£7,890.79 was raised by Community Choir and its supporters in 2016
Autumn 2016 ~ Edinburgh Direct Aid ~ £2,423.51 raised
www.edinburghdirectaid.org
This term brought yet more astonishing generosity from our choir members and wider community of friends, colleagues, family and supporters. The singer who nominated EDA also collected a substantial amount of toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks, pencils, pens, crayons, erasers and more from Community Choir members, which were re-distributed by EDA.
Edinburgh Direct Aid is an all-volunteer charity that helps people caught up in disasters worldwide. Starting with aid convoys to Bosnia during the war in 1992-1995, EDA has since worked in Kashmir, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Gaza and the West Bank. EDA’s main efforts at present are directed to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, providing not only aid goods donated in Scotland and beyond, but also helping them to build a more normal life by providing school buildings, materials and vocational training for young adults in the refugee camps at Arsal, a town 20km from the Syrian border which is home to 70,000 Syrians.
Summer 2016 ~ Health in Mind ~ £3,607.38
www.health-in-mind.org.uk
During this term, 5 fearless members of our choir and our accompanist Dave went above and beyond to raise over £2,000 by taking part in an abseil from the Forth Rail Bridge!
Health in Mind is a Scottish mental health and wellbeing charity based in Edinburgh. It provides a unique mixture of services, from information, training, counselling and cognitive behavioural therapies, through to befriending and trauma support. The charity’s work focuses on some of the most excluded and vulnerable people in our society, including people from ethnic minority communities, older people, survivors of abuse and those at risk of homelessness. One of Health in Mind’s services in Edinburgh is ‘Community Connecting’ which supports people over the age of 65 who are feeling lonely and isolated by matching them with a volunteer. This service helps them to rebuild confidence and connections with their local community, develop friendships and rediscover who they are. To find out more about this service please see their video below.
Spring 2016 ~ Mercy Corps ~ £1,859.90 raised
www.mercycorps.org.uk
Mercy Corps is a 4,000-strong global organisation powered by the belief that a better world is possible. It helps people survive and get back on their feet when natural disaster strikes, economies collapse or conflict erupts, and where there are chronic threats to peace and progress it partners with communities to overcome obstacles and help them thrive. Mercy Corps workers live and work in more than 40 countries facing the world’s toughest challenges, working without political or religious agendas. For more than 3 decades, they have worked for and alongside more than 170 million individuals, being guided by them to ensure their specific needs are met, empowering people to recover from crisis, build better lives and transform their communities.