Hello all, I thought it was about time that I introduce myself to the Cairdeas community! I’m Sophie, a university student from the North-East, and I’ve been doing some of Cairdeas’ fundraising and communication work for little over a month. This year has been difficult in so many ways which is all the more reason to be proud of what has been achieved and to thank you – our supporters – for your continued support despite whatever challenges you may be facing yourselves.

Although most of us have been in lockdown, that hasn’t stopped the work. In fact, it’s more important than ever before. Countries where we work are facing huge economic hardship. Recently, we were able to give a contribution to PcERC in Uganda. Even relatively simple tasks like organising transport and meetings are made 100 times more complicated in the midst of a global pandemic and we have to think of alternatives. Fortunately, Cairdeas has a car and we were able to pay for a driver and petrol for those who do not have cars and were at higher risk of contracting COVID19 on public transport. This allowed 3 of our senior nurses and clinical officers to travel safely to work and visit their patients. It has also provided the driver, Jimmy, with a much-needed source of income as like mnay on daily wages there is no support system when all your income disapears. Here is what one of our most valued and senior nurses, Florence, sharing what this has meant.  'The entire PcERC staff would like to acknowledge our funders especially Cairdeas for daily transport contribution to attend to our patients. We thank you so much for protecting us from using public transport during this Covid 19 pandemic . The majority of the Ugandans do not use SOPs especially passengers using public transport. May God Bless You'

However, there is also not-so-good news. For small international development charities like ourselves, the biggest single challenge we face is funding. Many UK funders have amended their giving criteria to only support UK-based projects and the foreign aid budget is being cut. As a small charity, it’s important that we look to the future and keep exploring all of our options. Corporate fundraising has been identified as a potential avenue. If this is something any of our supporters feel they have a link to, we would be delighted to hear from you.

If I may, I’d also like to take a minute to draw your attention to our fundraising accounts on Amazon Smile https://smile.amazon.co.uk , Give As You Live https://www.giveasyoulive.com and Easyfundraising https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk. Thousands of retailers are signed up to these websites and when you make a purchase, they give a small donation to us at no extra cost to you. It’s a simple (and free) way of raising funds which soon mount up and allow us to keep supporting our partners. Next time you shop online, please do consider using these sites (you can also find the links on the website).

We welcome donations through our website and will be focussing these on COVID-19 related expenses and needs for our partners and of course if you can committ to regular support that allows us to plan ahead. 2 of our partners also have their own Globalgiving campaigns right now so please consider donating directly and even think of becoming regular donors as they seek to build sustainability. PcERC in Uganda are seeking to bring hope through their care for patients and families https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/covid-19-bringing-hope-through-palliative-care/ and Peace Hospice Adjumani are reaching out to refugee families https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/adjumani-palliative-care-fund/

Thank you again for reading our blog posts and following our work. Your support really does make a difference and I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear that we are planning some exciting ways to get involved in raising friends and raising funds for the coming year!