Launch of "Precious Cargo" project with student midwives

As part of a joint effort to participate in the UN’s Millennium Development Goal of a reduction in overall worldwide maternal death rates, Motorcycle Outreach is partnering with StudentMidwives.Net together with midwives and other healthcare workers around the country to create a ground-breaking project called "Precious Cargo".

Precious Cargo project

 The plan is to send a scroll (one of the oldest forms of communication) on a global journey, visiting those involved with midwifery (one of the oldest professions) starting with a tour of UK hospitals and maternity units collecting signatures (and donations) as it travels.

Sheena Byrom OBE, one of UK's leading midwives, is supporting the campaign.

Example of a signed scroll (courtesy of S Ravensdale, Street Kids of India campaign)



Regional members of the National Association of Blood Bikes will be supporting the campaign by providing their trusted courier service for the scroll (the precious cargo) between the hospitals. The student midwives/midwives will facilitate the signing of the scroll during it's 24 hour visit at each location.

The scroll’s journey will start from Hampton Court Palace, London, on Saturday 28th September 2013. From there, it will do a tour of up to 50 hospitals until the end of November. A provisonal route will be published towards the end of August. The UK tour will be a "pilot" for the worldwide journey, that will begin after the UK leg has been completed, and will continue throughout 2014.

The website for the project can be found at www.precious-cargo.org .  People who sign the scroll will be invited to make a donation via Virgin Money Giving or the Precious Cargo website. For more information, contact Ron Common at  ron@motorcycleoutreach.org

Motorcycle Outreach at Horizons Unlimited 2013, Donington Park

[caption id="attachment_791" align="alignleft" width="300"] Simon's bike[/caption]

Motorcycle Outreach was, once again, represented at the Horizons Unlimited event , held for the first time at Donington Park (29th May –1st June 2013). The change of venue from Ripley to the larger Donington site proved to be a success (with a few lessons learned along the way) and it was interesting to see the event broadened to include all forms of adventure travel ie 4 x 4 s and bicycles in addition to motorcycles.

There were more trade shows for people to see as well as the usual array of fascinating presentations and events. Even the weather came good in the end.

With a new marquee, promotion banners and flyers produced just in time for the event, plus the usual attraction of Simon Milward’s overlander bike, the team (Ron, Craig, Barbara plus Ellen and Keith) managed to do some fantastic networking and make some valuable new contacts. As usual , Simon’s bike attracted lots of attention with some of its design features causing a few scratched heads. (No-one has yet worked out the purpose of the steering damper welded to the rear rack!)

[caption id="attachment_788" align="alignright" width="300"] the new stand[/caption]

The purpose of the event for us this year was to raise awareness and we’d like to thank Sam Manicom and Ian Harper , the HU event organisers, for their continued support for our charity by providing us with a free pitch , Andy at Magnum Offset Litho Ltd, for his graphic design support on our new promotion materials, Sam Manicom, Tiffany Coates and Paddy Tyson for their supportive testimonials, and Keith and Ellen for their help on the stand.

Thank you also to all those who visited our stand and please do keep in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

 

Ron Common appointed to Trustee Board

[caption id="attachment_783" align="alignright" width="300"] Ron Common[/caption]

“Motorcycle Outreach is pleased to announce that Ron Common, previously a Supply Chain Director at train builder, Bombardier Transportation Ltd , has been appointed to the charity’s Trustee Board. Ron is a life-long motorcycle enthusiast and brings with him over 25 years of supply chain and project management experience in the field of vehicle maintenance.

Ron said “ I am very excited to be joining Motorcycle Outreach as a trustee and continuing my active involvement with this mission that I feel so passionately about. Motorcycle Outreach has a proven, simple and cost effective solution to the problem of getting healthcare reliably delivered to people living in remote areas of developing countries. On the international stage, the United Nations is calling for more to be done to improve maternal care and reduce child mortality (MDG 4 & 5) in the developing nations. I am sure that I can use my business skills to help Motorcycle Outreach play its part in responding to that call”.