Elsewhere in the world

Elsewhere in the world

by

ISLE OF MAN—Businessman Bill Mummery participated in the Castletown New Year’s Day Swim—on the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland—to raise funds for The Salvation Army. As an added bonus, he swam in a Buzz Lightyear outfit.

Mummery raised 12,000 pounds ($23,923).

“The Salvation Army makes an invaluable contribution to our community and I am privileged to be given the opportunity to make a small contribution to their work,” Mummery said.

SCOTLAND—A Salvation Army program that receives used furniture and distributes it to people in need won a national award for its work.

The 40:20 Furniture Project in Perth, Scotland received The President’s Award of the Furniture Re-use Network for the group’s social benefits and environmental record.

AUSTRALIA—The Salvation Army has reported three fires in the past three months at various locations of its Salvo (thrift) Stores. The most recent incident at the store in Yagoona in southwest Sydney caused damages of an estimated $300,000 with little merchandise salvageable.

All three fires happened because people left donations in front of the stores—the goods then caught fire.

On Dec. 9, 2009, a shop at Green Point was badly damaged when a fire started in items dropped in front of the door. Lost goods were valued at $200,000.

On Dec. 11, a store at Queanbeyan incurred smoke damage through a fire started in dumped merchandise outside the facility.

Salvos Stores General Manager Neville Barrett hopes the fires will alert people to the dangers of leaving goods outside the stores rather than bringing them into the building.

In 2008, The Salvation Army spent $5.3 million in dumping costs to remove tons of trash and unusable items left outside its stores.

SINGAPORE—On the first Wednesday of every month, the Bishan Chinese Corps opens the doors to its Corps Community Program—attended faithfully by 80 needy elderly men and women.

At each meeting the corps provides an herbal chicken soup lunch and a bag of groceries to take home to help them through the month. Volunteer nurses perform basic health checks on each guest while corps members share Bible messages and gospel songs.

Throughout the month the volunteers visit the attendees in their homes to help with household tasks and personal needs.

The monthly meetings and home visits are life-sustaining to the seniors as some are too weak to do their own chores and all of them live alone and seldom have visitors.