CHAP-AID – The Charitable Arm of the Chaplaincy of Aquitaine

 

Hello and welcome to the CHAP-AID section of our website.

 

You may have already read about the Chaplaincy’s Stewardship programme and here we set out the information for the charitable arm of the Chaplaincy. (Should you have any questions then do get in contact with your local sector representative on the Council – names given below. Thank you.)

 

As well as the important information given below, we do aim to keep you informed of CHAP-AID’s charitable giving through a regular NEWSLETTER, which you are able to access here (document or PDF).

 

The Chaplaincy cannot give money to any outside person or organisation directly. The law requires it to pass such monies through a separate entity. So, to make its giving possible and legal, in 2006 the Chaplaincy created the necessary charitable body – known as an ‘Association Caritative’ or an ‘Association Culturelle’. Called CHAP-AID, the charity’s objectives are to collect and distribute funds to enable it to provide relief to those in need, to support outreach and to care for individuals in France or elsewhere, and to collect and distribute funds to those ends, in a spirit of Christian concern.

 

The management of CHAP-AID is carried out by a Council which is elected annually at the AGM of the Association.

 

The Council of CHAP-AID recommends one or two charities that the whole chaplaincy should support and also encourages local sectors to adopt one or two additional charities according to the interest of local members. (The Chaplaincy is currently divided into five sectors.)

 

In 2010 the agreed charity supported by the entire Chaplaincy is Emmaus. Some general information about Emmaus is given below and we would also recommend you look up “Emmaus 2010 Gironde” or “Emmaus 2010 Perigueux”, for example:

http://www.emmaus47.fr

http://lanouaille.blogs.sudouest.com/archive/2010/04/22/le-public-a-boude-la-vente-emmaus.html

 

The Council also recommends that the Chaplaincy sets itself a target of 10% of the current running costs of the chaplaincy for its level of charitable giving. (With a current annual budget of around €100,000 we hope to raise at least an additional €10,000 for charity in 2010. In fact in 2009 we were able to raise nearly €17,000!).

 

If an individual wishes to raise money for a charity whose objectives closely match those of the Chaplaincy, this may be done through one of the sectors, by obtaining the agreement of your local sector membership and committee at the planning stage at the end of each year.

 

Any charity which CHAP-AID supports must not only have aims compatible with the aims and objectives of CHAP-AID but must also be a formally registered charity. To ensure that this is so, details of the charity must first be registered with the CHAP-AID Council using a specially produced Application Form (access at the bottom of this document). The Council will then decide on the validity of the charity. The written agreement of the Council must be obtained before any fundraising can take place. Application Forms can be downloaded (see above) or obtained from the Chairman of CHAP-AID or from your local representative or a local warden. (See below for contact details.)

 

The Process for Giving:

 

Please note that CHAP-AID can only receive money from individuals in the form of cash or cheques in Euros drawn on a French bank and made out in favour of CHAP-AID and not the Chaplaincy.

 

For those who are tax payers either in France or the UK there are tax-efficient ways of giving to charities. A brief outline is given below.

 

For French Tax Payers

Many well-established French-based charities are able to issue a Reçu Fiscal for any gifts given to them, and this enables donors who are French tax payers to receive a very generous 60% tax rebate in the following year if they present this Reçu to their French Tax Office when returning their tax forms.

 

CHAP-AID itself cannot yet issue such tax certificates for French income tax purposes. However, if those wishing to reclaim on their French tax, a solution can be found by writing a cheque or arranging a bank transfer directly to the charity concerned, with a request that a Recu Fiscal be issued.

 

For UK Tax Payers

It is important to note that UK Gift Aid is a separate issue. CHAP-AID and the Chaplaincy are not able to transfer funds to a UK based charity. Rather, sterling cheques should be sent directly to the charity concerned. If they are UK based the recipient charity may be able to provide a tax certificate for UK tax payers.

 

Legal Details

The Chaplaincy of Aquitaine is an Association Cultuelle and is governed by the Law on Associations of 1905.

 

CHAP-AID is the Charity Association of the Chaplaincy of Aquitaine under the law governing associations of 1901 No. W3320060028.

 

The registered office, or Siège Sociale, is Le Presbytère, 1 Lotissement la Caussade, 33270 Floirac.

