John and Poppy Spens
John and Poppy Spens worked in South Sudan for nearly five years from 2006 to 2011. Poppy developed several health programmes while John initially coordinated a vocational training college and micro enterprise scheme and later managed a number of school construction and water and sanitation projects. In 2008, they founded The Brickworks and in 2009 The Brickworks became a registered UK charity. The purpose of The Brickworks is to raise money to support projects in South Sudan.
In 2010, it supported:
- The refurbishment of a half finished building that is now in use as a children’s ward and eye clinic.
- Two students at the International Health Sciences University, Kampala with fees and living expenses.
- Toolkits for students graduating from the Yei Vocational Training College and some new staff accommodation.
- The construction of 3 classrooms for a primary school in Maridi.
- Paid for the roof of a new church.
Our goal is that every penny given to The Brickworks will be used to fund projects in South Sudan. We use a small amount of the tax we recover from gift aid payments to meet our small administrative costs (such as website maintenance) but the majority of the tax recovered is added to the sums that we send to Sudan. You can view a copy of our most recent annual report and accounts on the Charity Commission’s website.
The Brickworks has six trustees. John and Poppy Spens are the current Chairman and Secretary. The other four Trustees are Revd Brian Wakelin, Assistant Minister of Christchurch Winchester; Malcolm Lemon, Eileen Allen and Mike Whitehead. All the trustees have visited South Sudan in the last three years, some of them several times. When travelling to Sudan, the trustees meet their own travel costs.
