Ann’s interview with Gordon Astley

The Dinner Dance and Auction we held at the Hilton Hotel in Cobham in October 2008 was a fantastic event.

During the evening we  had a DJ, an African live band playing Ugandan music  and a fashion parade as well as the auction and a raffle.

Many friends donated time, gifts and services and we raised £1,500 in total. This has gone a long way to completing the building of a craft centre/workshop.

Many thanks to everyone who attended and supported us.

Bringing fresh water to

the people of Ruhanga

Sep 17 2008 Mark Goode, Surrey Herald

TWO women who plough all their spare time into raising funds for a poor African village are organising a big charity event in a bid to get fresh drinking water for villagers.

Ugandan-born Ida Horner, of St Vincent Road, Walton, and her friend Ann McCarthy, of Cranwell Grove, Shepperton, are staging the black tie event – called Let Them Help Themselves Out of Poverty – at the Hilton Hotel, in Cobham, on Friday, October 17.

The pair want to raise £6,000 to pay for pipes to take water to the village of Ruhanga, in south west Uganda where residents have to walk for three hours to fetch water from a muddy river.

They also want to raise £2,000 to finish building a community centre where women can also make their crafts for sale to support themselves.

Married mother of one Ida, 43, who works full time in the housing department at Kingston Council, started raising funds for the residents of Ruhanga when she visited the village on holiday in 2006.

She said: “I walked around and I was horrified by all the poverty and began to think how lucky I was to have left Uganda and to have lived in an affluent part of England.

“When I got back I decided to try and help them.”

Ida began buying craftwork, such as baskets, bed linen, and silk scarves, from women in Tanzania, Uganda, and Madagascar, and selling them on a mail order basis to people in England.

The non-profit business, called Ethnic Supplies, was formed in October 2007 and by giving the women money up front for their wares, she is helping the families to survive.

Ann, 66, who runs Littleton Nurseries B & B, in Cranwell Grove, Shepperton, met Ida when they discovered they had both been doing charity work in Ruhanga.

Last year Ann helped to build a hostel in the village so travellers could stop for the night before going into the jungle to see the gorillas. She also had the idea to build a community centre in the village.

She read an article about Ida and her business, Ethnic Supplies, and the two get together to combine their ideas and efforts.

Ida said: “Now we want to get water pipes from the top of the mountains to the bottom of the valleys. At the moment it takes the villagers three hours to get water from a muddy stream and then back again.

“They don’t boil the water because it takes extra work getting the wood.”

She added: “A lot of the villagers are HIV positive and have malaria and we need to raise money to get them clean water.

“Surrey is a very rich place and if 10,000 businesses all gave a pound it could help the villagers. Hopefully people will find it in their hearts to come to our black tie event.”