Most people will remember the phenomenal response to the Live Aid appeal in 1985, when pop star Bob Geldof turned public concern about the terrible famine in Ethiopia into a multi-million pound charity operation. On a more modest scale, this new awareness in the UK about third world poverty was also the start of WORKAID.

During Lent 1985, an ecumenical Christian group met in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, to discuss development issues, with Michael Buerk's heart-rending TV images uppermost in their minds . At the end of the study session, some of the group decided to keep on meeting but to put their time into tackling the problems of poverty instead of just talking about them.
A public meeting at Amersham Free Church in September attracted around a dozen people from several other local churches. These people formed a committee to explore the idea further and they became the core membership of WORKAID, although the charity's name wasn't chosen until February 1986, shortly before it was registered. The members decided to collect tools and equipment that could be used to teach vocational skills, enabling people living in poverty to learn a trade and become self-supporting.

The driving force behind WORKAID in its earliest years came from Kenneth Nunn, a semi-retired solicitor, whose determination and leadership skills got the fledgling charity off the ground. Another important influence on the direction of the charity was John Boughton, owner of the TT Boughton & Sons Ltd engineering company in Little Chalfont, who offered a disused shed on the firm's premises as WORKAID's first workshop. By early 1986, the group also included John Winter, the charity's first administrator Ray Richards and our chairman Sylvia Parrott.
In the first three years, this small group of dedicated volunteers collected and refurbished 1,290 items, which were sent to 22 projects in around 15 different countries, giving rise to the charity's motto 'Self-help Worldwide'.

Most of the projects supported were in Africa but early shipments were also sent to Brazil, Haiti, India, New Guinea, Peru, and the Solomon Islands, as well as to charitable groups in the UK.
Gradually the numbers of volunteers grew, the donated tools kept coming in and so did the requests for help from projects overseas. By 1989, WORKAID had outgrown the shed at Boughtons and the charity moved into larger premises at Sycamore Hall in Amersham.
As the operation expanded, it was decided to concentrate on supplying projects in East Africa, principally Kenya and Uganda, where reliable contacts had been built up and where there were enough requests from training schemes to fill a shipping container, making the transport arrangements more efficient. Smaller consignments continued to be sent to individual projects in East Africa - including Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe - and equipment was also donated to charities working in other parts of the world which could arrange their own transport. This is a policy which WORKAID still operates today.
From 1996 to 2001 the role of chairman was energetically fulfilled by John Geraghty, a businessman with an engineering background who had joined WORKAID as administrator in 1991. Under John's chairmanship, WORKAID continued to grow until lack of space once more became a problem.
The issue was resolved when Sir William Castell, chief executive of the health sciences company Amersham Plc, generously offered the rent-free use of an unoccupied industrial unit.
So in November 1995 the charity moved again to its present headquarters on the St George's Industrial Estate in Amersham. When the band of around 50 volunteers moved into the two-storey 5,000sq ft building, with its workshops, storage areas and office, it seemed unlikely the charity would ever be able to fill it. Ten years later, there are over 170 workshop volunteers and every inch of accommodation is in use. Much of this growth is due to the enthusiastic leadership of our current Chairman Sylvia Parrott, who took over the role in September 2001 having been the charity's Overseas Co-ordinator since 1989. In January 2006 Sylvia was awarded an MBE for services to East Africa.

Workaid's network of volunteers who collect and store tools also grew dramatically following an appeal on BBC1's Lifeline programme in November 2003. We now have 100 Area Organisers from Carlisle to Colchester and from Newquay to Norwich.

Since 1986, WORKAID has sent more than 20,000 tool kits, sewing machines, knitting machines, typewriters and duplicators to 1,356 projects worldwide. With an average of 30 individuals involved in each project, this means WORKAID has directly improved the lives of a staggering 40,500 people in some of the world's poorest communities.
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