On Wednesday 25 July Christian Aid will be organising a sponsored canoe trip down the River Stour between Sudbury and Bures. Last year five Sudbury people took part in a similar event. If you or anyone you know is interested, the details are here. If canoeing is not for you, perhaps you could sponsor a participant.

The event will be supporting projects in the Middle East to help people disabled by violence. One of Christian Aid’s partners is the YMCA in Bethlehem, which takes on young men and women who have been crippled or traumatised by fighting.

One of their success stories is a young Palestinian man called Muin, who was paralysed from the waist down after being shot by an Israeli soldier. The YMCA has now set him up in business, and he is selling olive-wood carvings to pilgrims. See photos: Muin 1 & Muin 2 .

The European Union will provide quadruple matched funding for sponsorship money.

Christian Aid is running the event in partnership with the River Stour Boating Company. They are providing instructors and two-person (stable) Canadian canoes, so no previous experience of paddling is required.

Boats will set off at 10.30am and we aim to finish by mid-afternoon

To book places, please send £20 per person (cheques to Christian Aid) to Eldred Willey, Senior Regional Co-ordinator, Christian Aid, the Kings Centre, King Street, Norwich NR1 1PH.

Eldred is happy to answer questions about the trip. You can contact him on 01603 620051, 07813 045947, ewilley@christian-aid.org

Download poster , fliers , Lebanon-West-Bank-fact-sheet.pdf , Lebanon-West-Bank-project-information.pdf .

A few photos of last year’s canoe trip are here .