As supporters of CBW and PTI know, before the merger both charities began to move away from focusing their operations on the UK towards empowering and resourcing partners overseas and EPW will be continuing with this approach.
Key to this strategy is the establishment of Regional Hubs and Centres. Hubs will be “full service” centres for training and book distribution, with the Hub Managers taking the lead in organising EPW’s activities in the region. Centres will be “mini-hubs” managed from the UK, with our contacts at the Centres often being part of our Train the Trainer programme. They will also provide storage facilities for books used in training or stocks for distribution to local pastors.
EPW now has working regional Hubs in West Africa (Lagos, Nigeria), Southeast Africa (Zomba, Malawi) and South Asia (Chennai, India). Over the next twelve months, we are seeking to establish a fourth Hub for Southeast Asia (based in Thailand) and several Centres in Uganda, Ghana, Pakistan and Romania.
Hubs and Centres require large quantities of books and training resources and therefore the number of pallets we now send has increased substantially. Since we despatched our first pallet to Chennai a year ago, we have sent nearly 4 tonnes in 14 large consignments. And this is in addition to the 1037 boxes of books we despatched to individual pastors during this period.
Thankfully the supply of books from donors in the UK has kept pace with the expansion. We are tremendously grateful for donations of whole libraries from some individuals and the recent gift of excellent books from IVP/SPCK and the Bible Society following stock rationalisation at both organisations.