Charity Run

On Friday, March 28, 2008, Kathryn Lland, a long-time supporter of the Trust, ran in the Liverpool half-marathon for the Trust’s benefit. She invited friends and acquaintances to sponsor her by making donations through the Charities Aid Foundation at www.cafonline.org. She completed the run in 2 hours and 8 minutes, and collected more than £875 in sponsorship contributions for the Trust. The pictures below were provided by courtesy of Marathonfoto. The money will go through CNT to one or two schools in the Holy Land, including Ashrafieh, where Kathryn helped as a student teacher in September 2007.

Kathryn at the Liverpool Marathon – photo courtesy of Marathonfoto

Kathryn, sponsored by the CNT, returned to Jifna Parish in July 2009 to assist in the running of their annual summer camp. This extends over the entire month of July and offers around 120 children the opportunity to combine catechism and peace eduction with swimming courses, art, music, sport and handicrafts.

Kathryn at the Liverpool Marathon – photo courtesy of Marathonfoto

Kathryn at the Liverpool Marathon – photo courtesy of Marathonfoto

One family makes a difference for Ajloun school children

Ajlun Signpost

Following an intensive fund-raising campaign by Chris Richards and Margaret Waddingham, when over £25,000 was raised through generous donations from the Lenten Project 2008 by the parishioners of Our Lady of Grace and St Edward in Chiswick, a dream came true for the teachers and pupils of Ajloun School in Jordan. The money raised was used to purchase and install computers with the latest Microsoft software for small businesses. The project recruited the help of Chris’s family and made use of the various talents which enabled them to run the charitable venture through from fund raising to providing and installing these up to date computers. Now, with the very latest technology, Ajloun School Ajloun students with Tony Richards can create a centre of excellence for its pupils and indeed offer support and training to other Schools within the Latin Patriarchate.

Chris, accompanied by his brother Tony, who is a director of the Guildford based company Computer Strategies, and Tony’s two sons Sam and Jo, travelled to Jordan on the 1st November 2008. They set about sourcing chairs and desks for the newly refurbished computer room, installing 12 new computers and its network and finally training both the staff and pupils on the new technology.

Tony, in charge of the technical side of the project, confirmed that the venture was an experience for all involved. He was very impressed at how quickly the children mastered this new software. With the aid of an interpreter, they quickly overcame the language problem, even when training the teachers on the more technical aspects of the software. “This is the first charitable venture our company has undertaken, and we’ve been delighted to offer time, expertise and financial assistance Pupils and teacher using the new computersto this cause.”

Thanks to Chris, Margaret, Tony, Sam and Jo, and their tireless efforts, this school now has a fully refurbished computer room, which has benefited from redecoration, new furniture, curtains and state of the art technology to give the school’s pupils an opportunity to work with up to the minute software in a modern and businesslike environment. The team left Ajloun on the 10th November after attending a surprise banquet provided by the teaching staff who had brought food from home, and just prior to departure they received an emotional ‘thank you’ from all the school’s staff and pupils.
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Jumping for Christian Children in the Holy Land

Tony Ockenden OBE, aged 77, who has been to the Holy Land many times in recent years, said that he had always wanted to do a parachute jump and decided 2005 was the year to get on and do it. His family rallied around sponsoring him for a tandem parachute jump at Hinton Sky Diving Centre, near Brackley, Northants on 14 June, 2005.

Caroline Smith and her (then) fiance, Tom Morris, also jumped with him on a memorable day that raised £5,000 for CNT.  Tony said: “The jump was a truly fantastic experience for me and I feel somewhat guilty to have raised money for an event that was so personally pleasurable. However, as you know, the education of the Christian children in the Holy Land is close to my heart and the Cambridge Nazareth Trust does wonderful work towards that cause. I was particularly grateful that two Head Teachers of Latin Patriarchate schools in Jordan, Sisters Caroline and Lina (below), were able to be present. And to have more than twenty other family and friends around made the day one I shall not forget in a hurry. I do thank everyone most heartily for their donations and I know the Trustees of the CNT are thrilled with the result.”