Home sweet Home. Review on Nchafc.Uk

I enter dozens of competitions a week and one question that I am regularly asked is do you support a charity? if so which one? my answer to this has always had something to do with children and any charity that involves children, the main one for me is always the NCH. I spent ten very sad years of my life in several children's homes so any charity that proclaims to improve and protect the life of a child gets my vote. NCH was founded in 1869 by a Methodist Minister as a children's home that would give a safe refuge for any homeless children. Over a hundred and thirty years of support for thousands of children and their families. Family breakdown is one of the major causes of concern for the NCH, but by family breakdown I don't mean a split up of the family due to the lack of love or abuse, quite the opposite really, it is caused from the pressure on some young children who have been put in a position as a carer. Not only have these children to worry about going to school they also have the added worry of having to care for a sick or a disabled parent. Their homework everyday is their housework which is cleaning, cooking, fetching and carrying. The stress and strain that these children have on their shoulders from trying to keep their family together is something that the NCH are well aware of and have the young carers projects set up to show these children that they are not alone and forgotten.

These projects are set up to let these children know that there is support for them from others that have been or still are in the same situation. They find hundreds of children foster families each year, and they are registered as an adoption agency. Over the last ten years NCH has helped improve the professional understanding of sexual abuse, and have funded centres that offer support to the sexually abused children. They have a children's rights service, for those children in care, that helps them to speak out about anything that effects their lives. In 1960 my three sisters and me were put into a home, we were all kept together only until another more suitable placing could be found. Why? I still don't know but after a couple of weeks my two younger sisters were taken to live with a Methodist Minister and my oldest sister was taken in by a local girls home. This in turn meant that not only had they split us up but they had cut us off from all our friends from where we lived and from our schools too. What I am getting at is that then, in those days, keeping the family together was not as important as it is today. NCH provide smaller and more specialized residential homes. They provide places for children with severe learning difficulties and physical disabilities and can offer a great deal more by way of specialist therapy and medical support. For my sisters and me, well it was five more years before we were all back together. The NCH is involved with many projects and campaigns which include homelessness, youth crime, children's education, child poverty, social exclusion and many many more.

They do work in partnership with other agencies, organizations, trusts and local authorities and have at times been asked to advise government. Giving support to the NCH is easy and can be done in several different ways, giving money would be a good start and it can be done on-line, or you could get one of their collection boxes, you could even arrange to leave some in your will. They rely on voluntary support and need in excess of £20 million every year.They are very proud to boast that for every £1 given 90p is spent directly on children.

Another way to help is by volunteering in one of their hundreds of projects, such as organizing house and street collections, fundraising or volunteering to work in one of the many shops they have. Supporter Helpline is 0845 762 6579 open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. Or you can write to:- NCH ND9111/1, Supporter Care/RG, 85 Highbury Park, London N5 1UD Tel :-020 7704 7000 Fax :-020 7226 2537 NCH Cymru, St Davids Court, 68a Cowbridge Rd, East Cardiff CF11 9DN Tel :-029 2022 2127 Fax :-029 2922 9952 NCH Scotland, 17 Newton Place, Glasgow G3 7PY Tel :-014 1332 4041 Fax :-014 1332 7002 Cedric the Dragon is NCH's lovable mascot and is used in youth fundraising projects in Primary Schools.Just go to:- https://scuf.co.uk/