Health Services Staffs CU Shine Light in the Darkness

Community 3 min read

13 May 2020

Faces of children, volunteers, aid and medical workers, smile from the Health Services Staffs Credit Union’s website - the photographs and their stories come from emergency response units, hospices, children’s charities, nursing homes, disease foundations and more. Since 2018, the credit union has continued to fund numerous health initiatives, funding facilities for health staff and terminally ill patients, as well as critical medical equipment – such as the one used by Our Lady’s Hospice:

‘The HSSCU donation will fund a syringe pump - a critical piece of end of life or palliative equipment. It provides under the skin medication for those who can’t ingest normally, giving patients pain and anxiety relief. Since our state funding was cut in 2009, we depend on organisations such as the HSCCU to help us with costs like this to purchase new medical equipment.’ 

This story and others such as CanTeen, a cancer support group for teenagers and LauraLynn’s children’s hospice, highlight how the donations are changing people’s lives and providing critical support – which is needed now more than ever.

Pádraig Power, Marketing Manager for HSSCU, said although the pandemic has reinforced just how vital these sponsorships are, backing the needs of health workers and projects has always been a core part of what they do. Since the pandemic hit, they’ve had the opportunity of sponsoring different initiatives, including one special cause that raised a significant amount for Suicide Prevention.

‘Healthcare workers are risking their lives on the frontline. We’ve been their credit union for 50 years and we’re proud to stand behind them today. Our sponsorships support many different charities, but inherently the majority are related to health projects.’

‘With the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been able to sponsor some much-need services, charities and projects on the ground, who are getting food and medical equipment into the hospitals, as well as an initiative which distributed iPads so patients could talk to their families. One that we really happy to get behind was supporting Darkness into Light Social Distancing Digital Relay – which raised an unbelievable amount of money for suicide prevention.’
 

Shining a light on €75,000

When the Darkness into Light challenge couldn’t go ahead this year, a colleague from the HSSCU helped to organise and raise funds for a social distance digital relay, and the credit union were thrilled to get behind him to donate and promote the GoFundMe for such. So far the total amount raised has been an incredible €75,000. You can donate here.

Supporting the vulnerable

 In times when the vulnerable cannot be with their loved ones, the credit union decided to sponsor an initiative by Ciara Close, to get 600 tablets into hospitals and hanging the COVID-19 experience for thousands of patients and families. Donate here.

The credit union have donated to Doyle’s Corner’s fundraiser; the pub are making 250 sandwiches a day for the staff in the Mater Hospital. Little Penny Dinners also received a donation; this amazing charity delivers hot meals to those in need in Dublin 8. 

Additionally, the HSSCU donated to an Ice hockey team’s fundraiser which helps a small business make masks for frontline staff.

The HSSCU is also very proud to promote all of these sponsorships and organisations in order to help them raise even more funds.

Financial Support

As well as ensuring members could avail of any repayment breaks should they need to, the credit union have tailored a low cost loan for those that need it during COVD-19– The Stay at Home Loan, with an APR of just 5.12%.

‘It’s our lowest unsecured loan. We want to give our members access to a low cost, flexible loan that can help them during this time,’ said Pádraig. ‘As always, members can conduct all their business online or over the phone and we will keep encouraging them to do so.’

Resources for members

The credit union has also been providing useful and engaging content for their members.  Check out their Facebook page for great ideas for healthy recipes, as well as activity sheets for kids to download and stay entertained.

The Health Service Staff Credit Union has proved a pillar of support for the bravest in our community right now, but they’re not the ones who want gratitude: ‘We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive feedback from the public on all the support we’ve given – but it’s our members, the healthcare workers on the front line that deserve the thanks; and we’re so proud to represent them as their credit union.’

 To see what supports are there from your local credit union, you can contact them here.