Boxes and bags and buckets of tools were placed around the lectern and communion table on Pentecost Sunday. The congregation had turned out garages, cellars, cupboards, garden sheds, sewing boxes and anywhere else old and unwanted tools were lurking and brought them to church. Why? They were being donated to TWAM, Tools With A Mission www.twam.uk.

TWAM gathers tools donated by the public. They are then refurbished and packed into trade kits for training centres in Africa which teach skills such as carpentry, car maintenance, tailoring and many more. TWAM responds to requests from over 500 partner organisations in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, DR Congo and Tanzania. The training courses target the most vulnerable members of society. The training courses allow them to gain the skills to start their own businesses and enable them to support themselves and their families.

Sustainability

14,000 toolkits made up of 400,000 individual tools are sent to developing communities every year. The work of refurbishing tools is done by over 400 volunteers in the UK. It benefits the environment by keeping tools out of landfill where they would pollute water and soil systems. Tools which cannot be repaired are sold as scrap metal to be processed into useable material. TWAM’s work of refurbishing, recycling, and reusing tools saves over 1,134 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.