 Children performing at a church on Christmas Eve 2011 The Amity Foundation is an independent Chinese voluntary organisation that was created in 1985 by Chinese Christians. Their aim was to promote education, social services, health and rural development in some of the poorest areas of China.
The Foundation’s Chinese name has two characters. The first character means “love” and is a reference to the verse in I Corinthians 13:13 “Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love”. The second character helps form the words for “morality” and “ethics”. The Foundation continues to form a bridge between the Christian Church and society in China. The Methodist Church work with Amity and among other projects are currently supporting preachers who are poorly paid and cover huge geographical areas to meet their congregations. They are working to supply electric scooters to enable preachers to make pastoral visits and attend preaching appointments. “Churches Together in Britain and Ireland” work with Amity, particularly on English teaching programmes for universities in the developing provinces. Other current Amity projects include: · Church-run hospitals and clinics · Facilities for the elderly · HIV/AIDS prevention projects · Sanitation and clean water projects In the poorest parts of China people who have no income are forced to sell their blood to survive. This has resulted in widespread HIV/Aids infections, where whole villages are ravaged by the disease. Amity has 34 village programmes, which include setting up household groups for mutual support, information sharing and the services of health professionals. Thanks to Matthew for suggesting this charity. We look forward to learning more about the Amity Foundation in the coming year. Ros Caldwell Church Council Secretary The Amity Foundation Churches Together Comments are closed.
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