More than oak-ay!

New office installation: When building design consultants MKP converted a barn for its own new premises in Hampshire, the company asked high-end joinery Kirolite to manufacture an open staircase in oak to match the barn’s original wood.

The split staircase had its challenges as there wasn’t a straight wall to be found in the former barn! It looks awesome in the centre of the main office, leading to a floating upper area. Stair treads incorporated a Wenge dark wood inlay.

Kirolite also designed and built four kitchens and several branded and lit storage units. MKP outlined the requirement and Kirolite handled full design and manufacture.

For more pictures, see: bit.ly/N22j3j

Latest news round-up from Child of Hope

Released today, the latest eNewsletter from UK charity Child of Hope with details of its latest activities and two new videos from its slum-based school in Uganda. Click the image to see a web version.

New video: what we do in a Ugandan slum

The latest video from UK charity Child of Hope is a summary of its work in the Namatala slum district in Uganda, providing free education and having enormous social impact with the poorest and most vulnerable slum children.

Click the image to watch it on their website, or you can watch it on YouTube and or watch/download from Vimeo. Enjoy!

Free communications and PR tips for small charities

The latest free communications and PR tips from Phil Dowding for small charities.

This issue covers building your database, news content, social media, LinkedIn charity page, tanking donors and press releases!

http://mad.ly/a5f384

Back to the kitchen

Child of Hope kitchen staff are back to their new kitchen after two weeks of tiling and improvements. Grace, head of health, reports: “Thanks to the support that enabled the kitchen to be repaired, we now have two taps within the room, new kitchen tiles and repainted walls.

“The kitchen staff is part of the health department and consists of Sam Tukei (nicknamed OB - Old Boy) and Rachel Nadudu; they are lovely cooks. They cook for around 350 people everyday; that’s around 35 kg of posho (made of maize flour) and 12 kg of beans. They also prepare 3 kg of porridge every morning for the nursery children.

“We are very happy with the new kitchen… thank you for the money as the repairs were needed to help us improve health and hygiene.” And yes, those pots are as big as they look!

That’s all white

This gorgeous minimalist kitchen in Italy isn’t one of Kirolite's installations… but they love it! Look at those amazing clean lines produced from modern solid surface material HI-MACS® – which stands out in every project for its elegance, functionality, technology and creative flexibility. It allows the development of exciting designs with no limits.

Interior designers… chat with Kirolite staff about any project where you would like to use solid surface materials. There are really no limits to how creative you can be! For more product information: www.himacs.eu

Location: Italy
Design: Simone Piva
Fabrication: Simone Piva
Photo: Francesca Bottazzin
Material: HI-MACS®, Alpine White

With expansion and an increased variety of work, Dorset high-end joinery Kirolite has appointed Nick Wyatt as project manager.
   Working alongside production manager Steve Butcher, Nick will help Kirolite meet its quality/cost/delivery control with improved scheduling systems.
   Joining from superyacht builder Sunseeker, where he was fit-out team leader over a team of 18 carpenters, Nick was keen for a new challenge in the same industry he knows so well.
   He said: “Expansion and new types of work bring their own set of problems for scheduling and production – the company is rising well to the challenge and my joining is part of its move into new areas.”

Picture by Phil Dowding

Digging his way back up

Child of Hope staff met this amazing guy on the roof of its school, shovelling cement despite his disability of losing a leg. He is Moses, one of the builders working on the construction of its third level.

He told his story that when he was working in Kampala a while back, a mob rose up, then soldiers arrived and started indiscriminately firing at the crowd (and stealing stuff from them). Moses was shot in both legs but managed to get away.

Moses says that ‘good samaritans’ helped him get to hospital where surgeons decided to remove the foot and lower leg below the knee, as it was far too damaged to save. He recovered and instead of choosing to beg on the side of the road (which is what many amputees end up doing) he thought he would still try to get some work. He has been working at the school since the foundations were built and is a very hard worker.

Whenever possible, Child of Hope recruits its staff and uses builders and tradesmen from residents of the Namatala slum where we work. They are the most needy people in the region so staff love to offer them the chance of work – it can lift them from the lowest levels of poverty.