Local Heroes Honoured by Mayor
Dam-building Brentford resident amongst recipients
Local community heroes have been recognised at a ceremony to honour local people putting something back into the community.
The Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow, Cllr Roger Clarke, was keen during his year of office to mark the achievements of local people who had contributed their time, efforts and skills to the borough. Over the last few months he requested local groups and residents to nominate their Hounslow Heroes. He is now inviting them to attend a ceremony in the Mayor’s Chamber to highlight their excellent work for the community.
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“I am keen to do all I can to celebrate the great achievements of our residents. For that reason we asked local people to nominate anyone who had been outstanding in their service to charity, the community or their neighbours. “ One of those nominated was Brentford resident Simon Maddrell, founder of a charity which works to help improve agriculture in East Africa. Excellent Development was officially registered last October but Simon Maddrell has been involved in helping Kenyans since 1985, after he went out there as a venture scout and got hooked. |
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The charity specialises in funding the building of small-scale dams, each of which supplies 1,000 people with clean water. Farmers also grow vegetables and plant tree nurseries using this resource. Each dam costs £5,000 to complete - and at just £5 per person, the charity believes this is a worthwhile investment to help the poorest people of semi-arid Africa.
So far, the charity has helped the local community in East Kenya to build around 125 water tanks and eight damns and planted 16,808 trees of 58 different species.
Dr Jenny
Tonge MP and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development,
said: ''Simon Maddrell is making great progress with 'Excellent Development'
and his tree planting scheme has exceeded expectations already.'' Joshua
Mukusya, Project Co-ordinator in Machakos paid tribute to the charity:
''Excellent Development can be proud of the work it has undertaken over
the last three years - its help, advice, encouragement and financial support.
Our people are already experiencing the benefits of their dams and trees''.
For more information on the charity visit their website www.excellentdevelopment.com
13 May 2004
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