Local MP visits craft and food bazaar at Basepoint Business Centre Swindon.
Systems Test Solutions (STS), a Swindon based telecoms company who are based at Basepoint Business Centre, Rivermead Drive, West Swindon, held a bazaar on Friday 23 March to raise money for Help Age India and Lights for Learning. North Swindon Member of Parliament Justin Tomlinson popped in to meet STS staff, Lights of Learning inventor Roger Mugridge as well as Basepoint staff and licensees. There was a unique collection of items made by crafts people in India - from intricately carved wooden iPhone holders complete with an individual piece of art, to handmade bound writers’ journals, thoughtful quotes etched on glass and beautifully made jewellery. The clever cooks from STS also sold a selection of mouthwatering cakes and Indian snacks. Help Age India was set up in 1978 and now operates in 22 states, raising resources to protect the rights of India’s elderly and provide relief to them through various interventions. They reach out to over 1.5 million elders through its services and have provided well over one million treatments.
Lights for Learning, a charity based in Cricklade near Swindon, aims to help bring light to those in the shadows, enabling education after dark by harnessing the power of the sun. Lights for Learning volunteers have travelled to many countries in Africa where they install solar panels which charge locally sourced car batteries to power LED lights. The impact of being able to learn after the sun has set where mains electricity is not available or the supply is sporadic is spectacular. The systems have been installed in maternity clinics and hospitals were the drop in child mortality has been equally dramatic. Inventor Roger Mugridge demonstrated the solar powered lights between and has agreed to supply solar powered systems to ten schools in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu in India for which needs to raise £5,000. He will also show off his latest project which links a solar charged battery to an inverter which provides a stable current to allow laptops to be safely used without mains electricity.