August 2023: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.

January 2023: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.

January 2023: 2021-22 Accounts online

Our accounts for the year end 31 March 2022 are now available on the Charity Accounts page.

May 2022: Orphans project

We are in urgent need of more donors so we can continue to support 330 orphans.

Since 2017, we have supported orphans from the Beni and Oicha area who have lost their parents in militia attacks. Many of these children have been severely traumatised and need counselling. We help the foster families pay for school fees, school uniforms and materials. We provide a daily meal (beans and rice) for the foster family during the 8-month school year. The children also receive milk, sugar and bread 3 times a week at counselling sessions. The annual costs are just under £100 per child: £31,000 for the 330 children in the project.

We have now received the £31,000 needed for 2022, but need to raise £32,000 for the 2023 school year due to commence in Jan 2023.

Just scan this QR code with your mobile device and it will take you through to our Stewardship giving page for the orphans appeal:

Here is a 4 minute film showing how one of the orphans has already been helped by the project.

February 2021: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.

October 2020: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.

April 2020: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.

November 2019

The latest statistics for Ebola show an encouraging fall in recent weeks. However, the virus is still not completely eradicated.

July 2019: Update from DRC

This is an extract from a letter we received on 26th July from one of our contacts in DRC:

I am hesitant to let you know that again the situation has not been good on our side. I didn’t want to panic you there, but God is in control.

Some killings are taking again place with this delay in forming a responsible government. Sadly Ebola has also come again more drastically, everyday more than 15 new cases around Beni. One of us -a caregiver with the Oicha team- has victims in his family: his younger brother was affected and passed away; four other young people of the family are on treatment. He himself was finally declared positive yesterday and is also at the treatment isolation. He is the one leading the ladies teaching orphans in Oicha, and compiling information. Three of the admitted young are improving and we believe they get well of.

We praise God that none of the orphans have been victim so far.

The schools in the territory of Beni are closing these days beginning of August. We are not yet informed of the time to resume.

In all this, we thank God for His protection knowing that being results of much prayers by the whole Body of Christ.

March 2019

1.Ebola

Since our last newsletter, Ebola has continued to haunt the Beni/Sose area where CME operates. While it has recently hit BBC and USA news, it has now been going on for 9 months and affected daily life in numerous ways. Schools and businesses have been shut and people have been fearful in case they come into contact with those with Ebola. Movement in and out of towns has been subject to temperature checks, washing of hands and shoes.

Fortunately 4 trial vaccines have been used successfully to protect CME staff. In all, nearly 100,000 people in the region have been vaccinated.

Patients have been reluctant to go to hospital in case they have Ebola and are then put in isolation units. Some patients diagnosed with Ebola fled to avoid this, thus potentially spreading the disease.

An area needs to have no new cases of Ebola for 21 days before being declared ‘safe’. Sadly, Beni has nearly reached the time period on several occasions but each time a new case has arisen at the 11th hour.

The latest statistics are: 879 cases recorded; 553 deaths;229 patients still being treated.

2.Security

Added to the threat of Ebola has been the continued activities of militia groups. After a rally in Beni in November, arrests were made in the area and, with the help of the CIA, in Uganda. After that, for a few weeks the violence subsided. However, on 5th February a new attack in Beni resulted in 26 killed one night and residents in that area of the town fleeing.

And then, we heard that on 27th February there was an attack in an Ebola clinic (image to the left of the homepage). It is extremely hard to come up with any sensible explanation for such behaviour.

October 2018: Website Name Change

As charities typically use .org rather than .com, we have migrated the website from www.friendsofcom.com to www.friendsofcme.org. The old address and email will stop working on the 15th November 2018. Please update any bookmarks or address book entries to www.friendsofcme.org and info(at)friendsofcme.org. Please replace (at) with @ in the previous email address.

May 2018: newsletter online

The latest charity newsletter is now available; click here to download it (pdf). If you would like to be on the regular email distribution list please contact us here and provide your full name and email address.