SI Newcastle would like to congratulate our member, Christine Lumsdon, in securing funding from the Churchill Fellowship to support the West End Women and Girls’ Centre’s first activity on their farm. This includes setting up a large polytunnel for growing food and also to provide transport to the farm for their members. Fantastic work Christine!
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Since the start of the pandemic, many organisations have had to rethink the way in which they operate. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has not been able to award travelling fellowships for two years now. The Trustees agreed to put some unspent funds into a COVID-19 Action Fund and invite existing Churchill Fellows to apply for a grant ( maximum of £10,000 to be spent in the year 2022 ) to support any work that they were involved in which alleviated the effects of COVID on communities.
There have been 3 lots of funding made available over the past 18 months. Christine decided that on the release of this third batch that she would try to obtain some funds to help with a project at the WEW&GC and the Farm Project * was identified. This project fitted in with the aims of Christine’s own original fellowship in1969 ; the aims of the Churchill Fellowship, the values of Soroptimist International and of the WEEW&GC. Christine collaborated with Jill Heslop, the Community Project Leader who had moved into the farmhouse on the 10 acre small holding ( from the National Trust) on 1st December. The grant will fund:
- Minibus transport for one year to transport about 1,000 visits of women and girls to the Farm :
- Re-cover and renovate an existing old Poly-tunnel with new doors, a cover and installation costs :
- Supply a rainwater and irrigation system :
- Supply weed suppressant fabric :
A spokesperson for the WEEW&GC have said : ‘We’re delighted that we have received the support of the Churchill Fellowship through Soroptimists member Christine Lumsdon. The funding will support our first activity on the farm setting up the large polytunnel for growing food and provide transport for women and girls from our membership to come to the farm all year round.’
*The WEEW&GC farm is a beautiful smallholding in the wilds of Northumberland for women and girls to grow and harvest together, have fun and be free in the wilds. They will have a bunkhouse and camping field for fun and adventure. They will grow sustainable, organic food and break through gender roles in agriculture with an orchard, vegetable plots and polytunnels, hens, goats, bees and more. They will plant trees and hedgerows and create wild spaces for bird, flowers and girls. It will be a model for a socially and environmentally just local food system, powered by the wind and sun. It will be a rural home for women and girls to run and breathe and work the land together
The Churchill Fellowship have today released the following Press Release:
Christine Lumsdon: improving wellbeing for women and girls through farming
Christine Lumsdon (CF 1969) from Newcastle is an occupational therapist and a member of Soroptimist International, a charity that works to improve the lives of women and girls in communities throughout the world. During the pandemic, Christine has been an advisor supporting West End Women and Girls Centre (WEWC) in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, which has recently taken on a 10-acre smallholding in rural Northumberland from the National Trust, for the benefit of its members.
Christine will use her funding to help set up a large outdoor farm space, where women and girls from the local area can grow food, look after their wellbeing through access to nature, and build friendships in a safe community. The funding will provide transport to enable 1,000 women and girls from WEWC’s membership to regularly access the farm between January and December 2022 for weekly and school holiday trips. It will also support the purchase and installation of materials needed to grow produce in this space, including a large polytunnel and rainwater irrigation system. WEWC’s community has experienced rising mental health problems, poverty, domestic abuse and inequality during the pandemic, and Christine hopes this project will enable them to feed their families whilst putting mental and physical wellbeing at the heart of Covid-19 recovery.
Christine’s Fellowship to the USA in 1969 explored integration and access to civilian life for injured servicemen and women.