Embracing and saving newborn lives in Kayole and around the world

Happy New Year to you all and what a fabulous idea already virally hitting the internet!

Resembling a baby-sized sleeping bag, crucially, the "Embrace" includes a warming device that can be removed and heated in a pan of water over a wood fire in only a few minutes. Once charged, the device "will keep the baby at a constant 37C (98F) for more than four hours".

Incredibly the product isn't even readily available yet but the word is out. Roll out will begin in Indian communities, but we'd like to purchase a number of these low cost devices that WILL help to save the lives of premature and underweight babies born in the area served by the ArrowWeb Hospital, a community hospital in the Kayole-Soweto region of the Nairobi slums. Providing in and outpatient care, laboratory services and an urgent-care centre to more than 34,000 patients, approx. 250 a week, with very little funding, ArrowWeb has a dire need for incubators. Albeit very necessary these life-saving devices are also very expensive and hard to transport safely, even when offered freely by organisations such as AID 2 Hospitals Worldwide. We are raising funds to purchase a supply of the "groundbreaking, inexpensive solution", designed by students at Stanford University, US.

Donating through our JustGiving site is simple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to us with Gift Aid on top (of every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer).

Please dig deep and help save some precious lives. Just click the widget below:

Virtual reality does good

Thanks to Summer volunteer, Charlotte, we've had a wonderful article published about our work by Catherine Scott of YPN. Ignoring all the embarrassing "about me" stuff, I'd like to thank everyone else involved in all our incredible achievements of 2009:

1. Securing Ingrid's future; fitting the water tank and building the new classroom, not to mention an incredible computer teaching station still in design stage. The feeding program has also been covered via a Payroll Giving commitment. You know who you are, those responsible xxx
2. Thanks also to MannaRelief who have offered another 6 months supply of  "glyconutrients; ... plant-sourced nutrients" en route to Ingrids with volunteers Bryn & Helena next month.
3. Fundraising by Zoe, Lydia and friends to help the RABUOR Community with sustainable chicken farming.
4. Progress made by Michael's Naivasha Youth Sport Centre.
5. Modern-day-Robin Hood outfit CO2 Balance helping to redirect funds, from companies offsetting carbon footprints, to communities we're involved with, providing them with brick-built energy-efficient stoves.
6. Challenging a community to build their own office in Yala with Deb and Alec. Here's a detailed storyboard hosted by Facebook. Helping to remove the unfortunate mindset that illness and poverty bring; despair, loss of hope and ability to help themselves, Edwards work in Yala shows people how to help themselves.
7. Sponsoring children through education.
8. Assisting the incredible progress made by the Mercy Home in Maseno and seeing Miss Leonidah Ayuma (pictured here with UK volunteer, Beckee) leave on a 2-year Business Management program at MMUST in Kakamega (Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology).
9. Epic fundraising activities like Simon's Tour d'Afrique during which he managed to meet up with the 2 boys he's sponsoring with the money raised.
10. Boxes of medical supplies reaching the ArrowWeb Hospital in Kayole, Nairobi from the TT Motorsport Medical Services on the Isle of Man.

100's of other fantastic ideas like this one are regularly passed on to those who can utilise the info to make a difference to their lives, simply and freely via the internet .

I'd also like to thank Ty of LordBarron.com for our fantastic new website, incorporating the blog.

Happy New Year, 2010, everyone!