Walk for refugees and others in need of help - please donate

I will be walking around Hebden Royd's parish borders in aid of the St Augustine Centre in Halifax. The chaity helps vulnerable people, particularly asylum seekers and refugees, throughout Calderdale.

 

If you wish to donate, please send details of the amount and your contact details to info@hebdenroyd.org.uk

 

 

The St. Augustine's Centre, based on Hanson Lane in Halifax, is a community centre for anyone who needs help, advice or support. Based on the Christian faith which respects and values individuals, the Centre welcomes the vulnerable and cares for all, regardless of faith, ethnicity, background or any other factors.

For over 40 years the St Augustine Centre has offered a warm and welcoming environment for people to access support and advice from friendly workers and volunteers. When Archbishop John Sentamu of York visited St Augustine’s Centre, he said: “If we could replicated this in every community, the country would be a different nation.”

I wanted to support this marvellous charity but had to delay the walk over the winter because I have a mobility impairment, which gets worse in cold weather. Now it's Spring, I think I'm up to the 20 or so miles around the borders of Hebden Royd if I do it over a couple of days. The fact that the walk will take place over the Easter holidays couldn't be more appropriate because it reminds us of what it says in Matthew's gospel when it states that welcoming strangers is one of the foundation stones of the Christian faith.  Whether you're Christian or not, I think you can still be inspired by the humane values behind the verses, particularly: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me".

 

Hebden Royd is a lovely place, but it's part of a bigger world in which there is a huge humanitarian crisis - there are now more refugees than at any time since world war two, though we only have about 250 in Calderdale. So in walking around our beautiful peaceful area, I shall be paying tribute to people from other places which are not so fortunate, and to those people from around here who are troubled and who find peace in the centre.