On Wednesday 25 July 2012, Christian Aid organised a sponsored canoe trip down the River Stour. All ten people arrived safely in Bures after paddling from Sudbury on a warm sunny day.

So far £1265 has been raised, and the good news is that the European Union will provide quadruple matched funding for sponsorship money, bringing the total to over £5,000.

Among the participants was Rev John Boardman, Minister at St John’s Methodist Church in Sudbury. See http://www.justgiving.com/John-Boardman1 .

The event was to support 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 .

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

For more information contact Eldred Willey, Senior Regional Co-ordinator, Christian Aid, the Kings Centre, King Street, Norwich NR1 1PH, 01603 620051, ewilley@christian-aid.org .

See also Lebanon-West-Bank-fact-sheet.pdf , Lebanon-West-Bank-project-information.pdf .