Category: News

This will be held in the Strathaven Golf Clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon 12^th November. As usual this is a fun bridge (not board bridge) event and caters for bridge players who find our Cafe Bridge Days too challenging. It starts with a light lunch served at 12.00 noon  and will finish about 4.00 pm. To reserve tickets (£15 per person) or take a table of four please phone or text Iain on 0777 1720 388. All monies raised are on behalf of HHI. Raffle prizes will be gratefully accepted

SFHHI committee member Kath Russell was able to join Jute Williams on her annual visit to Zambia in October this year. They spent two hard working and very successful weeks based at the HHZ HQ building in Monze despite problems throughout due to the every-day shut-down of the electricity supply and the challenge of driving to outlying locations on very poor and often non-existent roads.

They were able to visit the many projects and activities supported by HHI including the ongoing provision of food to many of those suffering from the continuing serious drought in Zambia. There are many moving and memorableitems inthe reports which Jute sent back each day.

A highlight of the visit was the ceremonial opening of the new dormitory at the Choongo school. The target of raising £25,000 to celebrate HHI’s 25^th anniversary was set early this year. Amazingly this been  successfully achieved and by sending out funds at various stages building works were able to be started in April and the building successfully completed by the end of September. Attended by various dignitaries including the local Chief Choongo and the area member of Parliament and with singing and traditional Tonga dancing provided by the schools’ students  the opening ceremony was carried out by Kath. She cut the ceremonial ribbon and unveiled the commemorative plaque which had been provided by SFHHI.

Nik and Maria Reed of the BPCF film company visited India in 2022 with Health Help International Chairman Edmund Plummer and also Zambia in 2023 with Jute Williams to film the work of the Charity in both these countries.

Have a look at the excellent films produced by BPCF illustrating the wide-range of the activities and projects supported by HHI in India and Zambia. There are nineteen in all. They can be viewed on the HHI website at www.HHI.org.uk 

Iain Park had the opportunity to speak about Health International and the Strathaven Friends of HHI in an interview he had with Helen McCabe broadcast on 21st November 2022 on Avondale Radio. This local radio station which is accessed on the Internet is reaching an ever widening audience since it started up earlier in 2022. Helen presents a programme called ‘Thinking Allowed’ which is broadcast twice a week. Iain’s hour long chat with Helen when he was able to tell her all about the work of the Charity and Strathaven’s involvement with it was interspersed with six musical items chosen by him. You will be able to listen to it shortly when it is added to the list of archived items  -on www.avondaleradio.com  

The SFHHI committee supported the Strathaven Gala Day and at the same time promoted Health Help International with their stall in the Public Park where they displayed the Painted Leaf Cards and other items on sale on behalf of the Charity.

Despite rather inclement weather and with committee numbers reduced to four these stalwarts managed to attract a good number of visitors to their tent and with excellent sales talk raised just over £100 for HHI. 

A free prize draw for a basket of ‘Taylor made’ biscuits, generously donated by Willie Cooper  helped to generate interest. The draw for the prize was made by Gala Day Chairman Colin Dempster who also presented it to the winner Marion Law.

This is the title of the latest book produced by Iain Park 

This unique correspondence was from Barbara Hamilton to her future husband, Andrew Dykes, during the years of World War I.

Andrew, a member of a farming family whose farm was near Strathaven, in the Parish of Avondale, South Lanarkshire, had emigrated to New Zealand in 1909 to establish himself as a farmer in the south of South Island. Barbara, also from a local Avondale farming family, was unable to follow him as planned because of the war but they became engaged by post in 1916. She wrote to him faithfully throughout the war years until she was able to sail out to join him in 1919.

Barbara, who had trained as a schoolteacher, combined her duties teaching at Strathaven Academy, two miles away, with the hard manual work of the farm but also was able to enjoy the hectic social life of the farming community that continued despite the war.

Her letters give a fascinating insight into her busy life and the effects of the war on the town and farming community as she recounts the growing number of friends and family members injured or killed during the hostilities.

The book is available to purchase via the shop

This latest productionfrom HHI tells the stories of four schools, two in India and two in Zambia which have benefitted tremendously from the support of HHI and the monies provided by it in recent years to help with the building of extensions and the provision of much needed facilities. The progress they have all made and the improvement in the lives of the children who attend them, many of them severely handicapped makes for heart warming reading. 

This is the title of Iain Park’s latest book, a biography of Tom Sutherland, following up his earlier books ‘The Centenary History of the Strathaven Scouts’ and his climbing book ‘Eye to the Hills’

Tom, the son of a Presbyterian Minister, was born and spent his early years in the state of Victoria, Australia. After graduating with an Arts degree from Melbourne University he was a lecturer in Humanities at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Even as a schoolboy Tom committed himself to helping others and as student and lecturer in Melbourne he devoted all of his spare time and energies to many good causes and particularly to helping the young and disadvantaged people of all ages. 

In 1975, aged 38, he travelled to India at the invitation of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charities Brothers in Calcutta intending to spend a few months working with them. He has stayed in India ever since. Inspired by the work of the Brothers and Mother Teresa herself he has spent the last 40 years working tirelessly to improve the lives of the poor, the sick and the destitute people in the southern state of Kerala. Having giving up all his own possessions he has lived the life of those he has been serving and denied himself any of the conveniences of modern life, supported in what he has done by family and friends in Australia and by others whom he has inspired in other parts of the world.

One of these was Ron Prosser, the founder of Health Help International.  Ron and HHI have been supporting Tom for the past twenty years, and providing him with regular funds to enable him to carry out his humanitarian work in Kerala.

Iain’s account of Tom’s life of service has been published in the form of a high quality paper-back book of about 165 pages including over 100 colour photographs.

The book costs £15 all of which will go to HHI to provide continuing support for Tom’s work in India through the activities of his Charity the Banyan Tree.

When the Indian government announced that their country would be in lockdown with just a few hours warning, many people were unprepared. At SFHHI and HHI we received a request for assistance from Pastor Wilson at the Neyer Dam; many people did not have sufficient food for their families. Money was sent, from reserves and from specific donations, to enable the purchase of essential rice and vegetables. The pictures below show the distribution of these bags of food.

This is an extract from Pastor Wilson’s reply

“Warm greetings from BGM. Thank you very very much for your support for Covid 19 people. We distributed rice with vegetables to the very hungry people with your all donations.

Thanks you very much . After some people receive things they cry with their happy.

They are very very happy.”

Thank you all for your support which allowed us to respond quickly.

‘Eye to the Hills’

is a personal account of Iain Park’s lifetime of climbing experiences and relates mainly to his climbing over the past 60 years with several generations of Scouts.

In that time Iain has climbed nearly 1300 Munros.

He has been a member of the Scout Movement for 70 years.

Although it is a personal account the book will be of interest to other Munroists and the photographs of Scottish Mountain Scenes will appeal to climbers and non climbers alike.

All copies of the first print run have been sold and a

second impression of the book has now been printed.

Order a copy now for delivery by Christmas.

Priced at £25, all of this sum, will be given to the Charity 

Health Help International

of which Iain is a Trustee.

Have a look at the stunning photographs!