Camphill awarded highest honour for a voluntary group

A SUSTAINABLE farming community several miles outside Omagh where people with and without learning disabilities live and work together will be presented with the highest honour a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

Camphill Clanabogan is one of three organisations in west and north Tyrone to be given the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, which recognises outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities.

Camphill Clanabogan will receive its award from the Lord Lieutenant for County Tyrone, Robert Scott, later this year.

Then, in May 2021, two volunteers will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace along with other recipients.

The citation for the award reads, “Working out of love for people and the earth as a sustainable and inclusive life-sharing community.”

A sustainable village community with a biodynamic farm, vegetable gardens, various craft workshops, Camphill Clanabogan is home to a permanent community of around 50 people, plus 15 young volunteers who come each year and 40 employed staff members.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, the local Camphill community aims to build an inclusive life for people with and without a disability. Volunteering there can be a life-changing experience for many people.

Cherry How, a vocational co-worker volunteering at Camphill Clanabogan since 1990, said, “We are thrilled and honoured to receive this prestigious award for our work. We are very proud to have been chosen and have all the hard work recognised.”

She added, “Camphill was founded on volunteering and we hope that this award will inspire a new generation of people to try this way of sustainable community life, either living in or attending by day.”

Since Camphill began 80 years ago, near Aberdeen in Scotland, it has grown into an international movement of more than 100 centres in many countries, with short- and long-term volunteers of all ages and backgrounds joining from all parts of the world.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

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