This month our onboard charity appeal, Change for Children, supports the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Padiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Barbados.

In 1997, the Variety Club children’s charity funded the opening of a 4-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. As the only public hospital on the island - which also serves the other Eastern Caribbean islands - it is the only PICU in the Eastern Caribbean region and saves the lives of many critically ill children. It admits around 100 children per year - 20 of them coming from St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the other 80 from Barbados. 10 years on, the medical equipment has gone out of date and is longer adequate for the demands that are placed on it.

Therefore the goal is to expand to a 9-bed unit with updated equipment, which will include:

• An isolation room
• A centrally remote monitors nursing station
• Water supply for haemodialysis
• Adequate storage for ICU electrical equipment

With the planned expansion, the money raised through Change for Children will enable it to meet a demand of over 300 children per year. Many operations currently have to be done overseas and the majority of Caribbean families simply cannot afford the money for operations to take place locally. The hospital has secured commitment from U.S. doctors who are willing to donate their services without charge, but they cannot do this unless the right equipment is in place.

Please help us to do all we can for this needy project in order to give these children a much brighter future. The money raised will fund desperately needed new facilities that the staff will be able to use for the benefit of the children, providing them with a better standard of paediatric intensive care. Charity Number #267.