Thursday, October 27, 2011

A HAPPY ENDING TO THE CONTAINER SAGA

An ambulance for Arrow Web Hospital
For those of you who have been following our blog, you may remember that Arrow Kenya board had to make a very difficult decision in August, to give up on our project to ship recycled medical equipment from the UK to Kenya. Although many of our UK supporters had managed to fundraise £1800 to pay the shipping charges, our main donor pulled out at the last minute. Everyone was really disappointed as we had been working on this for over two years with Aid to Hospitals Worldwide http://www.a2hw.org.uk , and Alison Lowndes from AVIF http://www.avif.org.uk/.

We contacted the UK donors and asked them if they would like their donations returned or used to pay for the conversion of a second hand matatu (minibus) to an ambulance and for new mattresses and covers for hospital beds. As we need to transfer about 20-30 patients per month to larger specialist hospitals, the Kenyan National Hospital Insurance Fund inspectors had told us that an ambulance was a priority. So, in August our local garage set to work on the matatu; meeting the NHIF standards which included a bed, water supply and first aid equipment.

Working on the inside of the ambulance after the seats had been taken out


Our new ambulance - fit for purpose

The ambulance is now being checked over by the Ministry of Health before we can start using it. This will make a big difference to patients who have had to be transferred in Bram's car or by board members in the past.
Thank you again to Alison Lowndes and all our very generous UK donors who made this possible.

Melissa's dream is still in the lead
With just over three days of voting to go, Melissa's dream to fund urgently needed resuscitation equipment for newborn babies at Arrow Web Hospital, is still in the lead.

With 4892 votes so far, we are nearly 1000 votes ahead of our nearest rival. However, a lot can happen in a few days, so please keep voting and pass on the link to your friends. Your response to this has been overwhelming- so a big thank you to everyone who has supported us, especially to Melissa Ostoga from Australia. Melissa started supporting us via our "village" on Nabuur, a global network of volunteers.

Melissa's dream will help ensure all mothers will deliver healthy babies at Arrow Web Hospital

Thursday, October 13, 2011

MELISSA'S DREAM FOR US COULD COME TRUE

A premature baby delivered at Arrow Web Hospital

We are really pleased to let you know that Melissa's Dream which we told you about on Monday could come true. Today Melissa's Dream has the most votes of 113 different dreams so far. Of course we need to keep up the momentum and ask as many of our contacts as possible to vote and tell their friends. There are still seventeen days of voting to go.

Thank you so much to everyone who has already voted and of course to Melissa for her Dream which will buy lifesaving resuscitation equipment for our newborn babies.

You can keep track of the voting and vote yourself, if you haven't already, using this link.



Monday, October 10, 2011

PLEASE HELP MELISSA'S DREAM FOR US COME TRUE

Your vote could fund resuscitation equipment for newborn babies at Arrow Web Hospital

Melissa Ostoja, one of our supporters in Australia has posted her dream for Arrow Web Hospital on the Sunsuper Dreams website. By adding your vote, you can make Melissa's dream come true and save lives in the Nairobi slums.
Over 1500 babies are delivered at the hospital every year, but if a baby has breathing difficulties our doctors and midwives do not have the equipment to help them, so the babies could die.
If Melissa's dream receives the highest number of votes this month, she will be awarded $5000 to make her dream come true. So please take a few minutes to vote and pass the link on to as many of your contacts as possible.
Thank you so much Melissa for your support and for trying to raise funds for Arrow Web Hospital.

Two healthy twins delivered at Arrow Web Hospital