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The Farm Midwifery Workshop Bursary
Fund
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This page tells the story of the farm workshop and the bursary fund, which is supported entirely by our fund-raising, your donations, and the donation of time by the lovely people who choose the winner each year! Thank you all very much! :) If you are a
student midwife and would like information about applying for the
bursary, please read the information on this page (not least because
understanding the background may well help you write a good application!),
and then click here. |
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The Farm Workshop Story We have organised and facilitated The Farm Trip Midwifery Workshop for seven years now. It began when a group of qualified midwives who were undertaking a degree programme with us decided that, rather than visiting each others' Trusts or going out with Independent Midwives for their elective, they would like to go to The Farm! We went on this 'trip of a lifetime', with no idea that we would keep coming back!
The year after that, the next group of midwives on the same programme announced that they, too, would like to go to The Farm and, since then, the trip and workshop has become an annual event. Although the University that we both worked for at the time supported the first two workshops, the trip, by mutual and amicable agreement, became an independent venture in 2001 and, since then, the workshop has gone from being known as "the English Midwives' Workshop" to "the British Midwives' Workshop" and is now the "International Midwives' Workshop"! A good many of the midwives, students and others who have been on the workshop have described it as "life-changing". It has certainly been a practice-changing experience, as a number of midwives have been inspired by the trip and workshop to develop new areas of interest and skill or take on new roles. Many woman-centred projects and initiatives have arisen from the space and inspiration which midwives have found when they took time out to think about wider issues in the peaceful setting of The Farm.
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The Bursary Story The idea for the Farm Workshop bursary arose at a point where we had an opportunity to raise some money and realised that, although we had fund-raised for a number of different midwifery-related causes before (and, in fact, continue to do so), we also had a cause which was close to our own hearts. We had become aware over the years that there were a number of student midwives who really, really wanted to go on The Farm Workshop, but who simply couldn't afford it. Although several had managed to raise money via other sources, we realised that, by starting a bursary fund, we would be able to enable one student midwife each year to go on the trip at a little over half the usual cost. The first bursary was awarded in 2004 and, to date, we have managed to keep the fundraising going. Among other things, we have organised raffles, hosted decadent evenings for women (where we persuaded the men in our lives to don costumes and offer wine and massages to participants!), made and sold small craft items, and Lorna ran (and completed) a marathon!
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A Big Thank You! To everyone who has already donated money, time or expertise in helping us keep the fund going, and to the people who sit on the panel that judges the entries and makes the hard decision of who will win the bursary each year.
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If you
would like to make a donation to the farm midwifery workshop bursary
fund, please click on the button below to do this via PayPal, or email
us for more information on how to donate by cheque if this is easier
for you. (At the moment, we can accept cheques in pounds sterling, US
dollars or New Zealand dollars).
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