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How You Can Help

Bridge of Faith Can Help You Recycle!

 

Items we throw out often can make a difference in the lives of people in Africa.  Bridge of Faith collects a variety of such items and ships them to Nigeria for distribution to people in need there.  They include:

 

  • Children’s summer clothes

  • Children’s books

  • School textbooks

  • Sports equipment

  • Totebags

  • Bibles 

  • Bicycles

  • Sewing machines

  • Medical equipment

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Wish List Suggestions

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  • School kits of supplies such as notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, rulers, and paper

  • Used text books, videotapes, audiotapes, and reference books

  • School furniture, such as desks and blackboards, tape players

  • Money to pay teachers and football tournament expenses

  • Sewing machines for a sewing class

  • Equipment for high school chemistry lab

 

With your help, Nigerian teens are learning a marketable skill.  

 

Several years ago, Bridge of Faith, a project of several area UCC congregations, began collecting used sewing machines to send to Awka, Nigeria, for a project there.  Machines donated by several women from the Glen Ridge Congregational Church were among the first collected and shipped.   

 

Getting the sewing machines to Nigeria was only the first step.  Next, the principal and staff of the Ezioka Community Secondary School agreed not only to host the class, but to allow students from other secondary schools to attend, as well.  Then a vacant classroom had to be repaired and painted.  When the class did not begin immediately, the school began to use the room, and the project had to wait until another space was found for those children.  Then, a teacher had to be located and hired.

 

In Nigeria, where markets often have a row of people making or repairing clothes with sewing machines, even used machines are so valuable that the principal feared they would be stolen.  She and other staff members took the sewing machines home at night to keep them safe until the room could be made more secure.

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Finally, in January, the class began, with both boys and girls attending.  Perhaps you can recognize your sewing machine in this photo.  

 

Bridge of Faith continues to send sewing machines so that the class can be expanded and more children served.  To donate sewing machines or funds for this project please contact us.

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