Northern Ireland sewing machines bound for Malawi and Tanzania

During  the last  few  weeks,  Newcastle  Lions  Club along  with  five other  Northern  Ireland Clubs, Banbridge ,Limavady, Newry, Downpatrick  and  Antrim  Coast held  a recycling day for  tools  and  sewing  machines.  The day  was  a great  success and  numerous  sewing  machines  and  tools were donated  by  the  public. The  Lions  then brought these to Belfast  and Downpatrick  based Tools For Solidarity, where  they  were  serviced and  the  tools  then  made  into kits.

Having  now  achieved   the  requested  number of  sewing  machines and tools,  TFS, arranged  a container  lorry  to load the  sewing  machines into, and also  the  tool kits. Volunteers  from  TFS   dusted off  passports and  then travelled with the donations to Malawi and  Tanzania. When they  arrived  at  the  TFS  training  schools in  Africa, over  a period  of  the next  three months they will teach a group of students how to use the  sewing  machines.  To help finance  the  training  school, the students  purchase the  sewing  machines. The  money  paid  for the machines goes  back into the  training  school to pay  for  electricity  and staff costs. It promotes empowerment through skills training rather than dependency and  helps  the  environment  by  reducing  waste.

Following  on  from their  recycling  day, Newcastle Lions  President  Beth Cairnduff  is asking  the public  to support a pub quiz, which  the Lions  are holding on  Thursday 16th  April  at  9pm in the  Anchor  bar Newcastle in  aid  of  Dementia  N.I.

Some of  the  recent  Northern  Ireland sewing  machines  being  loaded for  Africa.