The Margaret McEwen Trust
Charity
No:- 1074955
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY UNABLE TO CONSIDER ANY APPLICATIONS FOR GRANTS
FROM ORGANIZATIONS WHO HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY APPLIED TO US AS OUR TRUST IS NOW CLOSING
Email:- admin@margaretmcewentrust.org.uk
This
trust was officially founded on 10th January 1990 by Margaret McEwen MBE to
continue the work of
International Help For Children ,
(press for information on this charity)
International Help for Children was founded in 1947 by Margaret McEwen and John Barclay. As no official record of the charity has ever been made the aim of this website is to document the work both of the MM trust and IHC and to say something of the many remarkable people who were involved with the charity.
The aim of the Trust is to provide relief for children who are in need, hardship or distress wherever they may live, frequently on an individual basis but mediated through a known friend or contact of the organization. It is these people whose own work in their own country has done so much that make the story of the MM Trust and its predecessor International Help for Children, so interesting and thus worthy of this account.
The MM Trust was amalgamated in 2008 with the Little Pond House Trust which was also an integral part of the International help for Children story. Since its first formation the Trust 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.
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 recently but the "Citta" continues to flourish. A special memorial tablet has been erected in mempory 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 Margaret McEwen Trust has after some 35 years has decided to close and is no longer able to make Grants but the website remains as a tribute to the remarkable work of International help for Children and the Boys Town of Modena as well as the various organizations to whom the trust has been giving Grants to in the last 25 years.
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 . With this
in mind they are now working hard to complete their next major building project
.
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 Bogota, 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 8 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 supporting the pantomime service for
children in hospital
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.
Starfish Malawi A Christian organisation seeking to make a difference in education, vocational training, and health awareness Their vision is a just world where every child is educated , health and cared for and they aim to reduce extreme poverty through collaberative work within communities, schools and churches. We have provided support for an orphanage in Malawi.Priors Court Prior's
Court Foundation is a registered non-profit making charity managing a
specialist residential school, young adult provision and a training and
development centre. It aims to support and improve life chances for
young people aged 5-25 who are severely affected by autism.
We have provided Sports equipment.
Clouds of Hope Clouds
of Hope is a children?s care centre in Underberg, South Africa home to
64 children, the youngest now 18 months and the oldest 20. All of the
children come from desperately poverty-stricken
backgrounds, many come from circumstances of unimaginable neglect
and abuse and some have compromised immune systems and all of them have
no-one to care for them and so are legally placed in the care of Clouds
of Hope. It is their aim to reduce the impact of the
current HIV/AIDS pandemic by providing support for children
affected by the virus. We have provided equipment for their
workshop to help children learn a trade and carry out their own repairs
in the orphanage.
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.
Pipal Tree Original;ly 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. Our Trust continues
to support the work directly relating to children.
Return to Author's Home Page
(The pages on this website have been compiled
by Anthony Daniel, Chairman of the MM Trust and associated with IHC since 1957)
