Individual members of our community are involved in significant work with charities beyond France. Jill Pirdas has recently returned from a time in India working with those affected by HIV.
A curry lunch held in the church hall which raised over 800 Euros for Arogya Agam, the project in India that helps children who are affected or infected by HIV.
Money raised by the church helps HIV-infected children who have now reached the difficult age of adolescence.
Absence from school due to bouts of ill health, the stress of keeping their positive status a secret for fear of discrimination, added to poverty and difficult family situations, tend to lower these young people’s self-esteem.
The project offers Life Skills Awareness campaigns to help the children face the daily struggle of having to cope with the illness, their families and the loneliness brought about by having to live a life of lies.
These three girls are members of children’s groups that have been set up in the poorest villages. Volunteers from the project have trained them to be group leaders in their own right, addressing issues such as health, child marriage and child labour. All three of them would like to become nurses. Elizabeth (left): “I know what it is to be HIV positive, I want to help people who are in the same situation.”
Kavia, Sujith, and little Adhaven have recently been orphaned. Arogya Agam looked after their dying mother, along with her children, for the last three months of her life. Little Adhaven was tested for HIV and was found to be positive.
The project determined that the children should not be split up. Happily a local Christian hostel agreed to take all three children into their care.
Our thanks to Holy Trinity for the donations which help children who suffer such heart-wrenching situations.
Monthly collections of food, consisting of non-perishable items, are given to Fourneau Economique. These are collected on the first Sunday of each month.
Holy Trinity also has a store of clothes and blankets to give to those in need.
Les Petits Frères des Pauvres is an organisation that visits poor, lonely people in their homes, or takes them out for ‘teas’ and lunches. 
Some elderly people have suffered isolation for so long, they do not feel equipped to face a social occasion. Volunteers make sure that they receive visits in their homes, and all concerned will receive cards and flowers for their birthdays and a special meal at Christmas time. Holy Trinity invited a group to ‘tea and triffle’ in the church hall, followed by a guided visit to the church. To be a volunteer all you need is to speak reasonably good french and be sincerely concerned with the well-being of those who suffer from solitude.