Faith in Families brings Christmas cheer with hampers

Faith in Families will be helping to bring some Christmas cheer to hundreds of Swansea families this year.

The charity, part of the diocese’s Board for Social Responsibility, has been given funding for 600 Christmas hampers to help struggling families across the city.

Faith in Families has joined forces with the Evening Post’s Everyone Deserves A Christmas appeal and Carolyn Harris, the MP for Swansea East, to distribute the hampers.

The appeal has been backed by footballer Gareth Bale, who has donated £15,000, meaning more than 1,000 hampers will be making their way to families for the festive season.

Faith in Families CEO Cherrie Bija said: “Each year Faith in Families celebrates Christmas in the communities we serve with a Christmas lunch, a Christmas concert and many parties, sharing joy and laughter.

“This year has been challenging for us all and Christmas is going to be different in many ways.

“We were thrilled to receive funding from the Voluntary Services Emergency Fund via the Wales Council for Voluntary Action to supply 600 hampers to spread Christmas cheer and make further connections into our neighbourhoods.

“We are delighted to be able to work with Carolyn Harris, a fabulous supporter of our work and a regular face in our centres – together we hope to feed over 1,000 families this Christmas.”

Archbishop John said: “It’s a tried and tested saying to remember that Christmas is about sharing. The essence of the season is about God sharing his loving purposes for the world in the person of Jesus who teaches us to love others as he loves us – with kindness, compassion and a generous heart, and sharing with others, not least those in great need.

“What Faith in Families does all year round, and especially with its Christmas efforts, puts all of this into practice. In what they do, with the welcome support of others, I hope that those who benefit will feel something of God’s love reaching out to them.”

Faith in Families is a charity which aims to inspire future generations by providing vital early years and preventative services and opportunities for individuals to believe and succeed in themselves in each other because of the adversity they might have faced.

“Faith in Families is 21 this year, we have grown and become routed into our communities, delivering vital early years services and prevented work in some of the most vulnerable areas in Swansea,” Cherrie said.

“Now we are needed more than ever as the consequences of Covid are felt within our neighbourhoods and we are asking people to help support our vital services and enable us to inspire people to believe and succeed for a further 21 years.

“In the past year, despite the pandemic halting our services mid-March, we had a 63% increase in new connections in our communities, meeting 1,119 new children and 204 new adults, complementing the support that we give to hundreds of families that are already part of what we do.

“We were able to deliver 1,452 different services which is a 7% rise on the previous year. Despite restrictions we facilitated 147 play-scheme sessions and 327 afterschool club sessions that reached over 300 children.”

You can find out more about Faith in Families’ work, and how to donate, at faithinfamilies.wales