Gweini Success Stories - Welsh churches bucking the trend

Gweini, the Council of the Christian Voluntary Sector in Wales has completed reports of ten successful voluntary schemes across Wales to increase awareness of the excellent work being carried out.

The representative body, which was founded in 1999 to inform and support voluntary groups in Wales , is highlighting a few of its most successful partners whose work is making a real and positive impact on Welsh lives.

Tony Ford , chief executive of Gweini, which is Welsh for ‘to serve’, said the awareness-raising project is an exciting venture for everyone involved.

He said: “We want to tell as many people as possible, including those in power, how great the work of ordinary people is, people who don’t get paid to help others but do it out of the kindness of their heart.

“We want to raise the profile of their work and highlight the need for ongoing grant funding to ensure these wonderful schemes can survive.

“Like Community Nursing in Risca, Newport , where one woman armed with her own medical training, is giving hundreds of people, including vulnerable older people and poor families from isolated and cut off areas, essential health and nutrition advice and checks.”

Gweini will be following up this press release with an important audit of the cash value of voluntary work in Wales in the New Year.

This significant survey will give the value of the much underrated community works carried out by faith groups, numbering in excess of 3,900.

This audit will be presented to the Welsh Assembly in spring 2008.