January 2020 The trustees decided to support a local student, Lena Shimmin, who is fundraising for a year’s voluntary work through Project Trust. She’ll be working in a school in Ghana. We gave £100. NOTE: Lena was unfortunately unable to go to Ghana due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Project Trust has refunded the £100 to COAT.
COAT also donated £850 to the Kinamba Community Programme, based in Ulverston and working in Kigale, Rwanda. This will pay for one month’s supply of lunches for 137 school children and 13 staff, and porridge and bread for 80 nursery children in the mornings. https://kinambaproject.org.uk/about-us/
March 2020
The COAT trustees agreed to donate £200 to PHASE Worldwide towards providing toilets in Bama in Mugu, in Far West Nepal (not all villagers have a toilet). PHASE supplies materials for the householders to build a basic ‘hut’, with a drainage hole, pipe and squat toilet, teaches villagers how to construct it and provides education about the importance of good sanitation and hygiene. Local connection with a retired GP in Windermere. phaseworldwide.org
We also donated £200 to Five Talents towards a motorbike in the Aru area of the Democratic Republic of Congo to be used by outreach workers who travel around the local communities providing training in literacy, business skills, savings and loans groups. Local connection through a Five Talents trustee who lives in Carlisle. www.fivetalents.org.uk
May 2020
The COAT trustees agreed to donate £500 to Concern Worldwide to support their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Bangladesh they aim to ensure the availability of 1 month’s supply of food to the Rohingya refugees in the camps in Cox’s Bazar. They have also been distributing information leaflets about COVID-19 to communities in 3 districts in other parts of the country. No local connection but we have worked with Concern Worldwide before and this is an emergency situation. https://www.concern.org.uk/
We also donated £500 to the Kinamba Community Fund to provide emergency packages to the local community during the lockdown period in Kigali, Rwanda because of coronavirus. Packages contain maize flour, beans, cooking oil and soap. Local connection (based in Ulverston, Cumbria) https://kinambaproject
July 2020
The trustees agreed to support local charity DeWoDe who were fundraising for items needed at the Pakegido Health Centre, Uganda. The Health Centre has expanded with a new maternity ward and labour room extension. COAT paid for a foetal heart machine at a cost of £575. Foetal heart rate monitoring during labour may detect birth asphyxia. https://www.facebook.com/DeWoDe/
We also donated £380 to Village Water towards their two-year water, hygiene and sanitation project in George Compound, an unplanned, overcrowded shanty town in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. This will pay for an overhead projector to be used when training 80 local Volunteer Community Health Workers offering door- to-door health education around improved hygiene and sanitation behaviour in the community and in schools. https://villagewater.org/
September 2020
COAT agreed to donate £200 to CRMI Children of Hope towards the costs of headscan thermometers and hand sanitising stations for use in their 2 schools in Bombo and Nakaseke. Due to coronavirus there is currently a lockdown, but when the schools return the government has indicated that daily temperature checks of arriving students will be necessary. These thermometers will also be invaluable during Children of Hope’s annual Medical Missions where they treat large number of patients. Local Cumbrian link as Children of Hope are based in Kirkby Lonsdale. www.childrenofhope.org.uk
The trustees also agreed to support Toybox with a donation of £360 to pay for the process of providing birth registration for street children in Nepal, enabling them to gain an official identity which will give them some protection and enable them to access services. Local link through someone in Appleby. https://toybox.org.uk/support/campaigns/birthcertificate
Lastly, we donated £225 to Because All Children Matter who are helping women get off the street in Nairobi, Kenya by providing housing, food, and support starting up a business so they have a sustainable future. Local link through a trustee who lives in Blennerhasset. www.becauseallchildrenmatter.org
November 2020
COAT donated £750 to Legs4Africa towards transportation of prothestic limbs to sub-Saharan Africa. Local link through a nurse from the Cumberland Infirmary. www.legs4africa.org
The trustees also agreed to donate £100 to CRMI (Children of Hope) towards more equipment to help schools get children back in (see also September’s project). Local Cumbrian link as Children of Hope are based in Kirkby Lonsdale. www.childrenofhope.org.uk