College Record 2013

Clubs and Societies
AMREF Group
The African Medical and Research Foundation has been the College’s adopted
charity for many years, and regular events in aid of AMREF are a familiar feature of
Wolfson life. They include concerts organized jointly by the Group and the Music
Society, to whom go many thanks, and the Sunday Coffee Shop, which continues to
be very popular; thanks to the many volunteers, both bakers and servers, it raised
£961 this year. The Household Goods sale, at the start of each academic year, has
once again proved its value to new students picking up useful household items, and
has also introduced them to AMREF; this year’s sale raised £355. The Annual
Fireworks Display resulted in a record collection of £670.
An innovation has been the sale of cotton shopping-bags bearing the College arms
and AMREF logo. They were very popular at £2, and the first batch was soon
sold out; more have been ordered for sale at the Lodge. Last but not least, the
generosity of Wolfsonians was once again demonstrated by their response to the
Annual Battels Appeal, which raised £3,000.
A total of £6,500 was thus available and enabled the Group to continue funding
the Wolfson AMREF Annual Bursary which provides financial assistance, mainly
tuition fees, to a student or students attending the AMREF Training College in
Nairobi. As in previous years, the College was also able to support two specific
projects which AMREF has identified as priorities, the training of two African
midwives as part of AMREF’s midwife training programme, and the purchase of
fifty second-hand bicycles for them to reach their patients faster.
None of these fundraising activities could have been achieved without the support
of members of the Group and many volunteers. Two long-serving members in
particular, Jan Scriven and Renée Lee, have recently left their posts in College, but
it is very pleasing to report that they will continue to help whenever possible. At
a small ceremony at AMREF’s office in London, Jan was presented with a signed
photograph in recognition of her many years of support for the charity. Renée,
who has been active as the AMREF Group Representative at the General Meeting,
has also given unstintingly of her time and energy; she will be long remembered
for starting the ever-popular Sunday Coffee Shop. Andy Cutts has replaced her as
Representative.
Christopher Lethbridge
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