Following on from our delicious bake sale a few weeks ago where we raised £151.74 (yay, thank you to everyone who came along!) for the Archie Foundation we thought we would take a wee trip to the charity itself to find out a bit more about what exactly they do. Laura, Kitty and I set up a meeting with Emma the fundraising manager and she set about telling us all the amazing things that the charity does. The Archie Foundation is based in Aberdeen but also helps children and their families in Dundee and the Highlands, working in almost 20 hospitals. Their main aim is to help make children’s stays in hospital less daunting and to provide specialist equipment and lots of toys! The Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital which the Archie Foundation is affiliated with, opened 10 years ago so it was recently decided that it needed a bit of a makeover. The High Ten Appeal was launched to raise £2million to fund this much needed makeover. Emma, the fundraising manager at the hospital showed us some amazing pictures of the plans they have for the hospital. The changes meant it hardly looked like a hospital anymore!
They are planning to add as much colour as possible to the outside and inside of the hospital, to try and make it a happier environment for the children who stay there. My favourite part of the plan is the life size animal figures made from plants (giraffes and elephants!) at the entrance that light up at night and a fish tank at the desk at perfect height for the children to see. They are also hoping to completely revamp the playroom in the hospital so that is has less small toys and instead bigger toys and games that the children can play together with. These toys will be easier to keep sterile while also being a bit different from the types of toys the children can find at home. Not only are they wanting to better the lives of children whilst in hospital but they also focus on the parents as well. Within the hospital there is a 20 bedroom parent’s accommodation allowing parents to be close to their children whilst they are in hospital, free of charge. With the money from the High Ten Appeal these facilities will become even more homely for the families, providing them with somewhere to try and relax whilst also providing better cooking facilities to make life in hospital as normal as is possible. The Archie Foundation also works with the staff in the hospital to help fund courses that will benefit the children’s hospital experience. These courses are often not funded by the NHS so the Archie Foundation allows the staff to develop their skills to benefit themselves and the children. There is a specialist play nurse at the hospital that works very hard to take the children’s minds off being in hospital and then a pain nurse that helps control and lessen the pain that they go through every day. Without the Archie Foundation things like this would not be possible.
Just when we thought this little charity couldn’t do anymore to help children in hospitals, Emma told us about the work they have started in Uganda called the ‘Archie in Africa Day’. With the help of over 90 schools in Aberdeen over one fundraising day, enough money was raised to help fund the first ever children’s operating theatre and surgical ward in Uganda. We all found this little addition to the charities work amazing and loved how it was school children in Aberdeen themselves helping the children in Uganda. What also makes this story so special is that every school that has helped fundraise for this appeal has their name written on a ‘leaf’ that makes up a ‘tree’ on the wall of the hospital. It was just amazing to hear that a small charity in Aberdeen could not only help children and families here in Scotland but also in somewhere as far away as Uganda.
For us Her Campus girls, we wanted to support a charity based in Aberdeen so we could see the benefits of our fundraising close to home. For me, the visit to the hospital showed just how much our money could really help. When I was fifteen I had back surgery in Edinburgh and much like the Archie Foundation, the Sick Kids Friends Foundation did so much for me whilst I was in hospital – I still have my certificate that I got after surgery! I also still remember the play nurse reading to me just before the anaesthetic started to work. It was the little things like this that made a huge difference to my hospital stay and that’s why the Archie Foundation is such a worthwhile charity as they can provide the same experience for children here in Aberdeen. We are all very excited to continue to raise money for the Archie Foundation throughout the year at our events and can’t wait to see the new and improved hospital with all its High Ten Appeal changes! We hope you’ll join us in supporting such a wonderful local charity.
Have a wee look at their website if you want to find out even more – http://www.archiefoundationhome.org.uk/