HLMT Newsletter, January 2023

The Helen Loewenstein Memorial Trust would like to wish you and all other HLMT
supporters a happy and healthy 2023.
A lot has happened in the past few months, and we’re looking forward to another year
when our supporters will help us to provide further grants for midwifery students in Liberia.
The eight Liberian midwifery students that HLMT currently supports are all doing well.
We’ve just had an email from Willimai Weetol-Geninyan, Director of the Esther Bacon
School of Nursing and Midwifery reporting that, “We have just completed the 1st semester
of 2022/2023 and we are now completing the students’ grade sheets for students to pick
up and preparing for the start of the 2nd semester by the end of the month. Things have
been going well with us and all the students. They were healthy and well to complete the
semester activities.”

2. HLMT Merchandise

The merch team have done some amazing work in recent months, producing new cards and
merch items, most recently some beautiful aprons (see the photo below.) Volunteer Angel
has done an amazing job of running and regularly updating our online Etsy shop. Please go to
the shop at https://HLMTMerchandise.etsy.com to browse and buy what you like!

3. Tom Wilson

Long-standing HLMT friend and supporter Tom Wilson sadly died just after Christmas 2022.
His wife Julie and children very kindly asked Tom’s friends to make a donation to HLMT
rather than buy flowers, etc. HLMT has already received over £300 online, with more to
come from the funeral collection. Our condolences and huge thanks to Julie, Tossy, Rowan,
Paul and family.

4. Recent HLMT events

a. The Boots Orchestra in Nottingham 19 November 2022

The Boots Orchestra played a great concert in aid of HLMT at St Mark’s Church,
Woodthorpe. A highlight was Saint-Saens’s 3rd violin concerto, with Megumi Rolfe, soloist in
residence at the Boots Orchestra, playing beautifully. Over ninety people enjoyed a lovely
evening and over £1,000 was added to HLMT funds to provide grants to Liberian midwifery
students who otherwise could not afford the study and accommodation fees. That’s a great
result! Huge thanks go to the Boots Orchestra, St Mark’s church and the HLMT trustees and
supporters who helped on the night.

b. Folk concert 25 November 2022

Another great night of music – a gig organised by HLMT supporters Dave and Wendy Pratt
to benefit HLMT, which raised close to £1,200 – fantastic! Stanley Accrington and the
Strawberry Jammers each played a couple of stonking sets to a packed room. Thanks to Dave
and Wendy, the musicians and everyone else who helped make it such a memorable evening.

c. Sherwood Vegan Market 12 November
d. Woodthorpe Park Christmas Market 3 December
e. Sherwood Vegan Market 10 December

These three stalls raised over £650 towards grants for Liberian midwifery students, thanks to
the hard work of HLMT trustees and supporters.

5. Do your online shopping via Easyfundraising and automatically raise funds for HLMT

You simply sign up with Easyfundraising https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/ by creating
an account (it’s free) and then choose The Helen Loewenstein Memorial Trust as your good
cause. Each time you go online shopping by doing a Google search or going to a website that
Easyfundraising links with, a “Donation Link” tab appears for those sites linked to
Easyfundraising. If you click on this it takes you to the site you want to look at and when you
buy anything, a small percentage goes to HLMT. It’s as easy as that. Please give it a go and
help raise funds for midwifery training! The amount raised per online transaction may be
small, however the amount raised so far by those who’ve signed up to Easyfundraising in a
few months is well over £100. Please encourage all your family, friends and contacts to sign
up and to nominate The Helen Loewenstein Memorial Trust as their chosen cause.

6. Standing orders, donations and bequeaths in wills

HLMT aims to increase the number of Liberian midwifery students it sponsors from year to
year. A key basis of our fundraising is the regular Standing Orders and one-off donations
from supporters, which are crucial to our work and for which we are so grateful. We continue
to fundraise, however we have a long way to go before we are financially sustainable into the
future.
Our overheads are minimal, there are no paid staff and all the funds we raise are used to fund
the training costs of student midwives in Liberia. If you have not already done so, it would be
tremendous if you can please set up a Standing Order, no matter how small or large.
https://hlmt.org.uk/hlmt-Standing-Order-Mandate.pdf Please return the form to us and
not to your bank.
Whilst we hope that all of our supporters have long and happy lives, we would also be very
grateful if you feel able to include HLMT in your will!
As always, a massive “thank you” to everyone who has supported the work of The Helen
Loewenstein Memorial Trust https://www.hlmt.org.uk. Helen would be astonished but very proud at
what is being achieved in her memory.