Throughout 2023 Guernsey Aid has continued to fulfil its mission by supporting 9 different projects addressing basic needs in 5 different least developed countries. By the end of the year with the help of some match funding we will have raised and allocated a total of £35,000. Our work has been extremely varied including projects in health, education, sanitation, water, hygiene, women’s development, income generation and disaster relief.
In February at their own expense Dr Nick and Claudine visited the brand new primary school for ethnic minority children in remote Chak Chap village, northern Cambodia that Guernsey Aid funded last year in conjunction with United World Schools (see Spring 2023 newsletter). The children previously had no access to education at all and almost 100 enrolled immediately. The numbers are expected to rise steadily each year.
Then in October whilst in Malawi Dr Nick and Claudine visited another important project funded by Guernsey Aid last year, the ‘Streetwise’ community school newly built in conjunction with Roundtable Malawi in the Kanengo district of the capital city Lilongwe. The school is already providing local orphans and street children with an education and vocational training opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access.
On the same trip they visited the health clinic in Chembe fishing village, Cape Maclear where they worked in 2018 and saw for themselves the community latrine blocks that Guernsey Aid had helped to fund in response to an outbreak of cholera earlier in the year. The latrines had made a huge difference to sanitation and hygiene levels in an area where open defaecation was still commonly practiced.
Thanks as always are due to our Patron and all the Guernsey Aid Committee members for their continued support with a particular mention for Cherry McMillen who organised a very successful quiz night in March, Tim Paluch who raised more than £2,000 by running the London Marathon for us and Peter Keeling who works tirelessly as our Treasurer. The aim for 2024 is to further raise the profile of the charity in order to attract additional funds and thereby extend the work we are able to do with our trusted partners overseas. At our Autumn funding meeting we agreed to make a donation to the ‘Double Impact’ children’s healthcare appeal being run by Impact UK. As a result, the latest awards we have made to 3 of our trusted partners (namely The Lake Clinic in Cambodia, the Jibon Tari floating hospital in Bangladesh and the Zanzibar Outreach Programme in Tanzania which Nick briefly visited in November) will be matched funded.
Project work in 2023 (see photos in the gallery below)
1) The Children’s Ward and SCBU at St Francis Hospital in Katete, Zambia where we have continued our participation in the bed sponsorship scheme.
2) Designated medical equipment for Mwekako Health Centre, Chato District, Tanzania. Our donation has helped the Eleanor Foundation to equip a brand new health centre they are building in Mwekako village.
3) The Floating Clinic, Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia where we made a donation in support of their outreach programme that provides biosand water filters and floating vegetable gardens in the isolated floating communities on the lake.
4) Provision of community latrine blocks in Chembe village, Malawi. In response to an outbreak of cholera in a densely populated fishing village where open defaecation is still a common practice we have helped to build several strategically positioned community latrine blocks.
5) Women’s development tailoring project in Maraland. Using our longstanding links to the Mara people in NE India we have been able to supply new sewing machines and other replacement equipment to a women’s self-help vocational training group.
6) Donation to the Cyclone Freddy Flood Appeal in southern Malawi. Via our in-country partner, Roundtable Malawi, we made a swift and direct contribution to the relief effort following the devastating floods caused by Cyclone Freddy.
Guernsey Aid 