Projects
Current Projects
Family Sponsorship
This project provides regular support to poor families who are vulnerable and living in abject poverty. Wherever possible the project is designed to help the families become self-sufficient over time so that we do not create unnecessary dependencies. The money is used to buy food, clothes, shoes; or to help pay for such necessities as electricity, gas and water. Sometimes the money will be used to pay for medicine or other health related items; educational materials for school children; it is also used to help with the cost of building / repairing the family home.
The cost of family sponsorship is from £25 per month. We supply you with an information pack about the family, their situation and the country in which they live etc. We encourage you to write to them and for them to write to you. If you would like to send extra-gifts e.g. for birthdays, Christmas or for a particular need, then this is possible.
Social Canteen
The social canteen began in December 2004 with 20 beneficiaries and initially one meal was provided every fortnight. In March 2004 we began to provide one meal per week.
In December 2009 more than 40 beneficiaries were arriving for each meal and the decision
was made to expand the social canteen to 2 days per week so that the number of beneficiaries could be increased. The extra day will start in March subject to funds being available.
The meal is held in a local school (which is given freely by the local authority) and is overseen by the Hope Baptist Church in Draganesti-Olt, Southern Romania.
Chicken Run - Giddy Goat Easter Project
Since 2002 we have been running an appeal to raise money to buy live chickens and/or fresh eggs for poor families in Romania. The chickens and eggs are given to each family as an Easter gift.
Each year we have added another aspect to the appeal and we now also supply cows, goats and pigs to enable families to begin to help themselves.
Our 2009 Appeal raised over £1500 - thank you very much for your help. We have been able to provide goats, livestock, food parcels and hot meals for very needy, poor people.
Church and Pastor Support
We promote and support the work of churches and their pastors, especially in developing countries such as Uganda, Romania and India etc. Very often pastors struggle to provide for their families because they have such a small salary, or sometimes no salary at all. Frequently they have to take another job to pay for their basic needs. We believe that this is a bad situation for them, their church and the area in which they are serving, because they cannot focus on their main responsibilities.
Gwen Sugg Educational Scholarship Programme
Very often children from poor families lack the means to pay for higher education (course fees, materials etc) and are forced to go out to work to support their family. This means that they not only miss out on vital education but lose the opportunity to train and develop skills which would allow them to find better paid employment. This in turn reinforces the cycle of poverty.
Hope for the Future believes that education is an important way to break the cycle of poverty and support young people who have the ability and desire to attend university or technical college etc.
The cost of sponsoring someone through their university education is on average £25 per month.
Orphans and Widows
We have developed some projects to help support orphans and widows in several countries. For orphans we cover the cost of educational materials, clothes and food and for the widows we cover the daily essentials such as food, clothes, medicines etc.
In India we have a programme to support widows and orphans with their day-to-day needs.
Mission, Evangelism and Outreach
We are actively involved in a range of mission and outreach work and support a number of projects directly and indirectly. For example, we organise teams of people to run missions alongside local churches; we supply bibles and Christian literature and support the different ministries of a number of churches such as youth work, worship and local evangelistic activities.
Since 2004, we have been taking teams from England to either run a mission with a local church in Draganesti-Olt, Romania or to oversee the Summer Camp. We also sponsored an evangelistic mission / respite care holiday for a group of deaf Russian children who were injured in a fire at their school.
We are taking a small team to Romania in August 2010 for the annual summer camp.
Micro-business
Hope for the Future actively encourages and supports people who wish to develop micro-business schemes. These schemes are designed to help poor people become self-sufficient and improve the quality of their lives.
In South Africa we are supporting the “Chicken Grower” project. The purpose of this is to raise chickens and to both the eggs and chickens at local markets and other outlets. The money provides an income and also re-investment funds to expand the project.
Other projects include the production of embroidery, crocheted items and other art & craft materials. These items are sold locally in the particular country and also here in England. The monies are used to provide a small income for the people and also provide funds to help continue the production of these items.