Madam,

When we first joined the Montgomeryshire committee of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution in 1998, we didn’t imagine that we would still being involved 20 years later.

The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) has been going for nearly 160 years. They help out people from the farming community in times of financial crisis.

Throughout Wales and England, the charity has volunteers like us who help to promote the charity and raise money for the work they do. And course we have fun as a committee in the process. We like having the chance to make a difference in our community, not only by raising money but also by ‘getting the RABI name out there’ so people know who to call in time of need.

Volunteering for RABI has provided us with some fantastic opportunities. We have done all sorts of things including running the London 10K, climbing to the summit of Snowdon for the first time (in our forties), welly-wanging and attending a service at Westminster Abbey.

Regardless of the venue or the occasion we have met some lovely people along the way. Whether we’re shaking hands with HRH The Duke of Gloucester at the annual RABI AGM, or giving a sausage roll to Mr Davies at a Tractor run, we all have something in common.

Within our lifetimes we will continue to witness huge changes within the farming industry, but the need for charitable organisations like RABI won’t go away.

We still remember the words of an Elfryn Daniels, a farmer from Carmarthenshire, speaking at the charity’s AGM five years ago: “In farming, just as in life itself, now and again there are occasions when catastrophic events can and do happen – which can overtake individuals, whole families, and sometimes whole districts or areas, over which they have very little or no control at all. There but for the grace of God go you and I. That’s why it is so important that RABI exists, to assist people from our farming world in times of exceptional need and distress.”

During a crisis, RABI can help those in financial hardship by providing grants for immediate domestic and household expenses. While they cannot help specifically with business costs, if the harsh winter has left you, or someone you know who works in farming, unable to pay household bills please call their confidential freephone helpline number 0808 281 9490 or email [email protected]

Yours etc,

Ann Robinson and Joan Watkins, RABI supporters and members of the charity’s Montgomeryshire committee.

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