Sussex Snowdrop Trust. Over 100 guests gathered at the Goodwood site in aid of this Walberton based charity, which provides nursing care at home for children who have a life-threatening or terminal illness, and offers emotional and financial support for their families. www.thesussexsnowdroptrust.com CLIC Sargent supports children and young people with cancer. Volunteers are needed to help with events in 2020; they are looking for help with bucket collections taking place across Sussex for World Cancer Day, 1 –4 February. Also for longer term volunteers to help with collection tins, events and raising awareness in the local community. Please email Rose at rose.bailey@clicsargent.org.uk. Volunteers are joining Sussex Police to support victims of fraud. 23 volunteers will work with officers to contact local individuals and businesses who have recently reported scams to Action Fraud. They will be offering tailored prevention advice on areas such as telephone/mobile phone scams, identity theft and online hacking. They will also signpost victims to Safe Space Sussex for free access to local support services. A major new initiative has launched to plant 5,000 trees across the South Downs National Park. Coinciding with National Tree Week in November. “Trees for the Downs” will aim to restore trees that have been lost due to pests and diseases, including Ash Dieback and Dutch Elm Disease. The South Downs National Park Trust, the official charity for the National Park, is now aiming to raise £61,500 to plant the trees. www.southdowns.gov.uk Ditchling Museum, King Edward VII Sanatorium in Easebourne, The Riverside House in Lewes, Nithurst

Farm in Upperton and Easebourne Community Space, near Midhurst all won awards at the South Downs National Park's first Design Awards. These awards recognise outstanding design projects in the first decade of the National Park. www.southdowns.gov.uk Bee Lines campaign which aims to restore flower-rich habitats for pollinators in the South Downs has now raised more than £27,000. The latest fundraising boost has come from Forest Holidays, which gave just over £9,400. Midhurst Rother College pupils also raised funds recently. The campaign is aiming to raise £75,000 to help farmers and other landowners create new wildflower corridors –essentially a “road system” for insects –that will link habitats and encourage pollination. Mark.Rose@southdowns.gov.uk Arrests of children in Sussex have been reduced by 69% in eight years, research published by the Howard League for Penal Reform revealed. Research has shown that each contact a child has with the criminal justice system drags them deeper into it, leading to more crime. 100 solar panels from a Sussex school are looking for a new home. If you know of a good use for them email: hello@ovesco.co.uk and write up to 200 words on how you would use them. The panels will be gifted to a not-for-profit project or if you want to buy the panels for commercial reasons, a donation to the OVESCO Sunny Solar Schools project will be requested. Applications by 31st January. Charity/community notices to: info@sussexlocal.net

20 Charity & Community

Charity Trips - Zambia... Lillian Kennedy, a Hurst pupil from Storrington writes: “Having received financial aid to enable me to attend 6th form at Hurst College, I study History, Spanish and Drama at A level and enjoy lots of sport. One of Hurst's previous pupils, Cameron James Forster, was tragically killed, aged 21, so his estate was generously donated to build an orphanage and nursery school for the children of Mkushi, Zambia. The project has been supported for a number of years by lower 6th formers who visit the orphanage and a charity run school, to assist with the building projects and to connect with the children. The Itala Foundation Charity school provides a free education for over 1000 orphans and vulnerable pupils, in just 6 basic classrooms. Attending school has given the children some hope of a fulfilled future and now, with the orphanage open, they have somewhere secure to live but the project still has a lot to achieve. In July 2020 another group of lower 6th formers have signed up to go to Mkushi and I hope to be one of them. I am proud to be able to continue Hurst's association with this project and hope, that by giving some of my time and energy, it will continue to deliver what is needed for this community. For me to take part I have to fundraise £2800 and have been working hard to do so. I already work part time in a cafe on a

Sunday so will be raising some of the funds myself. I recently organised a Christmas Fundraising Fair in Storrington which helped towards my target; however, the cost for the trip is high so any further donations will help me to meet that target and take part in this trip, for which I thank you. When we arrive at the village we expect to learn how to make bricks in the local tradition for the building projects including providing an additional classroom and a perimeter wall. In addition our group will also be sharing language skills with the children. I will face some challenges myself as our group will be responsible for pumping and carrying our own water for showers, drinking and cooking, buying supplies for our meals, cooking and cleaning for the group. We will be sleeping on the floor in small traditional mudhuts without any electricity, which will mean we are out of our comfort zones. I hope my contribution to the children's daily lives will be meaningful even though it is only for a short time, but I know that unless I do something, nothing changes or improves for them”. www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lillian-kennedy www.facebook.com/Camsorphanageproject www.italafoundation.com ...and the Great Wall of China Storrington resident Steve Whyley is helping blind and visually impaired people and supporting two charities in his 5-day trek of the famous Great Wall of China next year. The trip is organised by the company “Traveleyes” www.traveleyesinternational.com which is an award winning company providing independent group travel for people who are blind or partially sighted. As a sighted traveller, Steve will walk with a different visually impaired person each day, helping them with the challenges the walk brings, and sharing his sight by describing the world around him. For this charity challenge trip, Steve is also raising money for two charities that he is involved with in West Sussex. The first of these is Remap, which helps disabled people achieve independence and a better quality of life by designing and making bespoke equipment for their individual needs. . The second is Cardiomyopathy UK for people affected by cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. There are several different types of cardiomyopathy, which affects people of all ages. www.cardiomyopathy.org www.remap.org.uk www.justgiving.com/teams/Steve-Whyley

through the door

Charity & Community 21

Choir leader needed Ashington’s choir, Village Voices is looking for a choir leader, with keyboard skills, to take over from Graham who will be leaving in 2020. His replacement should come with a diverse selection of songs from the Shows, some Standards, together with songs ranging from Elvis to Abba through to modern day. Village Voices is a fun community choir embracing all singing abilities, genders and ages. We meet two Tuesday evenings a month and run throughout the year. This is a paid position, which does not involve admin for the choir leader, and if you would like further information please contact Di Clarke, by email on: diann.clarke@outlook.com or 01903 893156. Share your views on crime In order to plan and implement key priorities, Horsham District Council is asking residents for their views on crime and disorder in the district. A short survey has been created including topics such as how safe you feel;· whether you have been a victim of a crime; what you feel are the main causes of crime. The deadline is Sunday 16th February and all completed surveys will be entered into a prize draw for a £100 gift card that can be spent in local shops. www.horsham.gov.uk/crime-surveyor or a paper version is available by calling 01403 215173 or email communitysafety@horsham.gov.uk

Notices to info@sussexlocal.net. - events to www.sussexlocal.net Ashington Youth Club clean up The November rain didn’t stop 18 young people from Ashington Youth Club going out to improve their community by doing an organised litter pick. When Horsham District Council’s Neighbourhood Wardens for Ashington, Christina Arnold and Bryony Sparks, attended the youth club they asked the young people: “If you could run any community project to improve your village what would it be?” It was decided that a community litter pick was a great place to start. The young people of Ashington Youth Club organised the whole event, from designing and distributed posters to get the village on board, deciding what routes they would take to ensure they collected most of the litter and doing the actual litter pick. Storrington Conservation Society The work party on 21st November was at Foxmead Court clearing and tidying up in and around the pond. Our work party was at Fryern Dell on 7th December, clearing self-seeded trees around the pond. The work party on 4th January at 10am gives the opportunity to overcome some of the Christmas excess by continuing the restoration of the Lower Dell. All are invited www.storringtonconservation.org.uk