In 2011 I was introduced to a charity called Comfort Rwanda. They had recently started supporting projects in DRC and I had a particular interest in the maternity care project. After much consultation, prayer and deliberation a decision was made to raise money to build a small maternity hospital in a rural part of Goma. To kick start the fundraising a committee of volunteers and I organised a ball and I have been involved with Comfort International ever since.
Fast forward 12 years and I was invited to join a committee to arrange the second ball for Comfort International, this time to celebrate 25 years of this wonderful charity. After over a year of planning the day finally arrived and what a wonderful night it was!
I’m from Yorkshire but I love Scotland and was especially excited about the bagpipes being played as everyone entered the ballroom. I was absolutely blown away by the opening performance by iNTER, it brought me to tears. I felt overwhelmed by the hard work and effort that so many young people and their teachers were willing to sacrifice to help raise funds for people in countries that are so far away from their own, in many ways. They put so much thought into every detail, including their outfits. This is what they shared about their choice of outfit following the event: “As part of Comfort International’s incredible efforts in supporting Rwanda, our costumes this evening paid a subtle tribute to the country. White t-shirts featured a stunning sunburst design inspired by the Rwandan flag, and each student wearing socks in either turquoise, yellow or green (the colours of the Rwandan flag). The white t-shirts and trousers symbolised hope and optimism for change. iNTER is deeply inspired by the tremendous work Comfort International is doing.”
It was exciting to celebrate with some of the lovely people who I first met in Rwanda and DRC on my 2 trips with the charity but it was really encouraging to see so many people there who were hearing about Comfort International for the first time. It is vital that awareness of the charity continues to be raised so lives can continue to be changed.
There were some incredible raffle and auction prizes, another wonderful testament to the generosity of people who want to help others. It was lovely to meet Roo Irvine and hear how she had been moved by what she learned about Comfort International and it was great fun to see her conducting the auction – unfortunately we didn’t have a gavel so she had the options of using either my children’s toy wooden mallet or Billy McClung’s meat tenderiser. The meat tenderiser won the day!
Roo Irvine was our amazing auctioneer for the night. The silent auction raised £3642 and the main auction raised £4720! A huge thanks to Roo, all of our amazing prize donors and everyone who made a bid!
My husband and I were delighted to attend this wonderful celebration and it was an honour to be able to play a small part behind the scenes. A fine group of people have worked tirelessly over the past year to make this ball the success that it was. I felt rather unqualified to write the blog post about the event as my role in all honesty was mostly just moral support from Yorkshire. However, I have been witness to the relentless efforts of seven other people, one of whom steered the committee and ran the whole operation from South America! The planning of this event was very stressful at times but as always, God was generous in His provision and the amount of money raised far surpassed our target! All glory goes to God for the success of the ball and many thanks to every donor, attendee, prayer-er and volunteer who contributed towards its success!
On the night we raised over £16,000 to go straight to Comfort International’s amazing projects in Africa! Thank you to everyone who made this possible!
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