St Aldates Church - Ruth Hollingdale-Vilella, Brazil

I am working for a social project called Casa da Esperança (House of Hope), which is run by the Episcopal Church in Piedade, Recife. The project is based on the edge of two slum area communities called Carolinas and Briga de Galo. There is a crèche for 60 pre-school children, which enables mothers to go out to work. I work within the slum community running a weekly child health clinic and hypertensive clinic. Much of my work involves networking between the church, the community and the social project, aiming to reduce social prejudice. I run an evangelistic/health group for pregnant women which meets weekly and provides follow-up home visits for all the women participating. I am also on the leadership team of the plant church that is developing in the slum, where I help lead the adolescent group. At present, we are in the midst of fundraising and planning to build a church and also further classrooms and a sports area.