THE PARENTS of the Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove who died after she was kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been overhwhelmed by an appeal for funds.
John and Lorna Norgrove decided to donate an additional £25,000 of their own savings to help fund new projects and asked their supporters to match the funds.
But they did not just match what they had put in, they contributed nearly four times more.
Ms Norgrove, 36, from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, was killed by a US grenade during a failed attempt to rescue her in 2010.
She had been working on humanitarian projects when she was seized by rebels.
Since her death, her parents established The Linda Norgrove Foundation to help women and children affected by the war in Afghanistan because they wanted their daughter to be remembered for her contribution to life rather than her tragic death.
Since the Foundation was set up in 2010 in Linda’s memory it has distributed more than a million pounds to help women and children affected by the war in Afghanistan. It has funded over 80 grass roots projects.
John and Lorna Norgrove
The new special appeal has seen some £115,000 raised - with £90,000 raised by supporters. That is £55,000 more than was raised in the same period last year.
Mrs Norgrove said: “Every day the postman was bringing new cheques and our funds were increasing at the rate of more than £1,000 per day.
"The money is vitally important but we’ve also been touched by the letters and messages of support and encouragement for what we are trying to achieve in this wonderful country which our daughter loved so much.”
The long term projects the Linda Norgrove Foundation support include a home in Kabul for children with disabilities, a school for poor children and widows and university scholarships.
New projects have included equipping 80 women with the means to generate income through silkworm rearing, spinning and weaving, the Ascend programme which inspires young women to climb mountains, and two projects in the remote Wakhan valley, one for the planting of trees, small orchards and kitchen gardens, another teaching basic hygiene to remote pastoralists and nomads.
The couple said they had developed a commitment to causes over the past six years and do not feel ready to stop when so many people’s life chances depend on LNF’s support "especially now that other charities have scaled back their operations, leaving Afghans feeling abandoned".
Mr Norgrove said: “We have several great long term projects that rely on our regular funds and where it’s impossible to stop funding without dire immediate consequences.
“But at the same time we constantly receive applications for inspirational new projects and with our dwindling funds we simply weren’t able to support them.”
The Foundation is run solely by volunteers with administration costs covered by an anonymous donor. They say that means almost all the money raised goes directly to projects in Afghanistan.
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