Helping one another ...

Croham Hurst Good Neighbours is based in an office in Croham Road Baptist Church.

We are a local neighbourhood care group, a registered charity, whose principal aim is to help those who, through age or infirmity or other needs, are unable to live independently without some support. We do this by running regular shopping buses, providing transport for hospital and doctor's appointments, and offering a befriending service to those living on their own who are lonely. We also provide occasional gardening help. In addition, we organise parties at Easter and Christmas and an annual outing to a place of interest.

The help we give is through our very able group of volunteers. CHGN is one of 29 groups under the umbrella of Croydon Neighbourhood Care Association.

The Floating Shelter is a project shared by a group of Croydon churches to provide overnight accommodation and support to homeless people in the coldest winter months.

The churches take it in turns, one evening each a week, to open their doors to around 15 pre-selected “guests”, offering each guest a hot dinner, bed and breakfast, plus a packed lunch for the following day. The organisers and helpers are all Christian volunteers from the participating churches.

Croham Road Baptist Church has been part of the Shelter project since its start in 2003. The number of churches in the project was originally 7, and is now 20.

Croydon Churches Floating Shelter is a registered charity whose objectives include: “the relief of poverty, hardship and distress among homeless persons residing temporarily or permanently within Croydon or surrounding areas by the provision of shelter, food, clothing support and advice or by such other charitable means as the trustees shall from time to time determine.”

We believe the Shelter is a way of showing God’s love in action. Does it work? Yes. Over the past 5 winters over 500 homeless people have been helped to progress from homelessness to securing their own accommodation.

In 2007 we formed a social action group called "NOT BECAUSE WE'RE NICE". Our mandate is to help our community in anyway we can.

We have painted a 6th form room at a local school, we have done rubbish pick ups in local parks and we have several projects planned for Autumn 2008 including one to provide some much needed sports equipment for a local youth club.

The finances are already in place to bless our local communities so look out for news of the next Saturday project.

The CCAT is a coalition of concerned citizens, faith and community groups in Croydon whose aims are:

1.	To raise awareness in Croydon about human trafficking for sexual exploitation and stimulate action against it.
2.	To work with other agencies to liberate, protect and support trafficked people in Croydon who have been, or are at risk of being sexually exploited.
3.	To stop the activities of human traffickers and those who profit from the local illegal sex trade.
4.	To reduce the use of commercial sexual services, (because they are supplied by Human Trafficking), in Croydon.

For further information see www.theCCAT.com.

Sierra Leone Education and Development (SLED) was founded in February 2005 by Alphonso and Janice Williams. Its aim is to support under-privileged children in Sierra Leone through education.

We raise scholarships through individuals in the UK who sponsor children through their primary and secondary school education. Education in Sierra Leone is not free and, without this help, the parents of these children would not be able to afford to send them to school.

The sponsors make a donation of £50 per child yearly. This money pays for a child’s school fees, uniforms, books, bag, shoes and socks and enables them to attend school.

There are thousands of under privileged children in Sierra Leone whose parents cannot afford to give them basic education, which is why there is a high level of illiteracy in the country. The support offered through SLED provides these children with schooling support, giving them hope for a brighter future.