A Very Strong Piece of Paper

Few of us would describe paper as being strong but just one piece of paper is sufficient to hold up a 40ft shipping container and almost 8 tons of much needed medical equipment (ranging from syringes and needles up to nebulisers, autoclaves, wheel-chairs, hospital beds even a kidney dialysis machine), various tools and educational resources that we are trying to ship to the Philippines to support the work of several Barangay (district) health centres, a community hospital, a school for children with disabilities, a church that works in poor communities and two organisations working with street children.

That particular piece of paper is the permission to import this vital equipment into the Philippines without us or our beneficiaries incurring substantial charges for VAT and Import Duties on the shipment that, quite simply, neither we nor they can afford to pay. And we cannot dispatch the container until we get it.

We have been trying to obtain this exemption certificate since last October and we have had to delay the shipment three times as a consequence. We have incurred over £300 in fees to get the documentation necessary to support our application for duty exemption 'legalised' by a Notary Public, The Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Philippines Embassy in London - all of this in order that we can give away a FREE gift to help the poor and needy - a gift that will improve the lives of anything up to 300,000 people.

One of several nebulisers, a stretcher and walking aids

for children with disabilites - all waiting for shipment.