Sir – It is a little while since we heard from Mr John White so it came as no surprise to see his letter (Aid not just Christian) on May 15. 

I think most would agree with him that aid is to be applauded, whoever gives it.


He somehow makes a connection between the Christian Aid Week envelope and the recent fall in donations of about 20 per cent, to the UHS Trust, which he supports.


In particular, he claims that 19th-century Christian missionaries are ‘almost certainly’ the cause of political antipathy to homosexuality in Uganda, therefore of recent parliamentary anti-homosexual legislation, and of the resulting press coverage which ‘may have discouraged some donors supporting projects in Uganda’.


All right-minded people must deplore this legislation, but those who support the Uganda Humanist Schools Trust cannot be in any doubt of the Trust’s ethos, and one might expect the controversy to spur them to give more generously, not less, to the cause they support.


I gained my own teaching qualification in Uganda, and taught science there many years ago. It has a wonderful people and a terrible history. Mr White finishes with a statement of the obvious when he says he is happier supporting schools that are not tied to any one religion.  The chairman of the Oxford Humanists would say that, wouldn’t he?
Frank Grenfell, Farmoor