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Alan Wolstencroft

Alan,  married with a daughter, originally started his working career as a sports teacher, he later retrained and specialised in human resources and health & safety for a number of years. Latterly he managed his own textile retail business.

Alan started his involvement with charity work at an early age and continued this through school, college,  teaching years and beyond.  In 1982 he joined Banbury Cross Round Table, where he subsequently held many positions including Chairman and was made a Life Honorary Member in 2005 for service to Round Table. He has also served as a member of a medical support charity at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford for ten years, being their chairman for seven years.

In 2004, Alan joined the Rotary Club of Banbury, an international service organisation. In 2005 he visited Sierra Leone as volunteer with the Rotary Mission Challenge team to build a hospital. He  subsequently visited the country on nine occasions and has raised funds for the building and development of four schools and other much needed resources to these communities.

In 2009 he was made a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow, this is the highest award given by Rotary Clubs for Rotarian’s and members of the public for exceptional sustained community service.  In 2013 Alan was presented with the Rotary International “Service Above Self ” award, one of only 150 awarded worldwide that year. He became a Trustee of Goodwill & Growth for Africa UK in 2008. Since his first visit to Sierra Leone he has raised in excess of £211,000 for projects in the country.

Alan will receive a Rotary  “Champions of Change award”  (one of only 12 awarded annually), with other Rotarian’s from across the country, at a ceremony hosted by the Lord Mayor of Cardiff in Cardiff City Hall in May 2018.

Denis Spiller, President of Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland, commented:-
“The selfless and truly life-changing impact of our champions really demonstrate that we can all make a difference. Alan’s work in Freetown has given the communities a new lease of life. He is a very worthy recipient of a Rotary Champions of Change award.”

Alan is a founding Trustee of the Westminster Group Foundation.

Heidi Fowler

Heidi has worked for the Westminster Group Plc since 1998 as the Group HR Manager.

She is married with 3 children and is Chair of the Parent Staff & Friends Association of her children’s school as well as a member of the Schools Charity Ball Committee. She is a member of the local Parish Church Council and a Sunday school teacher. Over the last 20 years she has been involved with many charity committees and organisations.

Heidi joined as a founding Trustee of the Westminster Group Foundation in 2014

The container arrives at Calvary School

GAGA News 17_01This week Westminster transported a container from the docks to the airport and under the supervision of Mick Oxlade the goods were unloaded and 100 boxes of donated goods will now be distributed. The REALLY good news is that the empty 20 foot container was taken to Calvary Community School for them to use as a secure storage facility freeing up a classroom that is currently being used for that purpose. A very excited and grateful Pastor Mark was over the moon with the news about the donation of the container.

GAGA News 17_02HUGE sincere thanks to Westminster Group PLC for this fantastic donation and for all their continued support.

All that needs doing now is to offload it, but with no crane on the lorry in true Sierra Leone style you just get on with it. Health & Safety is a priority as you can see by the high visibility tabard.

Quite a crowd gathered to watch but with supervision from Mick, Dickie, Shane & Moses of Westminster Aviation Security Services & Pastor Mark on hand what could possibly go wrong?

GAGA News 17_05These may not seem very exciting pictures to us, but for everyone at Calvary School this means so much. They can now clear the classroom and start using the container to store items. In September they will start using the classroom for education purposes. A really big thank you to everyone at Westminster Group PLC for this fantastic donation which will “make a real difference”.

Westminster Group PLC continue support for GAGA

Westminster are going to be sending another sea freight container to Freetown in the next few weeks, the container is due in Banbury this week. They are willing to donate any spare space to Goodwill & Growth For Africa UK for items of humanitarian aid for my projects in Freetown. This is a great offer and Alan would like to express his sincere thanks to everyone at Westminster for this fantastic continued support.

Contact Alan Wolstencroft for more information

Roll Out The Barrel

GAGA-News-March-2013_01This 10 year old lad is carrying 20 kilos of water – he has just walked half a mile with it from the local standpipe BUT it doesn’t have to be like this.

On my first trip in 2005 I saw this time and time again but when I returned in 2006 I took some Rotary rollers with me BUT transporting them out has always been an issue. However with the support of the Westminster Group I was able to send 23 out by sea freight and whilst in Freetown I distributed them with Pastor Mark from Calvary School in Lunghi, a really good friend of mine.

GAGA-News-March-2013_02Rotary Rollers with their new owners whilst other children carry water the traditional way!!

I hope to send many more Rotary Rollers out to Freetown in the future to help improve the daily chore of children carrying water long distances.

Thank you to Adrian at Roll Out The Barrel for donating the barrels & Westminster Group for all their support with the shipping of goods.

Alan

Thank you from Enable The Children

Enable The Children LogoThank you so very much for your kind assistance in helping Enable the Children to get highly important equipment to Sierra Leone from the UK. We are highly grateful to you and Westminster for coordinating the packing, transportation and unloading of our equipment – we cannot thank you enough.

The gaiters and stability boots that you brought to this country are used to help children to be able to stand up and walk, as well as preventing deformities. They are not possible to buy in this country, which is why we rely on donations from the UK to be able to continue our work effectively, and without your help to bring them here, we would still be struggling. Thank you for all the time and effort that you put into helping us.

I would also like to extend my thanks to those that donated the filing cabinets, T-shirts, school clothes and baby clothes. We will use the filing cabinet to improve our administration system and the clothes will be given out to needy children as we go to visit them in their homes.

Thank you again for your continued support of Enable the Children, we could not do our work without you.

Yours faithfully,

Anna Vines

Anna Vines BSc MCSP
Clinical Lead
~ENABLE THE CHILDREN~
Freetown, Sierra Leone

Making a difference in Sierra Leone

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Peter Fowler of Westminster Group PLC for sponsorship of the trip and to the Westminster Aviation Security Services team in Freetown for ALL their support and hospitality during my stay.

Donated goods arrive by sea freight container

Westminster Group PLC once again allowed me free shipment of goods on a container. I sent 10 x 4 drawer steel cabinets, 2 multi drawer cabinets, 50 stacking chairs and 100 boxes of aid! My first day in Freetown was spent unloading everything and taking it to Calvary School for sorting and distribution to 7 communities that I support.

Contact Alan Wolstencroft for more information.

Westminster Aviation Security Services FC

Westminster Aviation Security Services FCAs a “thank you” to Westminster Group for all their help with the shipment of goods to Sierra Leone Alan Wolstencroft donated a football kit to the staff team.

The latest sea freight container is being loaded with some furniture and nearly 100 boxes of school uniform, sports kits, corporate clothing, knitted items and books for distribution in 5 communities.

Enable The Children

Joanne Fowler with Enable The ChildrenJoanne Fowler, Westminster Aviation Security Services (left) met up with Anna Vines from Enable The Children to hand over a batch of stability boots which will assist the work that they are doing with disabled children in Freetown. Many thanks to Joanne for taking these much needed boots out to Freetown.