The Hope for Latvia Blog
Emergency Food Aid Distribution
Through the generosity of our supporters we we able to help our Latvian partners Good News Church purchase a refrigerated container to help in the distribution of emergency food aid parcels. These photos were taken at a weekly event where the food parcels are given to the families along with a hot meal.
Holding out for a hero
If you're looking for a fun and creative way to potentially raise funds for Hope for Latvia this could be it!
ITV are launching a new quiz show where the contestants are given the chance to win funding for a small charity of their choice.
why not download their application form to find out more?
We've done it - Thank you.
WE’VE DONE IT! A massive thank you to everyone who donated, spread the world and volunteered to help make the Winter Fundraising Campaign successful. We have surpassed our target of £1,800 and at this point in time have raised £2,015 to help provide emergency food aid to Latvian families.
Latvia is currently experiencing freezing cold temperatures and thousands of families are facing a bleak start to the year. Pastor Tom Rawls recently visited Latvia and sent us this update on the situation out there
“Riga is snowed under. Night time temperatures are falling below -10 degrees and even lower some nights down to -20 degrees. This has complicated life immensely here. Each week a death toll is mounting as mostly the aged are dying because of lack of heating and care. The river running through Riga has frozen over! Snow is mounting up everywhere and people are suffering.
Combined with unemployment and poverty some in Riga are struggling. Those struggling the most are the city’s most vulnerable."
Whilst in Latvia Pastor Tom visited one of the food distribution points that our partners Good News Church facilitate and saw them feed over 530 families. We hope to have more updates and photos to follow in the next week.
Thank you for your help.
BBC Radio Norfolk
John Lee and Phil Temple were recently interviewed by BBC Radio Norfolk about the Winter Fundraising Campaign. Play the mp3 below to see how it went!
Fundraising Champion
Barbara is one of our fantastic volunteers who has been baking for our Winter Fundraising Campaign. Her method is very simple and effective so I have asked her to share it with us below.
I love this time of year – snow on the ground and plenty of festive food to tuck into!
But it’s easy to forget that not everyone is as fortunate as we are. So many people around the world will be cold and hungry this Christmas, and this thought inspires me to raise money for Hope for Latvia.
One way for anyone to make a difference is by doing what I do – get baking! For the cost of a few cheap ingredients you can help raise money and awareness by selling yummy treats at your work or place of study.
Recently I set aside a couple of hours and made chocolate and coconut truffles and glittery star biscuits (with edible glitter – how cool is that?!) It was great fun and afterwards I felt quite proud of what I’d accomplished.
The recipes weren’t particularly fancy or complicated to follow – one came from a supermarket magazine! But the baking went down a storm in my office! I didn’t ask people for a set fee per item, just asked them to donate an amount of their choice, and only if they wanted to.
Normally if people at work are hungry the only option is to go to the vending machine, so I figured given the choice they would probably choose home-baked biscuits over the usual bar of chocolate! And I was right!
As well as raising money, this is also a great opportunity to raise awareness. People buying my treats were shocked to hear about the living conditions of Latvian families, especially as Latvia has EU membership.
I would definitely recommend baking to anyone who wants to help make a difference in Latvia. It’s simple, great fun and you get to eat some great food afterwards – what could be better?!
