A GROUP of women living near Wallingford have just returned from visiting refugee projects they support in Jordan.

The women’s fact-finding mission has given renewed impetus to fundraising for Brightwell Supporting Refugees – a home-grown charity which in its short life has already raised over £7,000.

They took out tablets and computers to kick-start new IT projects in schools, as well as donating warm winter clothes.

The six members of the group funded the trip themselves, and visited a number of schools.

The group’s co-chairwoman Helen O’Connor said Jordan was short of oil and water.

She added: “It has also taken the fall out of the region’s many conflicts - waves of Palestinians in 1948, Iranians, Iraqis and – over the past five years – over one million Syrian refugees. “The Zaatari Refugee Camp near the Syrian border is now Jordan’s fourth largest settlement.”

The group’s main focus was not the camps but projects to help refugees to build new lives in Jordan.

They took IT equipment to Hope School, near Amman, and thick coats to Asraq School in the bleak Eastern Desert, to help children through the imminent harsh winter.

They also helped distribute food parcels to individual families in Madaba.

Brightwell Supporting Refugees’ next fundraiser will be a pub quiz at the Red Lion, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, on Monday, November 27 at 7.30pm.

A carols night for Syria is at St James’s Church on December 11 at 6.30 pm.