About the Helwel Trust

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HELWEL TRUST

The Helwel Trust was founded in 1976 by Doctors Anthony and Maggie Barker and is a Registered Charity. The word Helwel is synonymous with the Zululand Churches Health and Welfare Association, an organisation with its roots in the early 1960s in the historic area of Natal, South Africa, where the Zulu Nation prospered in the 18th and 19th centuries. Helwel was created to serve the under privileged people of that region by the Christian Churches and Hospitals. The Drs Barker were at that time running the Charles Johnson Memorial Hospital at Nqutu and were instrumental in the creation of Helwel.
When they returned to the UK in 1976, Helwel Trust was formed to provide ongoing financial support for the work in the area now known as KwaZulu Natal. It is also concerned to raise awareness of the many social and medical problems that are endemic there. Until July 2004, Helwel Trust channelled most, but not all, of its assistance through the Zisizeni Association for Development, which was the name adopted by the Zululand Churches Health and Welfare Association in 1997. With the failure of Zisizeni Association for Development in September 2004, Helwel Trust looked for other organisations to fulfil the wish of Helwel Trust Friends to assist the most disadvantaged peoples of KwaZulu Natal towards improved education, self sufficiency and health (in particular living with the pandemic of HIV AIDS). Our search has led us to three KwaZulu Natal based NPOs (Not for Profit Organisations), which satisfy our new criteria for openness of operation, financial accountability and regular reporting. TREE - Training and Resources in Early Education ACAT - Africa Co-operative Action Trust ECAG - Eshowe Community Action Group As can be seen elsewhere their operations are in the areas, both geographical and in terms of social needs, that Helwel Trust has traditionally supported.
Helwel Trust activities are run by a Council of up to 20 members, selected for their knowledge and experience of the KwaZulu situation and/or their enthusiasm and ability to raise awareness of the work of the Trust. No Council members receive payment, other than expenses, for their attendance or their work for the Trust.
		The Council meets three times each year and an executive committee oversees business between meetings. There is an Annual Meeting of Friends of the Helwel Trust, with reports of the work in the UK and in KwaZulu Natal; the meeting is addressed by a guest speaker on a topic of concern to the work. These activities happen in the London area.
Fund Raising activities happen all over the country, wherever there are enthusiastic Friends to organise events. The annual Helwel Hike is a sponsored walk held at a different venue each year. It is designed to be suitable for a wide range of ages and levels of fitness, so that as many people as possible can have the opportunity to meet, make friends and learn more about what the Helwel Trust is about while raising funds to be used in Africa.
		There are concerts and dances, coffee mornings and jumble sales, sponsored silences and free dress days, sponsored marathons and other feats of endurance. Friends use their imaginations to find ways of raising the much needed funds to help our friends in KwaZulu Natal. Many Friends of Helwel Trust make regular donations by bankers order and sign Gift Aid forms to allow us to reclaim tax paid from the Inland Revenue (this boosted our funds by £3,438 in 2005-06).