Hertfordshire's Festival Appeal Raises £583,679

The Festival President, the Provincial Grand Master for Herefordshire, Rodney Smallwood, announced at the festival dinner in June that the 2008 Festival for The Freemasons’ Grand Charity has achieved an impressive total of over £580,000.
     The final sum equates to a donation in excess of £900 per Herefordshire member or £25,000 per Lodge during the period of the Festival and was the result of a variety of initiatives including an auction of promises and a walk across Wales.
     The money will help to fund the ongoing work of The Freemasons’ Grand Charity, supporting Freemasons experiencing hardship and their dependants, non-Masonic national charities including hospices and air ambulances and emergency relief work following disasters.

Sri Lanka School for Tsunami-hit Children Opened

A school that will be attended by children affected by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and is partially funded by a major donation from The Freemasons’ Grand Charity, has officially opened in a ceremony attended by Sri Lanka’s First Lady, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, and a number of Sri Lankan government ministers.
     When the tsunami devastated large areas of Sri Lanka, those children who survived were left with virtually nothing. Not only did they lose their homes, friends and family, but their schools were also damaged or destroyed.
     Thanks to the generosity of Freemasons across England and Wales, The Freemasons’ Grand Charity was able to make a contribution of around £200,000 towards the cost of constructing the Ruhunu Vijayabha School in Hambantota, Sri Lanka.
     The school will provide high quality education for 3,000 primary and secondary pupils with priority given to those families and children affected by the tsunami.
     The new 20-acre complex boasts more than 80 classrooms, science labs, libraries, a counselling room, assembly hall, sports facilities and facilities for disabled children.
     The construction is part of a project that has been overseen by Plan (http://www.planuk.org), a leading international community development organisation.
     At the official opening ceremony, schoolchildren welcomed guests, offering them traditional betel leaves and garlands of flowers before putting on a colourful dance display.
     The ceremony took place just three years after the Prime Minister, Hon Mahinda Rajapaksa – now the President – laid the foundation stone that marked the start of this momentous project that will bring valuable long term benefits to the local community.
     Ruhunu Vijayabha School is one of a number of long-term tsunami relief projects funded by Freemasons through a dedicated Relief Chest established to collect donations for victims of the tsunami. Through the Chest, grants of over £850,000 were made to fund initiatives in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, providing a legacy which will benefit communities for many years to come.

For further information on all of the projects funded through the dedicated relief chest, visit http://www.grandcharity.org/pages/tsun ami_relief_activities.html

CONTACT DETAILS

     60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ
     Tel: 020 7395 9261
     Fax: 020 7395 9295
     info@the-grand-charity.org
     www.grandcharity.org