The Margaret McEwen Trust
Formerly Charity
No:- 1074955 - now closed
Email:- admin@margaretmcewentrust.org.uk
This trust which was founded in 1989 is no longer active but was originally created on 10th January 1990 by Margaret McEwen MBE to continue the work of International Help for Children which was founded in 1947 by Margaret along with John Barclay. The aim of this website is to provide an account of the work done by IHC and the Trust since their formation . International help for Children was set up to provide relief for children who were in need, hardship or distress wherever they lived, frequently on an individual basis but mediated through a known friend or contact of the organization. In addition IHC brought children over for holidays from areas of great poverty in several European countries notable France and Italy and Germany where many of the children were refugees from the East European countries behind the Iron Curtain. In the 1950s through to the 1980s thsre were up to 40 local committees all over Britain hosting a needy child for a holiday in a British family for periods of up to 8 weeks. Eventually the scheme lapsed as conditions in Europe improved more and more women were in full time employment and unable to host guests for long periods. The Margaret McEwen trust took over the funds of IHC and has continued to help very many projects in countries all over the world and it is these people whose own work in their own country has done so much that make the story of both organizations so interesting.
International Help For
Children
(Biographies and stories about this former charity can be found on this link)
Amongst the children who came were some from the town of Modena which after the war had seen a big influx of southern Italians to work in the tile factories and other industries. How this connection came about was through the post war generosity of British prisoners of war who had been helped to escape by the people of Modena.
During the last war Major Peter Lewis, M.C. a British Army Officer who had been captured in Italy, was being transported to the nearest camp when the train conveying him fortuitously stopped at Modena. By a remarkable chance, with the help of a signalman and members of the Italian Resistance Movement, he managed to escape here. It was this same man who in 1956 introduced I.H.C. to Monsignor Mario Rocchi and the "Boys' Town" of Modena. Monsignor Rocchi and his colleague, Don Monari, had been involved in the Italian Resistance and had saved many British lives. It was their ambition to form in Modena, when the war ended, somewhere to enable children of poor families to obtain technical training in various subjects. In fact Don Monari was caught and executed by a Nazi firing squad, but Monsignor Rocchi with the support of some of the British Officers whose lives he had saved, founded the "Citta dei Ragazzi". To-day the "Citta" offers a free training to over four hundred boys who could not normally get such education. There are facilities for learning to repair cars and televisions, to weld, to engineer, and so on. Sadly Mario Rocchi died in 2016 but the "Citta" continues to flourish. A special memorial tablet has been erected in memory of him in Modena while at the present time in memory of his extraordinary bravery it is hoped that Don Monari may be granted Sainthood. International help for Children through its voluntary run Local Committees arranged holidays in various towns in England for the boys for nearly 30 years and it was Don Mario who introduced IHC to Mario Borelli and his work in Naples.
Major
Lewis has wrtten an extraordinary account of his escape from prison in
Italy which was published in the now defunct American Magazine
"Everybody's". Please follow the links below to read these
articles:-
Part 1 - The Inspiring Story behind Boys' Town
Part 4 Over the Frontier to Freedom
THE CLOSING GRANTS OF THE MARGARET MCEWEN TRUST
The
MM Trust was formed in 1989 when it became apparent that the
International Help for Children holiday scheme was no longer viable.
Increased prosperity in Europe coupled with increased
numbers of working wives meant that it was both impractical and less
necessary. Needy children had been invited to stay for 6 week
holidays with private families in, at its peak, 40 local committees in
towns all over the country. In 2008 the Trust was amalgamated with
the Little Pond House Trust which was also an integral part of the
International help for Children story. Since its first
formationt the Trust had supported the work of Jeremy Watkins Pitchford
who
lived in Nairobi and arranged medical treatment and operations for
Kenyan children who could not afford to get treatment in any other
way. He sadly died in 2016 but a poem of thanks was sent to
us by one
of the children he helped and this is reproduced on this link.
Pipal Tree Originally called ChoraChori a Nepali word for children it started as a charity rescuing Nepal's displaced and trafficked children from India. However the work has greatly expanded and they are transforming marginalised rural communities in Nepal by improving access to schools and skills, especially for girls and women, and also, crucially, underpinning the work by addressing the climate crisis, on the one hand planting strategic forests as flood barriers and building disaster preparedness, on the other seizing the opportunity to create rapid social change through ecosystem rewilding, enabling. We are very honoured that a plaque has been put up in forest for which we donated money to in memory of Margaret McEwen. This can be found on their website:- https://www.pipaltree.org.uk/remembering-margaret-mcewen-in-kathmandu/
Please
note that the remaining links quoted below on the Organizations
following are not live and have been taken from google search and
included for your guidance only.
