At their recent meeting in January the trustees of MJR decided to defer the Zong voyage for 12 months until the summer of 2020. As part of our larger Zong project, the plan is to sail a C18th square rigger fitted out as a replica slave ship around Britain. Our aim remains to provide the ship as a free resource to support local groups in developing associated activities and long term follow-up projects to build awareness and educate about the legacy of slavery.
The budget for the voyage is £175k and whilst we have raised nearly half of these funds, unfortunately we have not yet secured the full level of funding needed to allow us to confidently proceed with the project this June and July as originally hoped. We are still waiting on a number of funding options and whilst we remain confident full funding will be secured, we are also very conscious that we cannot commit to expenditure of funds we do not have. Therefore, after much prayerful consideration, the trustees have decided to postpone the voyage for one year until the summer of 2020.
Deferring the project will not only allow time to secure the necessary funding, but will also enable a greater level of planning, and concur with the feedback from some ports who felt that 2019 was ‘too soon’.
Meanwhile, our local networking, publicity and funding efforts continue and we would ask for all who read this update to consider how they could help with one or more of these. And, for those who do, please pray for the Zong project.
The budget for the voyage is £175k and whilst we have raised nearly half of these funds, unfortunately we have not yet secured the full level of funding needed to allow us to confidently proceed with the project this June and July as originally hoped. We are still waiting on a number of funding options and whilst we remain confident full funding will be secured, we are also very conscious that we cannot commit to expenditure of funds we do not have. Therefore, after much prayerful consideration, the trustees have decided to postpone the voyage for one year until the summer of 2020.
Deferring the project will not only allow time to secure the necessary funding, but will also enable a greater level of planning, and concur with the feedback from some ports who felt that 2019 was ‘too soon’.
Meanwhile, our local networking, publicity and funding efforts continue and we would ask for all who read this update to consider how they could help with one or more of these. And, for those who do, please pray for the Zong project.
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