| Successor | Alan McCormick |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2004 |
| Founder | Nigel Hyde |
| Type | Christian charity |
| Headquarters | 27 Bury Mead Rd, Hitchin, Hertfordshire SG5 1RT |
| Location | |
| Website | missiondirect |
Mission Direct is an international Christian charity based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. [2]
The charity enables volunteers to travel and work alongside some of the world's poorest people to build homes, schools, clinics, etc., and works in over 12 countries. [3] [4]
Nigel Hyde founded Mission Direct with three of his friends, Lawrence Jones, Tim Martindale and Ronnie Fleming. The four had a clear vision: to enable thousands of people to serve poor people during two-week trips. [5]
In 1997 Hyde was standing outside an ancient church on Mokattam Mountain in Egypt. He said that, "My eyes were transfixed by an old lady rummaging through manure. She wanted something to eat or sell...anything to help her survive. I sensed God calling me to dedicate my life to people like her, trapped by the curse of terrible material poverty. Looking back, this was the catalyst that led to the start of Mission Direct..." [2]
Mission Direct's patron is the Rt. Rev Dr. Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans. Lord Bill McKenzie of Luton was a previous patron of the charity. [6] [7] The CEO was Alan McCormick, and as of 2021, is now Wilhelm Horwood. [8]
Mission Direct was registered as a charity on 26 January 2005. [9]
Mission Direct first sent teams overseas in 2005 when they built a home for ladies with polio in Sierra Leone. In that first year, they also built homes in the Dominican Republic and a school in the tsunami-hit north of Sri Lanka.
Mission Direct works with locally owned and managed schools, hospitals and organisations, using local tradesmen to build facilities for health, education and housing. [10] They do not own or operate anything in the partner country, which enables them to support sustainable project. [11] [12] Their overseas staff covers their own costs and will host relays of teams to the same communities for several years. [13] [14]
In 2021 teams supported projects in Brazil, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, India, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia (Kumi and Rukungiri) and Zimbabwe. The organisation also worked with a UK-based project partnering with Phoenix Community Care Trust, an organization that provides safe housing for children and young asylum seekers arriving in London. Previous teams have also travelled to China, Malawi, Moldova and Guyana. [15] Previous work has included building Vision of Hope in Lusaka, Zambia, providing a safe home for street girls. [16]
Most teams are open to all with the age range so far from 7 to 89. [17] They run projects in the areas of school, medical, teacher training and youth. They also work with schools to help set up IT and science classrooms. [18] [19] The support of corporate teams in the Dominican Republic has enabled Mission Direct to support the ongoing work of local volunteers within their own community. [20] They also run teams for youth from difficult backgrounds. [21]
The Prince's Trust is a United Kingdom-based charity founded in 1976 by King Charles III to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are unemployed or struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by the trust face issues such as homelessness, disability, mental health problems, or trouble with the law.
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Self Help Africa is an international charity that promotes and implements long-term rural development projects in Africa. Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, in July 2014, and was known for a period as Gorta-Self Help Africa. In 2021, the organisation merged with the UK-based international non-governmental organization (INGO), United Purpose. Self Help Africa also owns a number of social enterprise subsidiaries - Cumo Microfinance, TruTrade and Partner Africa.
Children's Hunger Fund (CHF) is a Christian non-profit organization that resources and empowers local churches in the United States and around the world to meet the needs of their impoverished community members. CHF's mission is to "deliver hope to suffering children by equipping local churches for gospel-centered mercy ministry".
CURE International, based in Grand Rapids, MI, is a Christian nonprofit organization that owns and operates eight charitable children's hospitals around the world. CURE provides medical care to pediatric patients with orthopedic, reconstructive plastic, and neurological conditions. The organization's stated mission is to "heal the sick and proclaim the kingdom of God." The organization currently operates hospitals in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, the Philippines, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
ChildHope UK is an international charity that believes that children should enjoy a safe and secure childhood. ChildHope's work supports children who are considered the hardest to reach. These children may live and work on the street, be at risk of trafficking or child marriage, victims of abuse or sexual exploitation, working on rubbish dumps or in contact with the law. Many of these situations are interconnected and children are facing multiple challenges and risks to their safety. Children with disabilities are more likely to be stigmatised, abused, exploited or neglected. All ChildHope's programmes have an education component, whether that's traditional school-based learning, vocational skills training for young people, life skills or small business training for parents so that fewer children need to work.
World Computer Exchange (WCE) is a United States and Canada based charity organization whose mission is "to reduce the digital divide for youth in developing countries, to use our global network of partnerships to enhance communities in these countries, and to promote the reuse of electronic equipment and its ultimate disposal in an environmentally responsible manner." According to UNESCO, it is North America's largest non-profit supplier of tested used computers to schools and community organizations in developing countries.
Camps International Ltd is an international volunteer travel operator headquartered in Ringwood, Hampshire UK, Dubai, UAE and Australia. Camps International build permanent volunteer accommodation camps within Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Borneo, Cambodia, Ecuador and Peru. Its products include adventure expeditions, educational school expeditions for UK, UAE and Australian school groups.
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