Get involved
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Staff Interest
Over 100 members of Trust staff, across a wide cross section of
professions and disciplines, have registered their interest in the
link with Kisiizi. Such interest ranges from just being kept
informed through to helping to arrange visits (from Chester to
Kisiizi and vice versa) and actually participating in the visits.
All staff expressing interest have been entered on to a database
and will be the first to know about major milestones in the
establishment and development of the link.
If anyone wishes to add their name and contact details to the
database, please contact Pam Hodgson ( ext. 3039 or via email pam.hodgson@nhs.net ).
Fund Raising
The Trust 'kickstarted' the fund-raising effort for this and
other 'corporate social responsibility'-related projects in May
2007. A bid for seedcorn funding to the Tropical Health &
Education Trust (THET) was successful in December 2007 and the
Celebration of Achievement event (6th March 2008) swelled the
coffers further. Much of this initial funding will be used to fund
the cost of sending a team of Countess (and University of Chester)
staff to Uganda to undertake a 'scoping' visit (see below).
The Trust has recently re-launched the Staff Lottery, which will
see some of the proceeds allocated to the Kisiizi project fund and
consideration will be given to introducing 'Payroll giving'
schemes, such as 'Pennies from Heaven', thus allowing those staff
who wish to do so to contribute regularly to the project fund.
At its April 2008 meeting, the Trust's Board of Directors
approved arrangements to put the project on to a charitable
footing. This will allow any equipment purchased for Kisiizi to be
VAT exempt and will provide a discrete fund into which all
donations, regular or 'one off', can be coded.
Equipment and other donations
Whilst acknowledging that the link is to be established for
mainly sustainable educational purposes, the Trust continues to
investigate the means by which surplus equipment and supplies may
be forwarded to Kisiizi, based on an assessment of need and value.
In some cases, the cost of shipping goods to Uganda may be greater
than providing cash for local purchase by colleagues at Kisiizi.
Complex items of equipment are unlikely to be of value due to a
lack of expertise/experience of their use or maintenance. The
scoping visit will consider this issue and hence allow the Trust to
consider a more specific list of equipment requirements at a point
in the future.
Funding Links(120KB)
Making Donations(342KB)
Payroll Giving Scheme(192KB)