Our chosen charity for 2022 is Faith in Action.  Their mission is to help local people by running a Drop-in which welcomes and supports homeless and vulnerably-housed people in and around Merton. For more information please visit  http://www.mertonfaithinaction.org/

  Our members also bring in donations for Wimbledon Foodbank to our monthly meetings.

As we were unable to hold events, fund raise etc., during 2020 for Stem4 we have chosen to have them again as our local charity for 2021

stem4 is a charity that promotes positive mental health in teenagers and those who support them including their families and carers, education professionals, as well as school nurses and GPs through the provision of mental health education, resilience strategies and early intervention.  This is primarily provided digitally through innovative education programmes, pioneering mental health apps, clinically-informed website and mental health conferences that contribute to helping young people and those around them flourish.

Jigsaw4u is a well-established and respected SW London based Children’s charity, working with children and young people affected by significant social and emotional issues and bereavement. Jigsaw4u has a remarkable breadth and depth of services and over the last year has reached 4000 children young people and their families.

Our chosen charity for 2018 is Carers Support Merton.
Their work includes working with families to improve Young Carers lives in the following areas:
Understanding their caring role
Reducing feelings of isolation
Improving emotional well being
Making healthy decisions

Our local charity for 2017 is St. Raphael’s Hospice
“St Raphael’s offers the special skills of Hospice care to those facing life-threatening illness living in the boroughs of Merton and Sutton (predominantly Wimbledon, Merton, Sutton and Cheam). The service is completely free of charge, and provides high quality medical and nursing skills, as well as support to family and friends. St Raphael’s fully recognises and respects cultural, ethnic and religious differences and patients of all faiths or none, are welcome at St Raphael’s.”

Wimbledon Foodbank and Women’s Refuge
We also make collections for Foodbank and Women’s Refuge at our monthly meetings and many of our members volunteer with collecting and sorting.

Our chosen charity of the year is Home Start Merton

Home-Start Merton has been supporting families in Merton since 1993 and offers free support, friendship and practical help to families with at least one child under eleven. Families are visited regularly in their own homes by volunteers, who have all had experience of parenting, and know how hard it can sometimes be.

Volunteers support families facing a variety of difficulties including :

Julia recently delivered all this hard work by the craft group.

“Imagine a World where every little girl owned at least one dress! What if that dress was made by you?”

Dress a Girl Around the World is a charity set up in America with the aim of sending dresses to girls living in poverty across the world.
We thought this was a great idea.  Some of us got their sewing machines out and Julia, one of our members, took 10 dresses to Utange, Mombasa where a charity works to provide needy children with an education. We are hoping to get photos of the girls wearing the dresses soon.

We are going to continue to make dresses and will be able to send more out in the spring when another visit to Utange is planned.

You can find the pattern for these very simple dresses here

After a very close vote in November 2014 we have chosen two local charities to support for 2015.

• Family Centre Appeal through the Lindon Lodge Charitable Trust ~ more information
• Macmillan Cancer Support (Merton) ~ more information

As a WI we are allowed to support local charities, doing work for local people. Our 2014 Charity is Merton and Morden Guild.