FIVE hurdles have now been “miraculously” cleared on the way to founding a Brisbane refuge for mothers facing pressure to abort their babies.
The project, started by Pregnancy Crisis Inc (PCI), aims to provide Queensland’s first home to help pregnant women carry their babies to term.
“We needed a house, a willing parish, land, a builder willing to give his time to direct the project, volunteer support workers … and money,” PCI president Patti Camp said.
“St Peter’s parish, Rochedale, provided a house which was to have been removed to make way for expansion at the parish school.
“Another parish put up its hand to provide land for the house relocation and we’ve even found a builder to provide his time free to supervise the project.
“PCI also recently ran a training evening and 26 volunteers turned up to train as support workers.
“It’s all happened so miraculously that we know it’s God’s will that such a refuge be created.”
However, Mrs Camp said a further hurdle needed to be cleared before the project could be up and running to advance PCI’s goals.
“We estimate that about $250,000 will be required,” she said.
“However, we hope to be able to reduce this amount by donations of goods such as bricks and also services – any donations of time by tradespersons would be gratefully received.
“This is for removal and relocation of the house as well as the gaining of all necessary approvals to meet government requirements.
“The house is currently only a two-bedroom house and will need to be expanded to five bedrooms to house up to four expectant mothers and a house manager.
“It’s a lot of money but we estimate that it will still be about $100,000 cheaper than building from scratch.”
PCI has gone from strength to strength since Archbishop John Bathersby officially launched it last November.
At the time Mrs Camp said PCI, with its support from archdiocesan prayer groups and Australian religious congregations, was believed to be the first prayer-based group of its kind.
She also said the group would be following Mother Teresa’s charism to see Jesus in the poorest of the poor.
“The little ones – the unborn – are the poorest of the poor in Australia,” she said.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of the organisation.
PCI’s membership has since grown to about 125 with a further 225 supporters.
PCI provides 24-hours-a-day service, seven days a week, 365 days a year to support women needing help.
Many of these women have suffered violence and threats from their partners to force them to consider abortion as the only solution to their pregnancies.
Services range from provision of trained support personnel for women with crisis pregnancies, baby packs for impoverished families and short-term crisis accommodation.
A crisis home would provide an important addition to the service.
Those wishing to donate and support the project can contact Patti Camp via email at pcrisis@bigpond.com or by phoning 1300 777 777.
Postal donations can be sent to PCI, PO Box 1707 Springwood 4127.
