New Guild Partner Projects Unveiled

Lynne McNeil reports on the six new three-year projects adopted by the Church of Scotland Guild.

Six new partner projects, including charities which work to tackle eating disorders and adoption and an initiative to develop sustainable chocolate production in South East Asia, have been unveiled by the Church of Scotland Guild.

The Guild, which works in partnership with six projects in a three-year fundraising drive, announced the new funding partners at a special launch in April.

Announcing the new projects, Guild General Secretary Iain Whyte said: “One of the most enjoyable, exciting yet challenging tasks in Guild life is the choice of new project partners, which happens every three years.

“Every time, we receive a huge range of applications from groups doing wonderful work both at home in Scotland and around the world.

“This latest selection process was no different and it is a real, God-given privilege to be able to be part of the choosing and frustrating that we can’t help more of these amazing people as they strive to serve.

“I am sure that we have chosen well and that the Guild’s members will learn a lot about a range of work and that they will, as ever, support that work prayerfully over the next three years.”

The new project partners are:

• The Vine Trust – the Kazunzu Village of Hope in Tanzania, which aims to develop a sustainable community including homes, a school and a health centre with foster parents offering homes to four or five children and developing self-sustainability through agriculture, market gardening, fish farming and the development of a transport business
• BEAT – There is Hope, a project which will  help develop a network of young ambassadors who will work in schools, colleges and universities but who will also work with Church congregations, Boys’ Brigade, Girls’ Brigade and school chaplains to raise awareness of the impact of eating disorders and encourage people to seek help.
• Home for Good – a small charity focussing on fostering and adoption which seeks to move vulnerable children, fostering and adoption onto the agenda of churches across Scotland, help churches develop support for fostered and adopted children and find homes for a number of fostered or adopted children.
• Pioneers – Spice Island Chocolate Project, which aims to support the production of sustainable chocolate production in south east Asia, ensuring farmers receive fair prices, providing regular employment for workers and enabling more parents to provide key support for their children.
• UNIDA – Brazil -‘Faith in the Future’, a project designed to empower young women through theological education. ‘Faith in the Future’ aims to provide access to accredited theological education for young women through special scholarships, equipping young women for leadership and offering mentoring opportunities through accompaniment and work placements.
• Starchild Uganda, which hopes to build a centre for children with a range of learning disabilities (including autism) in Uganda to allow children to learn alongside peers. The project also seeks to tackle stigma and educate community leaders.

The Guild raised over £520,000 for its six previous partners  between 2018 and 2021 - the Boys’ Brigade’s intergenerational project focussing on IT; Journeying together, a partnership between the Guild and the World Mission council, which helped teenage mothers in Zambia living in poverty; Malawi Fruits, a charity which helped young people to farm cash crops and to irrigate using solar-powered pumps; Seema’s Project, which was launched to protect street children in Pune, India who are vulnerable to being trafficked; Join Up the Dots, a new partnership between CrossReach (the Church’s Social Care Council) and the Guild, which tackled loneliness and isolation, and the Sailors’ Society, which aims to place a chaplain in every port in Scotland to give spiritual and practical support to merchant seamen who are often far from home. 

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