Pride of Australia: Container of Hope founder Christopher Moore restores power in village in Burundi after 25 years

CHRISTOPHER Moore says bringing back electricity to a village in Burundi that had been without power for 25 years is among his fondest memories of charity work.

CHRISTOPHER Moore says bringing back electricity to a village in Burundi that had been without power for 25 years is among his fondest memories of charity work.

Rebels had blown up the hydro-electric plant in Rweza and the villagers had no money to pay for a new power source.

Mr Moore said he set up the charity Container of Hope four years ago so he could help connect people in disadvantaged areas overseas with items that were no longer needed by businesses, charities and government agencies here.

“To get a generator was unbelievable to them,” Mr Moore says.

“You could tell by the smiles on their faces.

“They were thrilled to have power back.”

Container of Hope has sent goods worth millions of dollars to people desperately in need in countries such as Vanuatu, India, Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Each of them is filled with goods such as clothes, linen and medical equipment, but also more unusual items like a humidicrib and a four-wheel drive.

The Wynn Vale man’s work has been recognised with a nomination for News Corp Australia’s Pride of Australia medal in the Community Spirit category.

It started when Mr Moore’s wife Kerrie, who works at a nursing home in Paradise, told him about hospital beds that were going to be thrown away to make way for new ones.

At the time, he thought back to the conditions in hospitals the couple had visited in India as missionaries years before.

“Just compared to anything else I had seen, it was extremely primitive,” Mr Moore says.

Mr Moore got hold of a shipping container through a friend and then organised space at a warehouse in Edinburgh through Rotary’s Donations in Kind program.

Container of Hope has also been helped by donations from Mr Moore’s contacts as a financial planner and by members of the Rotary Club of Salisbury, where he is the membership director.

Mr Moore says he is motivated by his strong Christian beliefs.

Sometimes the most inspiring people live and work right beside us.

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