|TOP|The Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) is soon to celebrate 21 years of providing vital assistance to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

The occasion on the 26th June will be marked when new President of the Methodist Conference the Rev Graham Carter will blow out the candles on a ‘virtual’ birthday cake.

Conference representatives will then get stuck into a real chocolate cake made only of Fairtrade ingredients that ensure farmers in poor countries are paid a fair and reliable price for their crops.

MRDF Director Kirsty Smith said: “We can all be part of tackling poverty. We may feel overwhelmed by the scale of the world’s problems, but even doing something small can change someone’s life for the better.

“Over the last 21 years MRDF, with the support of churches in the UK, has helped tens of thousands of individuals and communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to reach their full potential - these small miracles are worth celebrating!”

|QUOTE|MRDF will also make the most of the Conference to launch its new Small Miracles Harvest Pack which contains everything needed to celebrate Harvest including activities, posters, worship materials and stories of ‘small miracles’ in Nepal, Ethiopia and Cameroon.

Radika Rokaia is just one of thousands of people in developing countries around the world being supported by MRDF partners.

Through these partners Radika, who lives in the Simikot village in Nepal, has been helped to cultivate fresh apples despite the rocky terrain, low rainfall and freezing terrain of the region.

|AD|Thanks to the new techniques taught to her by the MRDF partners, Radika’s diet has been transformed from dried food during the winter months to fresh fruit and vegetables that she is able to grow all year long.

Special services and fundraising activities will be held across the country to mark the MRDF’s birthday at Harvest time.

The Harvest Pack will also help the thousands of churches taking part to bake their birthday cakes thanks to a special Fairtrade recipe developed specially by celebrity chef Jane Asher.

Around 3,000 Methodists have already signed up for the pack with many more orders expected over the course of the summer.

MRDF will also go into another year of serving with a revamped website that is being given a face lift to coincide with the release of the Harvest Pack.