The Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital Paeds department sees the sickest children in Southern Malawi. Give the children who enter the doors the highest chance of survival through upgrading the facilities and equipment that dedicated staff use every day

As an experienced paeds A&E nurse, Ethel has seen children and their caretakers at their very worst. She knows the mothers who come to her are often terrified, tired, confused. She sometimes bears the brunt of misplaced anger, but she knows she might feel the same if it was her child. She knows that, as much as her job is to provide excellent clinical care, she must also be a strong, steady, reassuring presence to the children and families who walk through the A&E doors. In the current facility, she and her colleagues have no space to take a deep breath behind closed doors, to have a bite to eat or rest while on break. 

As Ethel and her colleagues work, a parent named Esther waits with her young son to be seen. Before long, she hears an unmistakable wailing that tells her a child has passed. For 30 minutes, she can't escape the sound and then looks up to see the family filing past with a too-small, too-still bundle strapped to an uncle's back. Of course, she doesn't begrudge them their mourning in the same space where she waits there is simply no room to grieve as the family waits to be brought to the mortuary. She tries not to stare.

The nurses and clinicians of Queens have worked for years in the current facilities, dreaming of what they could create to provide dignified, well-equipped spaces for their patients. There will be a dedicated and private room for a family to gather as they say goodbye to a beloved family member. There will be a space for hospital workers to exhale, cook something, share encouragement, laughter, and tears with a co-worker. Adolescents will be seen in private rooms where they can be examined with the dignity they deserve and talk about issues like teen pregnancy in a safe environment. There is excitement and hope in the eyes of these front-line workers as they talk about these spaces, and much more.

Ethel and her co-workers have designed such rooms and hallways, now you can help them walk them.

Consider giving at one of the levels listed below and know that nearly 100% of your gift will go directly towards the A&E Remodel.

£50 provides a nebuliser machine to treat patients with asthma 

£300 provides a procedure trolley to perform minor operations such as suturing

£750 provides a child with a beautiful environment to have their blood taken to check for malaria parasites

£1,000 provides an infusion pump for a patient requiring fluid resuscitation

£3000 provides resuscitation couches for 2 patients 

£16,000 provides 8 patient monitors in the resus