Supporting Oasis by Lesley Marsh

St Mary’s Church has supported The Oasis Centre in Gorton for many years.  Anne Robinson was the first to be involved, also Maureen and Geoff Woolley.   Six years ago, retired and widowed, I was looking for somewhere to ‘help’ and had thought about working in a food bank or asking to be trained as a Samaritan.  Then Anne Robinson, who was caring for her husband at that time, told me she could no longer act as liaison between St. Mary’s and the Centre so I took over from her, and also became a volunteer.

I am one of approximately 65 volunteers alongside the paid staff of over 15 members.  Oasis has grown enormously from its early days over 20 years ago in a dilapidated church hall in Gorton where Victoria Armstrong, its founder, first had a vision of helping those in the community.  Clearly the best way of seeing and understanding the work Oasis does is either by visiting (EVERYONE is welcome!), or looking at the website (The Oasis Centre, Gorton).  Basically it provides food, education, crisis support, job seeking, a charity shop and much much more!  My role is in Education, both as a support worker in basic Maths and English and as a teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).  This gives me the opportunity to work and socialise with people from many different countries – eg Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Angola, Pakistan and Iran, not the sort of opportunity you would experience in Alderley Edge!  I go every Monday, and frequently my car is piled high with donations from church members for the shop. St Catherine’s Church, Birtles, also supports Oasis and gives me food donations at Easter, Harvest and Christmas, which are gratefully received, along with those from St Mary’s.  Hunger is a very real problem in this part of Manchester and Oasis maintains an emergency clothes and food parcel support for the most needy, it is a marvellous place! 

We have a basket at the rear of the Church to leave much needed donations to Oasis, or see the website if you would like to donate to directly to the Charity.