Vendman are very proud of their latest ’employee’ as PV Editor Ian Reynolds-Young discovered.
Autumn, when the holidays are over and the kids go back to school, can sometimes feel even more like the arrival of a New Year than January does…
‘Ring out the old, ring in the new’, as the old saying goes, and this Autumn, there’s a whole lot of ‘new’ happening.
Leaving aside the oft-reported acquisition of Vendman by Vianet, the company has just won a contract that takes it into a completely new industry; it’s been jointly nominated for a top award with one of its biggest customers and a new deal has been signed that launches Vendman into yet another new country…
There’ll be more to come on these major business milestones but for now, Rob Little would prefer to concentrate on his ‘New Girl’.
‘We’ve hired a new employee – kind of! – through Steve and Sharon Gallagher of Gem Vending’, Rob said. ‘In 2016, they created The Gallagher Trust, which funds and manages a Community Based Living Programme in Rwanda. It provides homes, care, love, education and recreation to vulnerable and orphaned young people with learning and physical disabilities, who were abandoned when The Noel Orphanage closed its doors in December, 2014
‘We’ve agreed to sponsor Divine Furaha as a Support Worker. She’s 36 years old and she’s been working with The Gallagher Trust since 2014. She has two children of her own; she’s a single parent and she’d had a difficult time recently, so she was thrilled and tearful when she was told we’d decided to sponsor her.’
Disability is viewed as a shameful stigma in much of Rwanda – these young vulnerable people were considered the lowest priority. Years of mistreatment and malnutrition has further traumatised them – some even died through neglect. The Gallagher Trust makes a different to the lives of 20 of these people who have endured such an appalling start in life.
The ‘Homes for Life’ Programme is funding 4 homes within the community to provide dignity, hygiene and respect. Just £100 covers all medical costs for an entire house for a whole month.
Divine will look after Kanini, Jojo, Oscar, Norbert and Mukeshabaganga in one of these family homes. ‘Sharon told me that Divine is hard working and trustworthy with a lovely, caring nature and she shows her charges real affection’, Rob said. ‘It seems to us that Divine is one of those people who has the least to give and yet, somehow, manages to give the most. We’re privileged that we can make her life just that little bit easier. We’ve covered her salary and her government medical insurance for the next twelve months.’
- You, too, can help. For more information and to make a donation, please visit the Gallagher Trust’s ‘Just giving’ page, by clicking here – and thanks.
