Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

Jagadhri

The photograph shows Dr Porteous preaching to outpatients at Jagadhri Hospital in February 1915.

Jagadhri was the centre chosen by the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (PCANZ) almost 100 years ago to reach out in love and compassion to the people of NW India. Over the years, Christian Hospital, Christian Middle School and later St. Thomas School and Christian congregations were founded. These days all this work is part of the Church of North India (CNI) but the CNI values the continued interest and support of New Zealand Presbyterians.

Friends of Jagadhri

Friends of Jagadhri was formed in 1986 under the umbrella of the PCANZ to help support the Christian outreach of Jagadhri. This includes the work of the Christian Hospital, the School of Nursing, St. Thomas School and the Church of North India congregations. 'Friends' support the work with their prayers, their giving and their interest and encouragment. The Friends of Jagadhri newsletter is published twice annually and you can request a subscription.  The GMO continues to provide an annual salary grant for the superintendant of Christian Hospital and the Principal of St Thomas School.

Ludhiana NZ Fellowship

Christian Medical Centre

Situated in the manufacturing city of Ludhiana, 300 km NW of Delhi, in the fertile Punjab, Christian Medical College and Hospital trains medical graduates and specialists, nurses, and dentists primarily for service in the 300 mission hospitals in India. Ludhiana is a manufacturing city of 4 million people.

Websites of interest

• UK Office - The site of the Friends of Ludhiana in the UK and gives interesting supplementary material especially for those planning to visit.
• Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI) - Provides general information about the mission hospitals and programmes of the church in India.
• The Church of North India - A very informative resource well set up.

Support you can give

• Upgrade of private rooms: $2500 per room
• Hematology Counter $16,000
• Na/k Analyzer Blood Gas Analyzer $4700
• Anesthesia Machine $4700
• Surgical Electrocautery Machine $4700

St Thomas School

St Thomas School, a co-educational independent Christian school teaching in English came into being in 1996. This was the culmination of over 84 years of hard work in Christian education in Jagadhri. The result of all this hard work is that St Thomas School now has a roll of 2000 students and provides outstanding all round education from pre-primary through to year 12. It is considered to be the best school in the district which is home to over 1 million people.

Students from Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim homes study together and the school is highly respected for the emphasis on all round excellence and for the respect and care that is expected of all students. Mrs Kamla Singh succeeded the Rev Doreen Riddell as Principal in 1993.

St Thomas School Scholarship Fund

The St Thomas School Trust Fund is a capital fund deposited with the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and administered by the Global Mission Office for the specific benefit of St Thomas School, Jagadhri, India. The fund was established in 1993 by the Women's Missionary Fellowship of the Fairfield Presbyterian Church in Hamilton to acknowledge the excellent service of the Rev Doreen Riddell, who was the founding Principal of the school. Doreen was also the last New Zealand Presbyterian missionary to work at the school on a full time basis. The interest from the fund is used to enable the school to continue to set aside about 10% of its budget to assist over 200 needy students who otherwise could not afford this excellent education in a Christian environment. Over the years, many needy young people have benefitted from financial assistance to study at St Thomas School, Jagadhri and are now independent and making their own contribution to the community in which they live.

For further information contact the Global Mission Office or Friends of Jagadhri, c/o 50/4 Admiral Cres, Hamilton 3210, New Zealand.

Church of North India project to combat human trafficking

Trafficking in women and children is considered as a contemporary form of slavery and a gross violation of women’s and children’s basic human rights by the international community.

The purposes for which women and children are trafficked are as follows:

• prostitution/sex work
• forced marriage
• domestic work
• agricultural labour
• construction work
• carpet industry, garment industry
• forced begging
• camel jockeying
• adoption trade
• organ harvesting

Project goals

1. To empower and strengthen women by developing strategies to address vulnerabilities both of the potential victims and rescued trafficked survivors by providing Vocational Training to them as a preventative and protective measure.
2. To empower the community to address the issue of human trafficking by generating awareness among the different stakeholders in the community and by building their capacities to address this issue.
3. To rehabilitate and reintegrate survivors into the mainstream of the society with a life of dignity.
4. To prosecute traffickers.

Support this project

You can give generously to the Moderator's Special Appeal - our target is just $250 per parish or $3 per person.Other donations are gratefully received.