Future Hope (Calcutta)* Future Hope was set up many years' ago to provide a
home, education medical aid and opportunity to some of the children of Kolkata
who found themselves living on the streets of the city. These children suffer
extreme poverty and have little or no ability to change their lives.
Every night children sleep alone on the streets and around the city's main
stations. More than anything they need the love and security of a home.
Future Hope now runs six homes where more than 200 former street children live
and enjoy life. The work of Future Hope extends beyond our homes
and they also run a school with over 150 pupils studying from Kindergarten to
Class 10. Their school takes in not only the children of Future
Hope but also those from the surrounding slum communities. They
have also built a small community development on the outskirts of Kolkata. This
allows those who have found jobs to take on a small home and develop independent
life skills in a safe environment close to their friends. Sport,
and rugby in particular, has always played a major role in Future Hope and it
is through sport that they have been able to develop discipline and a sense of
purpose in many of our children. Children of Future Hope have played at the
highest level winning national honours representing India in Rugby .
Website:- https://www.futurehope.net/
Children Change Colombia* Formerly
Children
of the Andes ( now CCC) is a UK registered charity that provides support to
Colombia's most vulnerable children by working in partnership with
local
NGOs. CCC was established in 1991 to support children
living on the
streets and in the sewers of Bogot?, following a documentary by the
British
film-maker Desmond Wilcox. Children Change Colombia
is based in London and Bogota with Project Officers working in in
various parts of Colombia. They work exclusively with Colombian
organisations to keep children safe, defend children's rights,
and strengthen the organisations themselves. They aim to bring
about real and long lasting change in children's lives and believe that
this can be accomplished by supporting local organisations who
truly understand the needs of the children they work with, and have the
experience to be able to find effective solutions. They
are committed to working with the children that need them most and in
areas that that are neglected by other organisations. They
currently support partners in various areas including education,
community, and family as well as tackling issues of sexual violence and
forced recruitment into and demobilisation from armed groups.
Website:- https://childrenchangecolombia.org
Children's Hospice South West- Little Bridge House, Little
Harbour and Charlton Farm* All the children
who use the Hospices will have Life Limiting, or Life Threatening Conditions,
which mean that they are not expected to live into adulthood. Some families may
use the hospice for many years, from the time the child is first diagnosed, they may come for planned respite, or for
emergency care, depending on their needs and the support that the family
request. A child may be referred by anyone who knows the family,
all that is asked is that the family are aware of
the referral being made on their behalf. The immediate or extended
family may
refer themselves, and each referral is carefully
considered. Both
Little Bridge House and Charlton Farm have 8 child-friendly rooms, and
plenty
of accommodation for parents and the rest of the family, the aim has
been to
keep the feel of the hospice as a "Home from Home". In preparing for
a child coming to stay the bedroom will be made welcoming with some of
their favourite
books, DVD's and toys. The Care Teams at both Hospices are
a mix of
people from different professions and with a wide range of experience
and
expertise. The staffing levels allow the team to work with individual
children
and to plan the day to follow the child's normal routine and care at
home.
In total the three hospices are looking after nearly 400
children. The MM Trust was originally
supporting Burrswood Nursing Home in Groombridge who used to offer
convalescence to children that International Help for
Children brought over for special medical treatment, but
as recorded above IHC ceased to exist and Burrswood no longer
offered special facilities for children so it was decided to choose
a hospice caring for children and this one was selected because of the
wide geographical area it covered and its excellent facilities
and innovative planning. Website:- https://www.chsw.org.uk
AfriKids* AfriKids are a child
rights organisation working in the two poorest regions of Ghana, and having a
demonstrable impact on the reduction of poverty and improving the lives of
vulnerable people. Since 2002, they have had over 920,000 beneficiaries,
predominantly children. AfriKids? approach is
innovative, with projects designed to tackle complex cultural and social issues
infringing on children?s lives, such as early and forced marriage and child
labour. Operation Smiles is a project in Nakuuabi, a
very isolated and rural village in the Northern Region of Ghana, where child
marriage, teen pregnancy and maternal mortality is high. The project is
designed to offer intensive support for babies and an appropriate carer.
