HOW WE BEGAN:
In 1997 the late Matthew Else, (minister of Grace Baptist
Church, Peel, Isle of Man) went with one of the young men in the
fellowship (James Richardson) to visit a contact of the church.
Whilst they were there they visited an orphanage in Rajahmundry
where they met two severely disabled boys called Muddada Raju
and Pudi Satyanaryana. They also met a young man called Timothy
Babu, whose dream was to build an orphanage and to help the many
disadvantaged children in India.
Muddada Raju had been born with a condition called congenital
bilateral quadriceps contracture, which in layman’s terms means
that he was born with his knee joints the wrong way round. It
could be corrected by surgery, but the operation would cost
£2,000 and Raju’s father earned just a few pounds a week pulling
a rickshaw. The cost of his son’s surgery was far beyond his
means, and thus Raju faced a life of begging in the streets of
India, because he would never be able to work for a living.
The other boy, Pudi, was a little older. He had been crippled by
polio as an infant, and had never walked. Both these boys had
correctible problems. The problem was finance. Matthew and James
came home asking the question: What can we do? The £2,000 needed
for Raju’s operation was a comparatively small amount by western
standards, and a concerted effort was made to raise this money
as soon as possible. With the help of the people of the Isle of
Man, and the children of the local Junior School in Peel in
particular, the money was soon raised, and by the beginning of
1999, Raju had not only had his surgery, but was walking for the
first time in his life.
Thus began a series of events which lead to the formation of
Grace Third World Fund. When it was decided to raise money for
operations for Pudi, more money was required, and to raise the
sum of £6,000 someone who worked for an Isle of Man airline
offered to organise a ‘Jet Pull’. Basically, teams were to
attempt to pull one of the airline’s jets across the runway. As
it was such a huge operation, insurance was necessary. At the
end of the day, the obvious thing to do was to properly
constitute a charity, and on 21st May 1998 Grace Third World
Fund was officially registered as Manx Registered Charity No
727.
NEW CHAIRMAN
2008 was the tenth anniversary of GTWF. Instead of celebrating,
however, a shadow was cast by the sudden and tragic death on
18th May, of Matthew Else, our Founder and the chairman of Grace
Third World. His death came as a huge shock to everyone, as he
was such a vibrant and enthusiastic personality.
Following the death of our Founder a new chairman was sought,
and Ray Richardson, one of the original Trustees, was chosen to
take over from Matthew Else. Ray had been involved from the
beginning, and had been to India many times. Timothy and Sheela
knew him well, and he was the obvious choice to take over this
position. Ray and Timothy talk on the phone every week and
Timothy keeps Ray up to date with everything that is happening
in Grace Children’s Home.
You can also download a copy of our History as a PDF file
HERE.
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