CHURCHGOERS have raised more than £32,000 to help a Cambodian children’s home help itself.

Members of various churches across Durham and Gateshead raised the money for the international children’s charity Global Care over three years.

The charity recently move its New Hope residential home for abandoned and orphaned children from expensive rented accommodation in Poi Pet to a rural site, where it built a more suitable new facility.

The cash raised in this region, under the banner of Global Care North East (GCNE), was used to buy paddy fields and develop agricultural schemes to make the home more self-sufficient.

Leaders can now grow their own rice and sell the surplus.

Three churches in particular played a key role in the fundraising: Elvet Methodist Church, Durham City, which raised £25,000; St Andrew’s Methodist Church, Brandon; and St John’s CE Church, Gateshead.

Paul Rowell, head of operations at Global Care, said: “The amazing generosity of our supporters in the North-East has made a tremendous difference to the lives of some incredibly vulnerable children in Cambodia, by helping this residential home develop a much more secure financial footing.”

John Scott, chair of GCNE, said the fundraising had made a significant difference.