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A Place of Welcome

“I can remember holding up banners outside the Norwich County Hall”, says Jenny Holcombe. Jenny has been a Mothers’ Union member for about 35 years. In 2014, Norwich MU joined with other charities and faith organizations in a campaign for Norwich to be a City of Sanctuary, promoting a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers. ‘The organizations we were working with signed a petition for the County Council to make good their promise to the government to take 50 families from the Syrian refugee camps,’ explains Jenny. ‘We were actually saying, we can do better than that!’.

Mothers' Union Supports Youth Work in Seacroft

Through the Pandemic, Mothers’ Union have continued to actively support their surrounding communities in the best way they are able. Many members helped make PPE for front line workers and hearts to be placed with people ill in isolation with an identical one given to the next of kin.

With everyone now expected to wear masks in public, Mothers’ Union members have made face masks,and these were sold by Mary Sumner House to raise funds. With the part of the profits returned to the Diocese of Leeds, the trustees decided to use the money to improve the lives of young people.

Love in Action

This wasn’t how I’d planned; this wasn’t how it was meant to happen. I had a birth plan, and this wasn’t it! Today had started as planned; I’d got the train from home in Portsmouth to Worthing to see my aunt Minty. Yes, I’d had niggling pains, but didn’t everyone get those? Baby wasn’t due for 4 weeks, so why in the middle of lunch did I flood her kitchen! What followed was an ambulance, and a hospital I’d never set foot in, and Minty telling me everything was going to be alright, and she’d get hold of Peter. That was hours ago.

Cyclone Idai

The cyclone traumatised whole communities, with many people displaced by flooding, losing their homes and livelihoods. Mothers’ Union has so often been the first point of call when disaster strikes because we are uniquely embedded in communities to provide ongoing support and to continue journeying with those affected as they seek to heal, recover and rebuild.

Committed to prison work

We’re so excited that this October Mothers’ Union will, for the first time, be a sponsor of Prisons Week. We’ll have the opportunity to share more about the valuable work that Mothers’ Union members do across the spectrum of need around prisons and to ask churches to pray for prisoners, their families, prison staff, victims of crime and all those in the justice system. 

Mothers' Union Committed to Caring for Prisoners and their Families

Mothers’ Union members work with prisoners and their families, helping them to stay together during the toughest times. This support includes literacy training and parenting education. In the UK, members run family support days and crèches in visitor centres, provide books so prisoners and their young relatives can share positive experiences, at Christmas they send Christmas cards to prisoners and gifts to their children. 

Reaching out to Refugees

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) there are 68.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. This includes 40 million internally displaced people and 25.4 million refugees. Of these, 2.4 million are from South Sudan and Uganda hosts 1.4 million of them. As both South Sudan and Uganda have large Mothers’ Union memberships this is of particular concern for us.

No More Hidden in Plain Sight

More than 200 years after the abolition of the slave trade there are still an estimated 40.3 million men, women and children trapped in modern slavery. An estimated 136,000 potential victims are in the UK, with the National Crime Agency recording 1,608 potential victims in London alone in 2017. Often hidden in plain sight in cities, towns, villages, they are exploited because of mental illness, drug or alcohol dependence, debt, homelessness or immigration status.

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