Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Poole, Dorset area, recently held their annual Humanitarian Aid Day. This has become a day that the women of the church look forward to, when they can meet informally, renew friendships and share in the joy of serving other people. This year those who attended made brightly coloured education bags for the school age children of refugees settling in this country. Welcome bags were also made which will be handed out to women and their families seeking help at the local Women's Refuge Centre. Additionally, the women busied themselves renovating toys and making quiet books for the Refuge Centre.
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Prior to this aid day, the children of the Church ran a cake stall, and an on-line auction, which raised sufficient funds to buy the items for inclusion in each of the education bags. These items included a picture dictionary, flash cards, a sketch pad, an activity book, pens, crayons, pencils and a tennis ball. The children will get together again in November, at the start of InterFaith week, to fill the bags with the items that were bought. Each child will be asked to donate something small to the pack that he or she fills, so that they sacrifice a little something, in order to make it more meaningful. Invitations have been sent out to parents of other faiths, asking them to bring their children to join in this service project.
The welcome bags for the Women's Refuge were packed with toiletries and personal items that had been donated by the women who attended. The bags will be given to the women on their arrival at the Women’s Refuge. One of the women who was involved in the project said, “It’s just a little gift to let them know that someone loves them and cares about them”. She added, “As women in the church we feel safe and secure. We feel that it is a great privilege to be able to reach out to those people who do not feel the same way. On this day we all felt closer to each other, and to Jesus Christ, as we followed His example of reaching out to others with love”.