Operation Smiles supports babies who have been abandoned or orphaned, or those
who have been ostracised from the community with their mothers. Nutritious food
and medical care are provided, and carers are educated in parenting and life
skills. This high-level care typically lasts from 3-6 months, at which point
adult and baby move back to the community, often with a microfinance loan to
ensure they have the financial means to care for the child. The project
continues to monitor the beneficiaries for a further 12 months, and to this day
it has saved over 75 babies from death. Weebsite:- https://afrikids.org
Dream Holidays* Elaine Tozer-Sanders, who herself has a daughter with CF, has undertaken
voluntary work for Cystic Fibrosis since 1978. After finding out about a
specialised holiday camp in Canada for CF Children, she
managed to raise sufficient funds to send nineteen CF children on
holiday to Canada that year. Over the next 7 years, the Holiday Fund sent
groups of CF children away on holiday not only to Canada but to Disney Land and
Disney World in the USA. Those unable to make the long journey to the USA,
were sent to France and centres in the UK. This was very
successful until the early 90's when a new lung infection began
to affect CF patients and group holidays were considered to be a
problem
regarding cross infection within the CF community. Unfortunately, all
CF group
holidays were banned in the USA and Canada and were discouraged within
the
UK. After much consternation, Elaine then decided to discontinue
arranging group holidays and to concentrate on sending families away on
holiday
encompassing those children too ill to have been included on group
holidays.
Dream Holidays was then set up in 1993 to send families away as a
whole. This
has proven to be a great success and is much safer health wise, as CF
children
are not coming into close contact with each other. During
2004,
Elaine was instrumental in setting up a further Charity (Dream
Connection) to
grant ?wishes? to those children who are too ill to undertake a family
holiday.
At present nearly 200 families are being given holidays in
the UK. Website:- https://www.cfdreamholidays.co.uk/
Playaway* The
Charity provides relief and care for children with special needs by means of a
holiday or any other such charitable means as the Charity may from time to time
determine. Website:- http://playawaychildren.co.uk/
Starlight* Starlight
Children's Foundation brightens the lives of seriously and terminally
ill children by granting their wishes and providing hospital
entertainment to help take their minds off the pain, fear and isolation
of their illness.
When Starlight began in
1987, they helped just 4 children; this year, they will help over
500,000 children all over the UK. Where possible, mums, dads, brothers
and sisters are involved to strengthen family bonds at what is often a
time of great stress and give everyone happy memories to share, no
matter what the future may hold. Starlight receives neither Government
nor Lottery support. If Starlight had just one wish itself,
it would be that cures could be found for all the terrible illnesses
that can afflict children. Until then, they will continue to provide
important medicines of another sort: excitement, fun and
laughter. The MM Trust is upporting the pantomime service for
children in hospital. Website:- https://www.starlight.org.uk/
Contact* For
families with disabled children. Across the UK, a child is
diagnosed with a severe disability every 25 minutes. Although some
children need hospital care, 98% of disabled children live at home with
a parent or other family member who may not have expected to be in this
position but who has quickly had to become an expert. When
parents find out that their child is disabled they feel isolated and
alone because usually they don't know anyone else facing the same
problems. They want contact with another family who've been through a
similar experience and they want information about their child's
disability. Contact a Family is the only UK-wide
charity providing advice, information and support to the parents of all
disabled children - no matter what their disability or health
condition. They also enable parents to get in contact with other
families, both on a local and national basis. Each year they reach at
least 275,000 families.
Website:- https://contact.org.uk/
Disability Africa Disability
Africa has beens working since 2011 with disabled children and young people, their
families and local organisations in The Gambia, Zambia and Kenya to
create inclusive communities, to develop practical, sustainable, and
effective ways to tackle exclusion. where no-one is left behind. Many
negative traditional beliefs exist about disability and d ue
to ignorance and a lack of understanding, disabled people are often
seen as being non-human. This means that they are among the
poorest and most disenfranchised people. They are isolated in
their own homes and frequently go without education, medical care,
social interaction. The MM Trust has provided money for a
physiotherapist.
Website:- https://www.disability-africa.org/
Return to Author's Home Page
(The pages on this website have been compiled
by Anthony Daniel, Former Chair of the MM Trust and associated with IHC since 1957)
