News Bulletin 5: April / May 2010

Hold the front page!

At the recent AGM SpreadingHealth trustees agreed to sponsor a further five candidates. We await news from SHUMAS Cameroon as to who they are and from which villages.

The result of fundraising efforts last year (2009/2010) netted enough to send £5,313 to Cameroon for sponsorships of the ten nurses and nursing assistants now in training, so many thanks to all of SpreadingHealth’s supporters who helped with this. The decision to sponsor five more nurses sets a target for this year.

Talking of fundraising…

Alma Medical Centre staff have done it again! Their Easter cake sale and raffle raised £116. Thanks to those staff and patients who baked and bought cakes. Thanks too for their unfailing commitment to the aims of SpreadingHealth

Since October/November last year Geoff and Lene Gurney have helped with the compilation of these website News Bulletins and with communications support more generally. A mailing list of SpreadingHealth supporters since 2007 was used to launch the first Supporters Newsletter earlier in the year, and they included a fund raising idea putting together a list of people or organisations who would not mind receiving an introductory letter and might consider making a donation.

Geoff and Lene had a great result with their list. A private Fostering Organisation called Families for Children have agreed to raise money for SpreadingHealth in 2010/2011. Families for Children has foster carers based around a number of centres in Sussex, London and Hampshire, and one of their Centres will have SpreadingHealth as their chosen charity. Families for Children partners will match whatever the Centre raises, and they hope to contribute enough to sponsor two nurses for their three years training. Thank you Families for Children.

If you think this is a good way to raise funds, you may be able to do the same. Either just give Geoff and Lene the names and email addresses of people or organisations on your list and they will follow them up, or ask them for copies of an introductory letter that you can send.

Systems for making online donations via the SpreadingHealth website are being explored.

And it's not just about money…

An approach was made to Medisave, suppliers or medical equipment. We were immediately given a sphygmomanometer (a blood pressure measurer) and a stethoscope, and there may be more to come. What would be really good is for them to supply a “kit” to each SpreadingHealth graduate. For example a stethoscope, a sphygmomanometer, a tape measure, a fob watch and a low tech thermometer, etc. There was also a discussion with their marketing representative about a wind-up field microscope and he's going to look into that too. Thank you Medisave.

The design for a badge for SpreadingHealth graduates (see opposite). Thanks to Anna Pethen, a logo and graphics designer working in Sheffield, who has contributed her time and skills.

SpreadingHealth had a stand at the recent Final Year Nursing Students’ Careers Day at Bournemouth University. It generated a lot of interest amongst nurses, particularly for an idea of linking nursing students in the UK with our Cameroon nursing students as “e-pals”. 16 nurse students gave us their details and have been added to the SpreadingHealth supporters mailing list.

A project outline has been proposed to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine with the hope this might be taken up by a Masters student.  The aim of the project is to explore factors affecting the retention of nurses in rural areas. This is a big challenge in all Developing World healthcare systems and a focus of interest for the World Health Organisation.

SpreadingHealth is applying for Bond membership. Bond is a network of over 330 UK-based NGOs working in international development. Bond and its members aim to improve the extent and quality of the UK and Europe's contribution to international development, the eradication of global poverty and the upholding of human rights. If you would like more information about Bond please have a look at their website: www.bond.org.uk.

…that’s all for now.

**Together we are SpreadingHealth**

UK Registered Charity No: 1131624