Following the 2018 festival, from 50% of the generous giving you made at the communion service, we were pleased to be able to give away almost £20,000 in total to five great organisations. The giving reflected our four campaigning concerns — climate change, migration, UK poverty and Israel/Palestine — plus the theme of the festival communion service itself, racial justice.
Here’s who we were able to support (thanks to your generosity) and what they said in response…
The No Accommodation Network NACCOM is committed to bringing an end to destitution amongst asylum seekers, refugees and migrants with no recourse to public funds living in the UK. It exists to promote best practice in and support the establishment of accommodation projects that reduce destitution amongst asylum seekers.
We hugely appreciate this donation. These funds will contribute to our aim to end destitution among people who have sought sanctuary in the UK. Over the net year we are supporting our members to increase the number of beds they can provide to people who are destitute. We are developing our advocacy work so we can tackily the root causes of destitution thought lobbying for changes to government policy.
Building on our growing connections with the Palestine Music Expo (PMX) and our longstanding friendship with Holyland Trust and their festival, Bet Lahem Live, we gave towards a collaborative initiative they are working on together to produce a groundbreaking event in Bethlehem in 2020, the year that will see the little town take on the mantle of the Arabic City of Culture.
We are deeply touched and very grateful for your generous support.
Since 2009, Polly Higgins has familiarised the world with the term “ecocide”, inspiring a worldwide awareness of the potential of a law of ecocide. Mission LifeForce came into existence in 2017 to enable the next stage of putting that law in place by financing those states who can take it forward, while simultaneously creating the opportunity for: conscientious protectors standing up for frontline communities to be heard in a court of law; and judiciary to recognise ecocide as a missing crime.
WOW how cool is that?!?! We are deeply grateful and it couldn’t come at a better time… we are just gearing up for our busiest time of the year which is the International Criminal Court conference in The Hague in December. This year we will be hosting an event in the Hague that if all goes to plan could bring us major headlines about an international law of ecocide, so do keep your eyes and ears open for it!
The Poverty Truth Commission model brings together key decision-makers with those living at the sharp end of poverty. These groups work together towards overcoming poverty in their region; ensuring that those affected by decisions are central to decision-making. The Commission believes poverty will only be truly addressed when those who experience it first-hand are at the heart of the process.
Many thanks. This is great news. At present, Faith in Community Scotland is the holding organisation for the work of the Poverty Truth Network so any funds should be made to them, marked for PYC (UK Development). One of the things which we are doing at this point is developing a new charitable organisation which will take forward the work of the Poverty Truth Commission. The funds from Greenbelt will go a long way to enabling this to happen. As such, you will be investing in a very tangible way in taking the work of Poverty Truth Commissions forward.
Young Identity is a spoken word collective formed in Manchester in 2006 by Shirley May and Ali Gadema. Young Identity delivers dynamic poetry and spoken word workshops in arts venues and community centres across the city, working with eager writers aged 13–25 from different racial and religious backgrounds — most of whom are young people of colour.
We at Young Identity want to thank you for your gift; this comes at a time when things in the office have been very difficult with us having a fulltime project but having to work part-time elsewhere to make ends meet. We thank you again for this blessing. We Pray that God will continue to bless you all at Greenbelt. And we hope to bring some of our young people next year to the festival.