Mission Direct - Volunteers helping the world's poor

Press Release Date    27 June 2007

HOLYPORT MAN ON A MISSION

27 June 2007

Press  Release

HOLYPORT MAN ON A MISSION

Ronnie Fleming is a man on a mission. A committed Christian and member of Jubilee Community Church in Maidenhead he is the operations director working for the international poverty relief charity Mission Direct. He is travelling next week to Brazil with two staff volunteers to begin the construction of new homes for favela (slum) dwellers. The two staff volunteers will stay in the town of Campo Largo in the south of Brazil for 15 weeks and will host over 20 UK volunteers who will travel there over the summer. Mission Direct recruits self-financing volunteers to help some of the poorest people in the world.

Maidenhead MP, Theresa May, is Mission Direct’s patron and an enthusiastic supporter of their work. “Mission Direct provides practical ways of rehabilitating some of the world’s poorest people to help them get a foothold in society. Crucially it works with local people helping them to achieve what they need so everything they do is of real benefit to the people they are helping. Volunteering for two weeks is one of the most effective ways of engaging with the individual people who need support and providing them with tangible benefits. As a Christian charity, it not only builds homes but also brings a sense of dignity and compassion to rebuild people’s lives. I am passionate about their work,” she said.

“We ask people to give up their two week annual holiday and go and work on one of our projects,” said Ronnie. “This is a new project and country for us and we hope to build nine houses this year. The volunteers pay all their own expenses and raise money to pay for all the building materials as well. We don’t ask people to have specialist building skills as we work with master builders who direct all of our volunteers on site. This means that just about anyone can work on a Mission Direct project. We call this ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things.”

Ronnie travelled to Brazil earlier this year to assess if this was a project that Mission Direct could help with. “I met with our partners on this project, the President of the national Brazilian Charity ABBA Promocao Social, Arno Pauls and the Mayor of Campo Largo, Edson Basso to agree what could be done. When I met the Mayor, I took with me a letter of greeting and a copy of the Borough’s Coat of Arms from our Mayor, Cllr. Margaret Cubley. He was delighted to receive such a gift.”

Ronnie lives in Holyport, with his wife Mary and their two children Andrew 13 and Katie 11. Before getting involved in international development aid work, he was employed by Runnymede Borough Council as their Head of Leisure Services. After volunteering to work in Sierra Leone with a team from Jubilee Community Church in 2004, he was asked if he would be willing to help form a new UK charity to carry on with this work. “I jumped at the opportunity,” he said. “As a group of friends we sat round the kitchen table and formed Mission Direct.” Since then he’s led teams of volunteers to work in Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic and after the Boxing Day tsunami, Sri Lanka. Mission Direct also works in Uganda and Cambodia.

The charity is seeking self-funding volunteers to spend two weeks in Brazil this summer. Ronnie explained, “As well as our building project we will also be taking aid supplies to various local children’s charities and care homes. We see this as an important part of our work while we are there. We also like to finish our trips by visiting some of the local tourist attractions to help the volunteers unwind before returning to the UK. In Brazil we are fortunate to be working quite close to the world heritage site, the waterfalls at Foz do Iguacu.

If you would like to volunteer or donate to the projects, contact Ronnie at Mission Direct on 01582 720056 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

No skills required - just enthusiasm!!

For dates and an application form go to the Mission Direct website, www.missiondirect.org

For an interview with Ronnie, or more press information, contact:

Ronnie : mobile: 07754 068086

Home : 01628 673368

Office: 01582 720056

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Registered charity number: 1107824

 

Press Release

 

Date    2^nd April 2008                          for immediate issue

 

Leeds teenagers challenge MPs to make a difference to the world's poor

 

Theresa May MP and Lord McKenzie of Luton have invited teenagers from an inner city estate in Leeds to share their experience of Christmas 2007 in Sierra Leone with MPs, church leaders and city business people next month, at a special event in Westminster on Wednesday 2^nd April 2008.

 

The teenagers were part of a group of 10 young people from the city who spent seven months raising the funds to travel out to one of the poorest countries in the world to work alongside street kids to help make a safe home for them in Freetown.

 

Leeds Youth Phocus International  took up an invitation from the Christian charity Mission Direct to have their lives changed by spending time with children trapped in poverty on the other side of the world.

 

Youth worker, Jo Sunderland said: "If you were given the opportunity to spend Christmas in the developing world, building a home for street kids and kids trapped in prostitution, would you take it? These young people from some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Leeds rose to this challenge. They formed Leeds Youth Phocus and secured over £20,000 in funds and went to spend their Christmas in the poorest country in the world. They all have an amazing story to tell about how it changed their lives."

 

The special event, at Portcullis House, House of Commons, Westminster, at 12noon, will include a multi media presentation (beginning at 1230) by the young people with more information on other projects being run by Mission Direct across the world. Julian Foster of Chapter Two also presents Cambodia with a set of professional photographs and music to give a flavour of what Mission Direct does in the field.

 

In response to today's social climate of ‘giving back' and people wanting to make a difference Mission Direct ( an interdenominational Christian charity) was formed in 2004 to make a significant contribution in alleviating poverty in the world. It operates by sending teams of volunteers mostly from churches across UK, for up to two weeks, offering groups and individuals the chance to use their holiday time for good, while at the same time providing opportunities for personal and spiritual development.

 

Mission Direct is presently represented at Spring Harvest, and will be exhibiting at New Wine, Soul Survivor and Greenbelt in 2008.

 

Ends

For further information and an invitation card contact Ben Cohen at the Mission Direct office on 01582 720056