Rose’s family is rising from poverty

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]


Since Rose approached Child of Hope’s Income Generating Activity team in 2013 for a business grant and training – to set up a small business selling vegetables – she and her husband have been able to purchase a small plot of land where they will build a home one day.

That’s a terrific lift for her family in just over two years of running her business, and she says for the first time she feels secure for the future.

Rose also sells charcoal, which people use for cooking. That’s not an easy job as she has to collect the charcoal and carry it to her home to sell it. But she is so happy that the business enables her to feed and clothe her family and pay the rent. It also means that she can send two of her children to a local school while two others attend the CoH school, leaving her to care for her baby.

To read more about how simple business training and a £25 start-up grant helps mums out of poverty (and you can donate a business grant, if you like)… click here.

How we can help your business

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

Take a look at this list of benefits we offer your business… it’s huge! 

Of course we provide flexible storage space for your stock – and can even hire you office space in our business suite – but there are loads of ways we can help your business become more profitable!

STORAGE: You can have as much or little space as you need, and can keep changing to suit the ebbs and flows of business… read more

STORE ANYTHING: Stock, office equipment, surplus, tools, returns, archives…

GOODS IN AND OUT: We’ll receive your deliveries and ensure your despatched are sent safely. A free service for storage customers.

CONFIDENTIAL SHREDDING: Complete security for the stuff you need disposed of… read more

OFFICE SPACE: High-quality, fully-serviced office accommodation in Bournemouth to rent, ranging from 100 to 1000 sq ft… read more

24/7 ACCESS FOR TRADESMEN: External lock-ups in our secure compound can be accessed at any time, day or night. Great for tradesmen’s tools, equipment and materials.

SECURITY: The safety of your stuff is our top priority and take it very seriously. Read more…

MAILBOX POSTAL ADDRESS: Our PO box mail service is a great option for home businesses, small business and start-ups in need of the credibility of a business address… read more

So there it is… every reason for you to consider Store & Secure to help you build your business. Call us or e-mail us today!

SC21 Silver: how our customers benefit

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

SC21 Silver acts as an umbrella for our continual improvement programme – ensuring that benefits are maintained and sustained, and yielding prolonged reduction in waste. 

Importantly, continual improvement and sustained efficiency provide two huge advantages for our customers:

1.  Right first time… every time: during 2014 our quality performance was 99.99%; this year it is 100%.

2.  On-time: we haven’t been late with a single delivery in the last three years.

These are massive reasons for you to consider Groveley as part of your supply chain. We also offer you close ties and collaboration. Why not call or e-mail us today?

It’s time to give even greater support to vulnerable children and families

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

The extra free services that Child of Hope provides for its pupils and their families are unique and have a huge impact – these are our welfare, healthcare and Income Generating Activity teams. We have so many stories of restoring children from disease… rescuing them from abuse… actually saving their lives in some cases. Plus all the times we help families rise up from crippling poverty.

Now it’s time to give them even greater support, and to do that, we plan to bring the three teams closer together and work collaboratively, so that each staff member thinks holistically rather than focussing just on their own objectives. We want to set up a child development unit that will draw together the various strands of our child/family support structure and improve our service to them.

To do this, we will appoint an overall manager to think strategically and monitor/evaluate the teams’ achievements – and we will provide the technology so team members can see what’s going on with any particular child/family. This requires a new small building to give them their own combined space, where cross-team staff can talk to each other as they do their work, provide rooms for family meetings, child counselling, business start-up meetings, etc… plus a proper clean room with sink/sluice for the health team.

The unit will cost approximately £19,000 and we have started the process of raising funds. This is something that will help many of the poorest and most vulnerable children and families in the Namatala slum – if you would like to help us, please make a donation. Click here to make an online donation, or click here to pay by cheque or online banking. For more information on the unit, please click here.

Retailers – extra storage space for Christmas

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

If you need extra space for storing your Christmas stock, come and take advantage of the great business benefits of flexible self-storage at Store & Secure!

Lots of Bournemouth shops and online businesses are taking space in our expanding self-storage facility – because you can they can scale up or down quickly for seasonal stock requirements, releasing their storage space for more effective use. 

Plus these other clear benefits:

• Low-cost

• No rates nor utility charges

• Free parking

• Open 7 days a week

• 24-hour access

• Free goods-in/out service!

• Free use of forklift, pallet/hand trucks and trolleys

• Free tea and coffee!

Store and Secure self-storage provides high-quality storage for businesses, large or small. Located in Bournemouth, behind Castlepoint, we are highly-secure, cost-effective and easily accessible from the surrounding areas. You can store just about anything in our units…our space becomes your space.

Prices: From as little as £5 per week! And that includes all business rates, heating, lighting and power costs, security and general maintenance charges.

Security: With constant supervision, monitored CCTV cameras and alarm systems, our locked units are accessible to you and only you.

Unit sizes: Units are available from 25 to 20,000 square feet of self-contained units, and you are able to adjust your space as your storage requirements expand and contract.

Ah well, nearly…

[Online PR for Store & Secure self-storage]

Shame, we didn’t get an award this year at the industry ceremonies… but then we didn’t really expect to come top in the UK (and Europe) two years running!

