st elizabeth hospice
St Elizabeth Hospice aims to improve the quality of life for adults with a life-limiting condition. We aim to meet all of our patients' physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs whilst giving support and help to family, friends and carers.
 Our services include an in-patient unit, day care services, out patient clinic, a Hospice at Home service, family support team, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and complementary therapies such as massage, reiki and aromatherapy.
 St Elizabeth Hospice is an independent charity and all of the wide-ranging services are provided free of charge to patients, families and carers. It costs £11 per minute to run St Elizabeth Hospice, with annual running costs of £5.9 million. "I cannot praise highly enough the staff, volunteers and hospice ethos. It made a very hard time more bearable. The Hospice was a beacon for us and helped us care for mum the best we could without distressing her or our children."

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Tumaini Home of Hope was born out Joan Smiths determination to help children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.  Some years ago Joan Smith, an ex-probation officer from Kent, England, retired to the shores of Mombasa, Kenya and while doing voluntary work at a hospital clinic she was asked to help a small girl who was very ill.  After giving her hospital treatment she was taken into the care of her uncle.  Some months passed and Joan was anxious to find out how the little girl was keeping.  She learned to her distress that, because the child had AIDS her uncle had taken her out into the bush and abandoned her, leaving her on her own to die.  The seed to help these children was sown, and has spent her retirement tirelessly working to establishing, building, maintaining and improving the orphanage she has founded.  Mothers that abandon their babies often do so because they believe that they are HIV positive or have AIDS and therefore think their baby has no hope. However, not all babies born to mothers with AIDS will contract AIDS. When tested immediately after birth virtually all babies born to mothers who have tested HIV positive will return a positive result. But an HIV positive result in a baby does not mean that it will develop into AIDS.  Since Tumaini opened in 2006, two children who when initially admitted to Home tested positive for HIV are now testing negative.'
‘Tumaini’ is a Swahili word for ‘hope’.  The Home accepts children (via Kenyan social Services) between the ages of 0-5 who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.  It provides a home, lots of loving care, and comfort to these unfortunate young children until they reach adulthood.  The standard of the care provided by the staff of the Home is excellent with trained nurses and a cook included on the staff.  The building is purpose built and well maintained with plans for expansion also being considered.

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Friends Academy - Nepal
Friends Academy School was established in February 2007, under the chairmanship of Mr. Yubahari Koirala (the Friends Academy Community School is a Nursery School catering for students between the ages of 5-10 years old). There are 14 members who initially contributed in the beginning for the registration and buying of the land for school buildings.
 
There are 5 classrooms made of bamboo walls and a thatched roof, the teacher’s office is separately built and is made of tin. Community support schemes built these at no cost; they carried wood, stone and helped to establish the school.
 
Help is provided from charities and community aid. The school has a 10 year plan to upgrade class rooms (proper building), computer, IT equipment and student promotion. By 2017 first group from Friends Academy will sit GCSEs or HSLC (High School Leaving Certificate), they will be looking for English teachers locally and internationally (if feasible from UK during gap year). The estimated cost for this is around £15000 - £25000 in the next 10 years and they hope to raise money for the school through charities and donations throughout the years.
Villagers are conscious and know the importance of education yet there are major issues affecting the development of the school and they are as follows:
 
Working in fields; parents need to go to the fields so they have toleave their children at home to prepare food by themselves.
 
Child labour; children start work from a very tender age of 8 years or earlier. Jobs tasks include; looking after their younger brothers and/or sisters, fetching wood, water and cleaning the cattle waste etc.
 
Distances; the children are required to walk long distances (at least 3 hours per day) there is no road or decent footpath. The Government schools are the best and the only school available in the village is up to Nursery level.
 
Wild animals; there is possible danger from wild animals, leopards, bears, monkeys which may harm them.
 
Weather; during the rainy season they cannot walk 3 hours per day in such diverse conditions and there is no decent road or rest house on the route to and from schools. Some times the river is too big to cross, if they cannot cross they will be absent from the school.
 
Telecommunication; there is no phone service in school to inform the cause of the absence.
 
Electricity; there is no electricity which they can use for reading in the evening; they survive in the kitchen with a fire or may be a kerosene lamp. Some people have solar power funded by the government and the villagers have to repay some to the government.
 
Medical help for minor injuries are treated but if any major accident happens they need to be carried by people to the nearest village market where treatment may happen.
Without the community self-help programmes the future prospects of the children of this area are very bleak. Due to Maoist problems, the poor medical system, the poor standard of education, lack of job or searching for a job, for better livelihood and schooling for children all are migrating to towns where they then remain putting money into the town and not returning to the village. For people who cannot go to the towns there is little hope of improving their future and their family’s future. As a result the village have opted for a self-help programme that relies on external/charity funding.
 
If you are interested in giving a donation please email:
 
jaidura@aol.com