Spotlight on: Philip – Whisper

Upon becoming a Dot Dot Dot property guardian in 2017, Philip was already volunteering regularly for Ugandan children’s charity Whisper. To date, Philip has totaled hundreds of hours of time and dedication to supporting Whisper in its delivery of medical care and education to children and communities in Uganda. Through donations and fundraising events, the charity has been able to open up Whisper’s Magical Children’s Hospital, the first hospital of its kind in Jinja, Uganda, as well as Kagoma Gate School which provides education to over 200 pupils in the Busoga District.

Hear from Philip on what his remote volunteering role entails, and how this translates to providing real life support on the ground.

“My volunteering with Whisper involves website development, fundraising and technical support for the children’s hospital in Jinja. When the hospital moved to its current site, I was key to helping to organise its setup. Additional land purchases have taken the site up to 8.5 acres, a similar footprint to a typical major London hospital – the charity has so far been able to treat over 13,000 patients. I’ve been focusing on researching phototherapy equipment and have been able to find 1900 patient identity bracelets on Amazon – it’s amazing what you can find on there. It’s also important to maintain the charity’s Google Maps and Openstreetmap entries so that our fixed location is clear.

Another aspect of my role involves dealing with donations and grant proposals. Recently I’ve been working on sorting our Gift Aid claims and researching how to sign up a charity for Facebook donations – we’re still not there but I’m hopeful we can work this out. I’ve since been talking to a major hedge fund that contacted us out of the blue about the possibility of providing us with ongoing financial support having witnessed how vital Whisper’s care is to children and families in Uganda. Of course, we don’t forget to say a big thank you to all of our supporters; I regularly write hundreds of thank you emails to all of our donors, old and new. It’s great to have recognition for all of the hard work involved in making Whisper a success.”

Without people like Philip volunteering remotely to raise funds, Whisper wouldn’t be able to continue to provide such key lifelines to these rural communities in Uganda. Find out more about how volunteering and property guardianship go together here or read some more of our property guardians volunteering stories here.