Growbaby has it's own website:  www.growbaby.co.uk

 

 

What has Growbaby been up to?

 

For the last few years we have linked with the children and staff at Epsom College who have held a Christmas toy service, which in 2005 allowed us to provide 150 presents for families in the borough of Kingston. In 2006 we provided 400 presents for the families, 2007 it was nearly 500 and for 2008 it was 620. The families who received presents were nominated to us by Social Services and Surbiton Children's Centre,  When we give the presents out we put them in pretty paper bags with each child having their own named bag, containing a small gift tag explaining who they were from and a copy of 'Why Christmas' by Nicky Gumbel.  To have a look at the article written by Helen Clarke of the Kingston Informer (on 19th December) click here.

in 2008 we held a wonderful Christmas pamper party, with food, a nail bar, foot massage, body massage and facials.  Along with party games for the children.  This was held at Marymount International School in George road,  one Sunday afternoon and we had about 10 families with their children.  I think the mums who came will agree it was a great deal of fun and a great treat just before Christmas.

 

 

In the time that we have been going we have been able to support many families in and around the borough of Kingston, some of whom we see on a regular basis and some of whom have needed 'one off' help. It may have been providing a stairgate for a family with a toddler to providing everything for a new mum. We have worked with mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends, and neighbours.

 

Our current vision is that we find a permanent home for Growbaby. We are in negotiations with Kingston Council for a venue. We hope that this will happen by the end of 2007. With a home for Growbaby we will be able to allow people to make their own choices, which we feel is very important, but we would also like to provide a drop-in centre with coffee facilities, play area and access to relevant and significant information such as 'back to college' support. We would also like to be able to put on parenting classes, dietary advice and life skills. We would love it to become a place where those that choose to access Growbaby can feel comfortable, enabled, and loved.

 

 

 

How was Growbaby born:

 

As we came to think about what Jesus wanted us to do with this new thing called the Kingston Vineyard we became increasingly aware of how much many people have and how little many others have.  All of us have worked with children in one capacity or another and some of us have families and we discovered that when children eventually grow out of the nappy/pram stage there are lots of things left over. And because the children have only used them for a relatively short period of time, they are usually in great condition.

 

There is a passage in the bible in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus is talking and he says that "whatever we do for the people who need, we do it for him..." and one of the examples is clothing those who need clothing. We came to the conclusion that providing good quality baby clothes and equipment was something we could do very easily and very well, so the concept of Growbaby was born.

 

The more we thought about it the more we realised how stressful it is for young mothers and fathers that are in the firstborn or very young stage, especially if they are not necessarily living near their parents and family.  The other thing is that there are more and more single parent families managing on their own, and maybe Growbaby could provide a useful resource for mothers and fathers, not only with clothes and equipment, but with parenting talks and the like.

 

We talked with lots of friends about Growbaby and discovered that some of them would like to help us with sorting out the clothes or giving them away, and that many of them know people who would like to give us their baby things. So, almost three years ago Growbaby was born. Since then we have been given an amazing amount of baby clothes and equipment and have helped many people and made many friends by giving it away.

 

If you think you are interested in being part of it, or have baby things you would like to give us, or would like us to give you some things, or perhaps you would just like to talk it through a little more, why don’t you get in touch with us.

 

Please contact Peter and Noni Farrelly on:

 
       

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