local community, local life ...............
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Lochwinnoch Arts Festival Future Events
Lochwinnoch International Aid and Fairtrade News
The Swings - Outdoor Performance
March 8th was International Women’s day. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. We felt it appropriate to mark the day with a donation of £200 to Womankind, an international charity focussed on ending violence against women and girls, advancing women’s economic rights and strengthening women’s political participation and leadership.
Come and enter our world and playground of The Swings. A giant swing set, 5m high and 2 swings, with 2 aerial artists who use the Swings as their aerial apparatus to fly high and appear throughout the day. The Swings will be open at various times for anyone to come and join in. Feel the rush of air pass your face, as you swing higher and higher. An interactive event for all the family. If restrictions allow we’ll be in Lochwinnoch in 2021, fingers crossed!
Outdoor Art Installation at Castle Semple The ethos of the village and the work of the Arts Festival is a natural “fit” with Renfrewshire Council’s Great Place scheme. The scheme aims to promote an area’s heritage and culture, and to develop suitable places as “cultural destinations”. Lochwinnoch Arts Festival Committee, Castle Semple County Park and Sustrans have partnered up to ensure that Lochwinnoch stays firmly on the map as a popular and memorable visitor attraction. Working with the community we will be commissioning and delivering a new sustainable outdoor art installation at Castle Semple. To keep up to date with what’s happening go to: facebook.com/ groups/LochinnowchArtsFestival
Kilbarchan NWR We continue to meet via Zoom on Tuesday and Friday afternoons at 2.30pm with a full programme of interesting topics, many lighthearted. We enjoyed our own speaker on Charles Darwin, with members of local groups joining us. The National Organiser has arranged a great variety of speakers each Thursday evening and a fortnight of events towards the end of April. If you would like to find out more about the national group, please visit the website: www.nwr.org.uk or for information about joining the Kilbarchan group, please telephone Fiona on 01505 348627.
Kilbarchan Parish Church At the time of going to print, the timescale for easing of Covid restrictions was fluid, with some prospects of an accelerated return to the “tiered” system. We intend to resume worship in church when Renfrewshire moves to tier 3 and hope that this may provide the opportunity to conduct services during Holy Week. The restrictions mean that numbers able to attend will be limited and those intending to worship will need to use the booking system. Full details will be posted on our website: www.kilbarchankirk.org Our regular Sunday Reflections will continue and can be found via our website, on our Facebook page and on Youtube. You can also access the Reflections by telephone on 01505 805893.
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Womankind (https://www.womankind.org.uk/) is currently working with its partners in a number of African countries and in Nepal. In Ethiopia for example they are working to end the most prevalent forms of violence against women and girls including child marriage, female genital mutilation and domestic abuse. In Nepal they are working to address caste based discrimination. Lower caste Dalit women for example experience more violence and discrimination than women of other castes. Quoting from their website £100 could help provide a marginalised woman in Nepal with funding to start her own Business. £55 could contribute to training a teacher on how to protect the rights of young female students. On Tuesday 20th April we will be hosting a talk by Aron Eales of Strathclyde University. He will be sharing his experiences of work to provide small scale solar PV systems in Malawi. You can register for the talk by visiting the Lochwinnoch International Aid & Fairtrade Facebook page. During the recent Fairtrade fortnight a range of online events took place. One event which a number of us attended was a coffee tasting experience. Samples were sent out beforehand and we were able to savour the coffee whilst watching a coffee tasting demonstration and also an interview with the producer. The coffee was from the Sholi co-operative in Rwanda. One message that came through strongly was the importance of the Fairtrade guaranteed minimum price. Coffee prices fluctuate markedly on the international markets and the guaranteed minimum means that small farmers can weather the troughs. One of our members, Mary Alice also posted a cookery demonstration on our Facebook page. She conjured up a delicious kedgeree incorporating Fairtrade Kilombero rice from Malawi. Our 90 kilo Kilombero rice challenge continues and bags are still available in the Heritage Farmers Market at £3.75 per kg. Alternatively you can ring the number below. We are still unable to resume any fundraising events but we continue to receive money via our regular monthly subscription scheme and we are always ready to welcome new members. Individual donations are also welcome. Get in touch through lochintaid@gmail.com or telephone 07702 544868.
01/04/2021 15:00:31
