|
SAVE THE CHILDREN PRESS RELEASE
An Ayrshire woman is the only Scottish volunteer of a
national charity, flying out this weekend to East Africa.
Becky Fleming, of Maybole, is flying out this Saturday,
October 29 to Ethiopia with five other UK Save the Children
volunteers. Before she left Becky launched an appeal
for hats to help keep newborn babies, who have no special
care facilities, survive by being cradled, naked but for the
hats, next to their mother’s bodies. She now has more than
200 to take with her. Becky said:" I am absolutely
thrilled by the response and just wanted to say thank you to
knitters for their kindness and hard-work.
“I have had to ask British Airways and Ethiopian Airlines to
increase my baggage allowance to take the hats and they’ve
doubled it- which is great!.”
Becky, who is chair of the Maybole Save the Children Branch
added that she would be flying through the night to Addis
Ababa with the charity’s team and then taking a 10 hour road
trip to the mountains of Amahra region to see water,
sanitation , hygiene, health worker and maternity training
projects run by the charity. The team then return to the
capital to see similar projects in an urban setting.
Becky , who has four children of her own and works as an
architect in Ayr said: “ I am so excited to be going. We
have had two days preparation so that we can hit the ground
running.”
The preparation included lots of information about the
projects, numerous injections and help to acclimatize with
the altitude as high as 8,000 feet in parts, which can cause
sickness. She has even been listening to Ethiopian music to
tune her ear in. The volunteers have also been instructed on
blogs and tweeting to keep a digital media record of the
trip.
On her return eight days later she is preparing to give
talks to local groups and interested parties across Scotland
to spread the word about the charity’s work – which also
includes helping children in Scotland.
The appeal for knitted teddies for Save the Children is
still ongoing however, to raise funds locally. Anyone
interested in knitting one can email Maybole STCF press
officer Liza Donaldson :
lizadonaldson@btinternet.com |