But sincere congratulations go to this year’s winner of the best UK facility of the year category at the Self Storage Association awards ceremony – Stock N Lock in Worcester. Well done, you deserve it.

It’s great to see another self-storage company investing in providing exceptional customer service.

Environmental improvements keep coming

[Photography and online PR for Groveley Precision Engineering]

Groveley’s drive for continuous environmental improvement under ISO 14001 has been boosted with a restructuring of how waste is stored and recycled – which follows hot on the heels of new plant and equipment with added environmental awareness and lower energy use that has reduced our carbon footprint.

The three main strands of ISO 14001 help us (a) minimise how our operations negatively affect the environment, (b) comply with regulations and (c) continually improve in the above.

Accreditation since 2011 (and just renewed this September) has improved resource efficiency, reduced waste, driven down costs and provided assurance to stakeholders that environmental impact is being measured and improved. 

Our internal systems are regularly externally-audited to ensure they are kept in order and are subject to continuous improvement. 

The excellent buy-in from our workforce has contributed significantly. They are:

• provided with environmental awareness training, 

• engaged in our environmental improvement programme, 

• involved in energy conservation initiatives that minimise energy, and 

• educated to prevent pollution.

Environmental aspects are considered within all our design, manufacturing and assembly capabilities. And of course, Groveley minimises waste through reuse and recycling, sending waste to landfill as a last resort.

Betty loves helping slum mums out of poverty

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

Meet Betty – she’s the Income Generating Activities (IGA) co-ordinator for Child of Hope and her role is to help mums succeed in the businesses we help them start.

As the co-ordinator she goes out to the Namatala slum to visit the mothers who are involved in businesses which have been set up with a grant from CoH. This has enabled her to make many friends in the community and to learn about the mothers and their various and many needs. She is well-known in the community, being a bridge between the mothers and CoH.

And actually, being employed means that she is able to pay her own rent and feed and clothe her family, for which she is very grateful! 

Betty originally started working in the CoH Nursery and now in her current role loves to help the mothers achieve their goals. The IGA scheme is very impressive as it helps to raise families out of poverty to provide basic needs for their families. Lives are being transformed and the changes are making the mothers and their families feel happy and secure as they look to the future.

When people would like a business start-up and grant, a full profile is taken and they are assessed as to whether they may be given a full or part grant to start their business. The business training scheme operates one day per week for four weeks to help the mums acquire new skills to enable them to succeed.

There are many kinds of businesses which the mothers are involved in. Probably the most popular is running a shop (really a stall by the road or in the market). There they can sell vegetables, rice, bananas and many other everyday essentials. Some are more inventive, selling charcoal for fuel, or selling meat by visiting door-to-door in the evening when it is cooler. As well as all these projects there are ‘restaurants’, salon and barber shop and tailoring.

Would you like to donate a £25 start-up grant to a slum mum?… click here for details.

Mark is glad to be off the streets

[Online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

Family break-up is often the start of terrible disasters for young children that often ends up with them living on the streets, subject to all kinds of dangers. It’s great when we can help kids that are so vulnerable, like Mark.

After his parents split up, Mark lived for a while with his grandmother. But she couldn’t look after him properly, so after school each day, he would go and live on the streets. When our welfare staff found out, they brought him into our children’s home, where he lives today.

Here’s what Mark said… it is exactly as spoken apart from minor grammatical changes to keep the flavour of the culture while making ‘Ugandan English’ understandable to Western readers!

“Before I came to Child of Hope I used to live in the streets. My parents didn’t have much to take care of me to take me to school. My mother lives in Busea and my father lives in Moroto. I am together with my grandmother.

“Well, one day when I was at home, then Uncle Moses and Auntie Bex, plus Pastor Philip, came and said: “Can we register this child for Child of Hope?” Then my parents also allowed.

“I didn’t get much to eat because my parents used to drink and we didn’t have enough money for food. I started Child of Hope when I was six years old.

“Child of Hope has done so great in my life and my family. They provide me with free shoes, free food, everything I need. I’m now thirteen and a half. I am now in P6 class. I would like to be an astronaut.”

With Uganda ranked one of the biggest alcohol-consuming nation in the world – despite poverty – a lot of children in the Namatala slum are badly affected by their parents’ drink problem. Many are simply left to fend for themselves.

If you would like to sponsor a child like Mark through Child of Hope’s school and so he (or she) can benefit from our amazing child support structure, please click here for details.

New shoes

[Photography and online PR for slum charity Child of Hope]

The social impact of what we do in the Namatala slum is quick-hitting… one of the first benefits for a child starting at our school is to receive a pair of new shoes – probably the first pair of shoes he’s ever had.

Most kids in the slum normally wander around bare-footed and they pick up nasty ‘jiggers’ – the chigoe flea that bores into their feet, producing an inflammatory skin disease calledtungiasis. This can lead to tetanus and gangrene if not dealt with.

So shoes are a terrific benefit, helping to prevent this and other foot injuries. And they help our school nurse, because then she doesn’t have to pull jiggers out of feet every day!

If you'd like to buy five children a pair of shoes each, which costs just £5, please click here!