Happy Christmas from FoCH
23rd Dec 2020
Happy Christmas to all Friends of Chitambo (FoCH) Trustees, members and supporters and all the very best for the New Year.
2020 has been a year and a half but FoCH has remained very active as you can see from this slide show: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7gZaVDfxvt3mbq9U8
Highlights have been:
Managing to provide a consignment of PPE to Chitambo early on in the pandemic, thanks to our CORRA Foundation grant funders and to our In-country Project Manager, Mr Consider Mudenda and his wonderful wife, Pharren, who is a skilled seamstress.
Raising £2,500 in fundraising events, despite the challenges of the pandemic. This was largely down to the huge efforts of FoCH Trustee, Richard Vallis, who undertook a big walking challenge, despite his own disability.
Backup support from FoCH Trustee, Levi Chifwaila, and his young son Ndabe, who shadowed Richard with keep fit activities of their own
Seeing the gardening project at Chitambo Hospital thriving
Congratulations to all who have enabled these developments.
Other less visible achievements include:
Our current 3 Scholarship student nurses completing their finals. Congratulations to them and thank you to our FoCH Trustee, Tililenji Phiri, who is obtaining their feedback on our scheme, for future reference.
Preparing for a new round of scholarships in January 2021, with continued support from Mr and Mrs Jan and James McGrory, who sponsored one student in the last round.
Preparing to send our annual financial support for ambulance maintenance/fuel supplement.
Delivering a Knowledge Broker training programme online to 23 Medical Librarians across 9 African countries, thanks to Dr Ann Wales, Programme Lead, Knowledge and Decision Support, DHI, Scotland; Mrs Mercy Moyo, Senior Programme Manager, ITOCA, South Africa; and Mrs Mercy Kakoma, Senior Medical Librarian, University of Zambia.
Planning a second round of Trauma and First Aid training to take place at Chitambo in March 2021, thanks to Dr Morgan Broccoli, Emergencycare Specialist and colleagues.
Appointing some wonderful new Board members in Scotland and Zambia, including our new Treasurer, Ross Isdale, who is transforming our accounting processes; and Karen Edwards and Ida Waddell in Zambia, both of whom have extensive experience of living and working in Zambia in health related roles. This brings the Zambian end of the Board to 6 highly qualified and expert Trustees who will meet in person on 30th December, to decide the future directions of the organisation. We have also appointed a new External Financial Adviser, Mr Peter Willett, who also has extensive experience of living and working as an Accountant in Zambia.
Completing our OSCR Return (annual report to the Scottish Charity Regulators) on time thanks to our current External Financial Adviser, Mr. Ngeme Ntuli, a top level Edinburgh Accountant, and our Treasurere, Ross Isdale. Ngeme has served us very well for many years but as Head of Department, is extremely busy in his day job. We thank him hugely for all his time and commitment over the years.
Producing a detailed evaluation report on emergency ambulance callout data, thanks to FoCH Trustees Dr Bridget Innes, and Mr Francis Zombe.
Producing data reports on emergency care resource (books and tablet pc) usage by frontline staff, thanks to FoCH Trustee, Heather Emond and Mr Norman Mukuma, Chitambo Hospital Nursing Officer.
Thank you to all our Trustees, members, and supporters who are enabling these and other activities. YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
With you aboard, our future is bright and exciting!