“Helping Hand” Appeal

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30062, 21 February 1963, Page 14

“Helping Hand” Appeal

To the vast majority of citizens the social work of the Salvation Army requires no recommendation. Generally this work is'done unobtrusively, with little direct recourse to public generosity. For this reason—and for many others—the combined appeal launched by the service clubs of Christchurch for money with which to rebuild the men’s social service centre at Addington should command an unstinted response. It is a commonplace that the Salvation Army helps those from whom the ordinary decent citizen is repelled—criminals, alcoholics, drug addicts, outcasts, all the varied human jetsam of society; nobody, it seems, is too disreputable, too unclean, too irredeemable, or too undeserving to have forfeited the army’s sympathetic interest Members of the army are prepared to sacrifice personal comfort and financial advantage in such dedicated service to fellow-mortajs. Much of this work has always been handicapped ‘ by inadequate facilities At Addington this inadequacy has become critical. A report in our news columns describes the unsatisfactory conditions under which the army is caring for about 80 men. all over the age of 60 in derelict buildings, most of which are long past their economic usefulness for any purpose, let alone as human habitations. Among the men who come to the Addington centre some voluntarily, others at the direction of the Courts—are many for whom there is no other refuge. If the centre did not exist, the community would be made far more aware of the real problems created by these old men. No government agency has yet been found to supply, tn quite the same way. the communal needs filled traditionally by the Salvation Army If the current appeal for £ 30.000 succeeds, the Government will contribute £70.000 as a subsidy towards reconstructing the Addington centre; but the! voluntary. non - political basis of the army’s work

will be maintained. Indus* trial facilities for rehMbili-

tating the inmates will be greatly improved; the men will live in surroundings more conducive to physical and moral health; and the devoted workers who staff the centre will be given more rewarding opportunities of endeavour. The Salvation Army has always held itself above sectarian rivalries; because of the rugged enthusiasm of its members it commends itself to thousands who might be irked by less informal methods. The army deserves the community’s support especially for shouldering nobly a burden that properly is the community’s: the care of old men for whom the decencies of life may mean little, but who nonetheless are an integral part of society.