Haswel Mwai Chitete (second from right)    

Canon Collins Scholar 2007-2008

MA Development Studies

Head of Programme Development  at Africare Malawi

© Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust. Registered Charity No 1102028

Last updated: 13 May 2013

Canon John Collins

 

Canon John Collins, who served at St Paul’s Cathedral for 33 years, was the catalyst for several of Britain’s most significant post-war social movements. He is best known for his work in creating the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Christian Action and the Anti Apartheid Movement.

 

Canon Collins visited South Africa for the first time in 1954. In response to the Treason Trial and the apartheid government’s increasingly repressive regime, Collins established the Defence and Aid Fund to pay activists’ legal expenses and care for their families. His initiative soon became an international network, secretly channelling legal aid to activists including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

 

The Canon Collins Trust was founded in 1981 to support education for refugees from South Africa exiled in the UK. After his death in 1983, the Trust took Canon Collins’ name. It continues to represent his values of freedom, equality and social justice by providing educational opportunities to southern Africa’s future leaders.

 

Read More

 

Click here to read an article about the International Defence and Aid Fund, written by Denis Herbstein in 1991.

 

Click here to read about Ethel de Keyser, who lead the Trust for the first twenty-five years.