The December meeting of the St. Florence group of the Mothers' Union met in the village church when Mrs. Judith Millgate welcomed members and visitors, and after a prayer introduced the guest speaker, Mrs. Helen Williams. Helen is one of the Welsh ambassadors of the charity 'Send a Cow' (Livestock for Life), and gave members a wonderful insight into the work being done to give practical help to subsistence farmers in seven of the poorest countries in Africa. It works through local community organisations or groups of people (usually women) who have come together to find solutions to the problems they face. Training is given on animal care and sustainable organic farming before receiving livestock, which could be a cow, goats, pigs or poultry depending on the recipient. The first female offspring of an animal is passed on to another needy family locally. Helen brought interesting literature including the Gift Catalogue with original ideas for presents, and she has raised £140 for bags of well-rotted horse manure displayed by her farm gate, and now bottles of liquid manure - novel ways of raising money for 'Send a Cow'. She is such an entertaining speaker that members could have listened to her for hours, and there was a lively atmosphere over the seasonable refreshments which followed at the end of the meeting. Several members hope to attend the Service of Epiphany tomorrow (Saturday) in Goodwick. The guest speaker for the February meeting will be Mrs. Gilbert, who will show slides of India.
