C.W.L.
gets £5,500
in 11
weeks
`C.H.' Reporter SINCE World Refugee Year began 11 weeks ago, the Catholic Women's League Relief and Refugee Committee in London — the official channel in the United kingdom for Catholic contributions — has collected £5,500 for refugee relief and resettlement programmes.
An anonymous donor set the ball rolling with a cheque for £1,000. Donations from numerous Catholic societies and clubs have been received.
Several parish priests, on their own initiative, are holding retiring collections at the Sunday Masses. One parish, which has already raised the money required to provide a home for a family in Hong Kong. sent a further cheque for £27 15s. 7d. last week.
Reunited
Earlier this month, an individual contribution of £400 was received in reply to an appeal for a Polish couple in Germany, who have been parted from their two-yearold son.
At present the couple are in a convalescent home in Germany. The father is suffering from multiple sclerosis, which developed after five years in a Nazi p.o.w camp. The mother is recovering from bone TB, contacted during three years of slave labour in Germany. Their little boy is in a children's home.
But next month they will be united. The Catholic Women's League and Refugee Committee has provided a home for them in Scotland, and is budgeting to maintain them as a family.
Schooling
Also coming to England next month, under the auspices of the C.W.L. Relief and Refugee Committee. is an eight-year-old Polish orphan, whose mother died in the D.P. camp where he was born. An intelligent little fellow, who should go far if given the opportunity, he will he put into a special school where the language difficulty presents no barrier.
Many other children have been taken from D.P. camps and put into local schools. A Polish student for the priesthood, who would have been forced to leave the seminary last month through lack of financial support, has been given the necessary assistance to continue his studies.
Budgeting
" Cases of this sort require a long term budget," says Miss L. Ware, hon. treasurer of the Committee, " so we don't rush in to help when grants from other organisations can be obtained.
" It costs us £400 a year to maintain a man and wife in a home, for example. And before we can bring refugee children over for schooling (specialised schooling is invariably required) we have to find Catholic families who will look after them during the school holidays."