ALMA, which means “soul” in Portuguese, helps develop friendships between Anglican churches and communities in Angola, London and Mozambique and it is for this cause that we aim to raise £2,000 during this Lent period.

ALMA supports children, schools, training, link officers, community work (HIV/AIDS and malaria) and church development. In London it facilitates parish representatives, parish twinning. We, at SMWSA, are twinned with St Maria Madalena at Pemba/Chiure, which has a prayer house in Chiure, Chimoio and Naharunga. There are also three twin schools. This is a particularly poor area, constantly struggling with severe droughts, leading to crop failure and not enough food for people, or cattle.

ALMA facilitates skills-sharing in management, water, sewing, computers and training, and has led a campaign for debt reduction, trade justice and improved health care. This year the Bishop of London has chosen ALMA as his Lent Appeal ‘Sowing Seeds for Tomorrow in Angola and Mozambique’.

More information is available at http://www.almalink.org/ and in this leaflet.

Progress in reaching the £2,000 target

A lunch was held on 5 March in St Mary's Parish Hall to raise awareness of the projects and attract much-needed funds to help in our link area; to build a church training hub with accommodation for the huge Lurio region, to be used for training locally ordained priests, lay readers, Mother’s Union and fieldworkers.

An impressive £1,161 was raised, increasing our running total to £1,251 and representing a huge step towards achieving the target.

There are three ways to donate:

  • Use our yellow parish gift aid envelopes and write ‘Lent Appeal’ on the top of the envelope.
  • Cheques made payable to ‘Church of St Mary with St Alban'.
  • Bank transfer to the Church of St Mary with St Alban. A/c No. 80221546, Sort Code: 20:46:73, and quote LENT APPEAL.

Thank you