Alderney | March 1^st |  2021

Dear Friends

Still in Lockdown, six weeks on but the island has been Covid free from its ONE case for four weeks! Perhaps a little over-cautious, but we know they are trying to keep us safe. The sun has come out, but the winds are still cold.

AT LAST – a Virtual Presentation!

All these months doing Zoom calls means that I have got used to watching my face and so the idea that I could do a virtual presentation has felt less and less scary and then last week, I did my first! This was a simple introduction to the work of Children for Health. The live participants were all from African countries – I found it fun and exciting! There are a good number who registered, but could not come. I’ll be sending them a pre-recording of just the presentation. Let me know if you want this too.

I’ll do another one at 12:30 midday on March 15^th. The meetings will always be advertised in this community. I will cap it at a certain number as I want them to be small enough for everyone to get a question in if they want to during the Q&A. Here is the link if you want to come to this one.

Clare Hanbury is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: An Introduction to Children for Health and Q&A

Time: Mar 15, 2021 12:30 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/98352220657?pwd=ZEd2RFY4YVVLNHBDR010cWExOXJ2dz09

Meeting ID: 983 5222 0657

Passcode: z399S1

The idea is to offer interactive sessions where people who want to know more about CfH or who want to learn more about our content and activities can have a quick introduction.

We are going to introduce other topics too. Is there a topic that you’d like us to talk about?

Then there will be follow up meetings with those who want to discuss a partnership. It’s great to be on track for one of these with the Vaccine Network for Disease Control in Abuja, Nigeria  – whose values and activities are very aligned to ours. I met the young woman who introduced her team to us at the conference I mentioned in the previous diary.

SuperBetter Children in Zambia is a GO!

We are absolutely delighted to have secured a grant to work with Kelvin Nsekwila and his team in Zambia and we will be developing teachers guide and other resources that will document how we are implementing this programme over the coming 12 months. Here is Kelvin and the team on our project launch call last week:

Virtual training in Guam

We have concluded the second of a three-part training programme with our colleague in Guam who is going to facilitate a series of story writing activites with a group of chidlren. We are going to be learning what children have managed to do to help themsleves and others through this pandemic. We will then weave their ideas into a story and into the activity section of the storybook we create together.

It’s a really interesting process – doing this virtually.

Resource Downloads

We collect our download stats each month and we’re delighted to report that in February 2021, people from 46 countries downloaded 2772 items from our Free Resources section. Including nearly 600 posters and 700 storybooks! Items in the library are suitable for children, parents, educators, health workers and anyone else who works with children.

We have been adding content in new languages too, including Italian and Spanish! We’re so grateful to our wonderful volunteers for taking on the translation task so we can reach more people in more places.

INSTAGRAM

After many months of procrastination, I have finally taking the plunge and we launch our Instagram account THIS week. If you are an Instagram user PLEASE follow our account @childrenforhealth and share it with others.

We are doing this with the help of a volunteer who is an expert in running Instagram campaigns – thank you Rachel! Having her on board has taken the fear away and between her and a pro account on a design programme called ‘Canva’ who GIVES us this account – I’m hoping this will add to the people who we find us and then support us in their different ways.

FRIENDS!

We are ALWAYS on the lookout to add to our friends who support us with a monthly donation. So if you think you can support us in this way –  then please click this link to set it all up. It only takes a couple of minutes.

It’s worth repeating that without the support of our friends – we would not have survived last year. Now we are on the up, but we have a gap – so come and help us build the bridge!

With a huge heap of best wishes on you all as Spring approaches and the vaccination programme over here progresses… there’s a ‘new spring’ in our step.

Clare

P.S. See below the flooded campsite in front of one of the many Forts on this island.