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Hoping you had an enjoyable Easter.

It was all go here in Penicuik, Scotland.

Our Spring Fling fundraiser on Easter Saturday went very well. We had a great turnout and added and extra £466 to our Mothers Waiting Shelter project pot. Thanks to everyone who supported this event, held at the Penicuik Storehouse:https://www.penicuikstorehouse.org/

We had prosecco, cake, other refreshments, a raffle, a live band,a Birthday Girl (!), and 4 top level doctors talking about their work in Zambia.

This was an amazing time of connections. Apart from local community members, we were deeply honoured to have 3 top NHS Lanarkshire Consultants with us, in person, to talk about their work in Zambia.

Mr Alberto Gregori is an Orthopaedic Surgeon, Chair of World Orthopaedic Concern and a Trustee of FlySpec Zambia:https://www.flyspec.org/

His wife, Dr Trish O'Connor, is an Emergency Medicine Consultant who works in Global Health in Zambia and Malawi.

Both were just back from a busy stint in Zambia, yet made time to come through from the west of Scotland to talk about their work. They also brought a boxload of Zambian crafts for our permanent stall at the Storehouse.

Dr John Logan, Public Health Medical Consultant, NHS Lanarkshire, also travelled a distance to talk about Lanarkshire's proposed twinning link with Chitambo. Lanarkshire and Chitambo are historically linked through David Livingston, who was born in Lanarkshire and died at Chitambo.

We also had Dr Marion Taylor, Retired GP and Hospice Director, tuning in by Zoom from New Zealand (at 6am her time!). Marion grew up at Chitambo and initiated this Mothers Waiting Project through inspiring her local Whanganui Rotary club to donate the lion's share of the building costs. Here is a link to her presentation about that: https://www.dropbox.com/s/npoe805cty4ylrs/video1446278668.mp4?dl=0

Other talks may follow in due course.

We were also very privileged to have 3 members of the Zambian Diaspora in Scotland present at the event, including Ms Agnes Ngulube-Holmes, who designs our Storehouse stall and took the attached photos, and 2 high flying young Zambian graduates from the University of Edinburgh.

AND, unbelievably, we had members of the Scottish Diaspora in Zambia present too! The Waddell family from Mwandi in western Zambia just happened to be in Scotland for family reasons and came along. They won the star prize...the Easter hamper!

Ida Waddell is a member of the FoCH Zambia Board. She is a highly experienced nurse and advisor on all aspects of health care in Zambia. She also brought a load of beautiful Zambian crafts, including baskets made by an elderly widow in the Mwandi area.

All proceeds from this event are augmenting our Crowdfunding Appeal: <https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/chitambomumsinsaka>

We are over half way through this 8-week appeal and, with on and offline pledges, have so far raised about 50% of our £10,000 total.

Thank you for YOUR support with this and please help us to reach our total by sharing the above link as widely as possible.

THANK YOU