Brockham Overseas Aid Committee
Brockham Overseas Aid Committee is a small, but long-established organisation. It was started in the 1950s by the late Barbara West, wife of the much loved vicar, R. W. A. West for whom the Anthony West House is named.
It supports carefully selected charities that work in developing countries helping people help themselves. The charities that received donations at the end of the last financial year include Practical Action, Action Aid, Sightsavers International, the Esther Benjamins Trust (which cares for homeless children in Nepal) ad the Trust for Chernobyl Children.
Coffee mornings and the annual garden party have long been the mainstay of fundraising, but the committee now hosts the Combined Charities Fair held on the morning of the village Bonfire Night, and sells doughnuts at the Victorian Fair. A Lenten lunch raises money for the Bishop's annual appeal which always includes overseas projects. A concert by the South London Concert Band was a new event for 2008. The band will be returning on March 28, 2009 and there are other exciting plans for the New Year.
Practical help is supplied by a band of knitters who make warm clothing and blankets. These are currently passed on to the Romanian Aid Foundation based at Horley, along with an annual contribution of joy-in-a-box Christmas parcels.