What is Twinning?
Twinning is the mechanism through which SVP groups in developed countries provide support to SVP groups in developing countries. Twinning involves mutual prayer support, correspondence and regular financial support. SVP groups in England and Wales can currently twin with SVP groups in India, Sudan, South Sudan, Grenada, Guyana and Romania.
As SVP groups are, by their nature made up of local members of the community, in developing countries this can mean that local groups do not have access to significant funding. Twinning ensures that vital funding reaches even the poorest communities in countries where the SVP exists.
The financial support received by SVP groups in developing countries enables them to provide immediate emergency aid to those in need as well as financing longer term projects and schemes that make the local population self-sufficient, e.g. supplying bicycles, sewing machines, animals, or providing loans to start small business and digging wells to make communities sustainable.
As well as simple twinning between groups in participating nations, additional support can be provided in the form of financing for small projects (up to £1,000), student sponsorship and some larger projects, especially in the Sudan.
A further development has been the Disaster Fund, which is aimed at providing financial support to SVP groups living in disaster areas, who can then provide support to those in need in the local community, not just while the cameras are there, but in the longer term.