 

Council Membership for 2010

 

President :                  The Chaplain, Revd Dr Paul Vrolijk

Committee Chairman

and Vice President:    Roger Cheale (e.mail: cheale@wanadoo.fr)

Minute Secretary:       Revd Gill Strachan (e.mail: (gillstrachan@wanadoo.fr)

Communications Officer: Madeleine Holmes (e.mail: madeleine@peladis.plus.com)

Treasurer:                   Brian Hogarth  (e.mail: brian.hogarth@btinternet.com)

Sector Representatives: 

Bordeaux: Lindsay Megraud   (e.mail: lmegraud@gmail.com)

Chancelade/Sorges: Philip Pearce     (e.mail: philip@stvictor.plus.com)

St Nathalène: Charlotte Sullivan (e.mail: kevet2adsl@aol.com)

Dronne Valley: Chris Clark  (e.mail: chrisclark2398@gmail.com)

Limeuil: Lynn Ralph  (e.mail: lynn.ralph@nordnet.fr)

Lot-et-Garonne: Brian Hogarth (e.mail: brian.hogarth@btinternet.com)

Charities being supported by the sectors for 2010

(apart from Emmaüs)

 

Bordeaux: Foyer Fraternel Gouffrand (local Protestant charity which aims to meet the needs of local people suffering from poverty and homelessness)

 

Dronne Valley: Fields of Life

 

Lot et Garonne: Shelterbox France

 

Limeuil: Shelterbox France and New Life in Christ Ministries International (help for street children in India).

 

Sorges/Chancelade: Paralysés de France
 

Ste Nathalène: Hou Moed (street children in South Africa)

 

CHAP-AID Application Form

An application form for a charity to be approved by CHAP-AID is available in document or pdf format.

 

CHAP-AID Fundraising Event Return Form

A fundraising event return form to be sent to the CHAP-AID treasurer is available in document or pdf format.

 

 

Emmaüs charity marks its 60th
October 30, 2009
 
HOMELESSNESS charity Emmaüs, founded by Abbé Pierre, is marking its 60th anniversary with a celebration at the Zénith de Paris concert hall today.
 
About 4,000 people are attending the day, which will include a film about Emmaüs’s history, debates, and a concert including Olivia Ruiz, Cali and Diams.
 
Emmaüs started with a community at Neuilly-Plaisance in the Ile-de-France in October 1949 and it now counts 117 communities in 34 countries and 15,000 people including volunteers, homeless community members and employees.
 
The inspiration came when Abbé Pierre welcomed, in a house he was restoring, a homeless ex-con who was considering suicide – asking him to in turn help others.
 
The communities provide a home for the homeless, where they can help themselves by collecting, sorting and reselling donated goods – however the charity also carries out many wider activities in the homelessness and anti-poverty cause.
 
Emmaüs is a secular organisation, despite its name which comes from the New Testament or the fact its founder was a priest.
 
“Abbé Pierre wanted to show what could be done faced with the immense needs of society after the war,” said the president of Emmaüs France Christophe Deltombe.
 
He went on to recruit people who could help him found communities across France. The charity became famous when Abbé Pierre called on the French to feel solidarity for the homeless in a severe winter in 1954 when several people died of cold. 'My friends, help!,' he said, on Radio Luxembourg. 'A woman has just died on the pavement, frozen, at 3.00 tonight, clutching the paper which was used to evict her the day before yesterday.”
 
Mr Deltombe said the struggle continues, including helping poor workers who do not have the means to pay for accommodation, and immigrants.
 
The name of the charity was inspired by a passage in which Jesus appears to two men walking to the village of Emmaüs, who are discouraged because of his death.
 
Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007 and was often called the most popular personality in France, chose it as a symbol of hope. He was famous both for his dedication to the homeless and for his unorthodox views – despite being a Catholic priest he supported gay adoption and married and women priests and criticised the Pope’s stance on condom use. His slogan was: “don’t just endure, always act.”
 
Father Gildas Kerheul, assistant secretary general of the conference of bishops of France, said: “He set an example of a personality who, responding to the needs of the moment, managed to create a collective dimension to his actions."
 
Monseigneur Bernard Housset, president of the church’s council for solidarity, said: “Abbé Pierre was able to have consideration for the dispossessed, acting not ‘for’ them, but ‘with’ them.”