Children In Need Each year in November we invite our 20,000 odd subscribers to do their bit for Children in Need and there is no financial pain involved whatsoever. What we do is ask our subscribers to cooperate by logging onto our web site and forwarding our email to friends and colleagues. We offer to make a donation to Children in Need along the following lines : 1p per http://www.aberfeldycottages.co.uk/ site hit, a further 10p for every "prices and availability" enquiry and £10.00 for every booking made. To date the hitting, clicking, forwarding and booking has raised £360.00 in 2004, £344 in 2005, and £280 in 2006 i.e. a total of £984.00.   Thrift Shop We recently organised and ran a thrift shop in the former Free Church in Chapel Street Aberfeldy and with a number of local helpers raised in excess of £4,500, a record sum for such an event. The funds were in aid of three charities and good causes, namely PICT Leprosy Trust, Eyes for Africa and Friends of Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital. PICT Leprosy Trust was established as a result of a Bearsden Academy schoolteacher, Jen Fisher, taking early retirement and deciding to exchange her comfortable Glasgow lifestyle for a small drab room in the slum area of Bangalore, South India where she assisted the rehabilitation of lepers. The sight of mothers and children trapped in atrocious living conditions was a profoundly moving experience for her and Jen returned to Scotland and established the Projects India Charitable Trust with the aim of raising enough funds to create a community school and child care centre in the small town of Chetpet near Bangalore. Very sadly Jen died shortly after and bequeathed much of her estate to fulfilling this dream. The school project is now underway, enabling women lepers and their children to live in dignity with some self-respect and independence. Plans are afoot to build further classrooms and employ more teachers and the Trust required funds to help them achieve this.  Eyes for Africa Society support and provide medical care and treatment to the sufferers of eye diseases and/or disorders and to restore sight of the curable blind, particularly in rural areas. Malawi has 110,000 people who are blind, 50% being due to cataract, which is a treatable condition. Funds were raised to enable this charity to organise 3 eye camps in Malawi, which will restore sight to 150 people.    The Friends of Aberfeldy Cottage Hospital continue in their efforts to make our local hospital as comfortable as possible for those patients requiring special palliative care. The Friends are involved in ensuring that the hospital's facilities afford patients and their visitors with the same pleasant environment as they have left at home. Items that they fund, which are outwith the Health Board's budget, include armchairs, television, CD players, furniture, coordinated colour schemes and complementary curtain fabrics and pictures on the wall. All of these help to soften the patients' surroundings and makes their stay as pleasant as possible.