Being MP often gives me the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people and organisations. Last month was one of those months which threw up several such opportunities.  

I always have time for people who give their time freely to help others, and our Voluntary Sector Partnership brings together hundreds of such individuals. It was therefore a pleasure for me to address the VSP conference early in the month at the Marina Centre. With the theme of the conference being ‘Helping to Build Great Yarmouth’s Future’, the event was an ideal opportunity to commend the voluntary sector for their efforts in much of the regeneration of many of our communities throughout the Borough. 

Straight after the conference I attended the official opening of the John Grant Sports Hall by the Princess Royal, which further emphasised just what can be achieved when people pull together, in this case to raise all the funds for their project. The Sports Hall is a huge achievement and will be enjoyed by the many pupils who attend the school. Well done to you all.  

Continuing along the vein of volunteering, I regularly lend my support to many charities and one such charity is SOS Children’s Villages. SOS is an international charity providing homes and education for thousands of children around the world who have been orphaned by war or HIV/AIDS. I recently had the opportunity to visit an SOS Village in Ghana and present a cheque for £15,000 from the Parliamentary Football Club. Meeting the staff and children there was a very humbling experience but it was clear that SOS Village’s are successfully ensuring these children have a lifeline right the way through to adulthood.  

The next organisation I want to write about is the Holocaust Education Trust, and their programme ‘Lessons From Auschwitz’. I was invited to accompany two students from Great Yarmouth with others from around the UK to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. Nothing can quite prepare you for the reality of what took place there and the dozens of the other concentration camps. The images we see in the media do not compare with the reality of being inside the camps where the atrocities took place during the Second World War. The tour guides, rightly so, did not spare us any details when describing the events over the years and at the end of the day a service was held by the Rabbi who accompanied us.     

It really was an experience I will never forget and I am sure all the students who went on that visit will agree and totally refute the allegation that Government funding for these visits is a ‘gimmick’. I would suggest the leader of the opposition talks to students about their experience at the camp and then ask if they see this as a gimmick.  

Looking forward to next month, I’d like to publicise a unique opportunity for businesses in Great Yarmouth to hear about the opportunities for them to cash in on contracts for the 2012 Olympics. On 28 March at the Hotel Victoria in Lowestoft, Morag Stuart, Head of Procurement at the Olympic Delivery Authority will be speaking about how local companies can profit from the games.  

There are some 75,000 contracts worth over £6bn will be up for grabs over the next five years to companies large and small throughout the UK, the vast majority of which have yet to be awarded. 

The Olympics might be being held in London but there’s no reason why businesses here in Great Yarmouth can’t be part of 2012. There are some fantastic opportunities for Great Yarmouth businesses to cash in on this event, and I hope to see many of you there at the event on later this month. I will be sending out invite letters to local businesses this week, however if you would like further information, please call my Westminster office on 0207 219 3447 for more details.  

Lastly, many of you have already got back to me with your nomination for the Tiffin Cup, the Parliamentary awards for the best South Asian restaurant in the UK. Nominations have been extended to 24 March, so if you haven’t done so already make sure you let me know, so we can send forward one of Great Yarmouth’s curry houses to compete for the award. Your nominations can be emailed to me at wrighta@parliament.uk.