In February 2020 Ellern Mede Moorgate in Rotherham needed to urgently recruit a housekeeper. The solution we found not only helped us, but helped a small rural village in Zimbabwe. Here Service Director North Region, Sharon Donaldson, explains how this came about:
“I was very fortunate to come across Rrells Cleaning and Decorating Service. This small local business is run by Pat. Pat is a trained pharmacist who no longer works in healthcare but runs her own business providing cleaning and decorating services through a small staff team. On hearing about our situation Pat agreed that she would not send any of her employees but would clean for us herself as her understanding of the healthcare setting would prove useful.
“I was unaware at the time but Pat as well as running her own business had developed a small charity in honour of her father following his death and uses this forum to support a small rural village in Zimbabwe. Pat on taking on the extra job to help us out decided that she would commit any earnings from working at Ellern Mede to her charity.
“Although our arrangement was only planned to be for a few weeks whilst we recruited, COVID-19 delayed our recruitment, and Pat has really become very much part of the Moorgate team.
“Pat’s plan to commit her earnings to the charity has this week provided much needed food and essential supplies for many families in the village and is an amazing representation of how good things can come from seemingly bad situations.
“Who would have imagined that our housekeeper walking out would be the catalyst that enabled essential supplies to be available in a rural village at the other side of the world!”