Order of Malta plea for help as fundraising avenues closed off

The Order of Malta Ambulance Corps Navan Unit is appealing for help in fundraising to turn their hall on Academy Street into a regional training centre.

For over 80 years, the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps has been one of Ireland’s largest voluntary organisations north and south of the border and the Navan Corp has been up and running since 1972 offering a vital service to the community.

Aidan Murphy from Duleek, a paramedic in the Navan unit explains how Covid 19 has impaired their ability to raise funds.

“We have been slaughtered by Covid-19 and we have no way of generating income to fund what we do and keep our ambulances on the road and to keep our hall in good shape.

“Normally we would provide training and cover at a lot of horse racing events and local cycle races but most of them are gone so our income stream just disappeared overnight.”

Aidan says a LEADER grant to refurbish the hall has given the local unit “a new lease of life” but they have huge challenge ahead to get it up and running.

“We have managed to secure a leader grant to refurbish our hall on academy Street that going to be a regional training centre.

“The building itself was donated to the Order of Malta in 1971 and there hasn’t been anything done to it since so it has fallen into disrepair.

“The grant is going to enable us to rewire, to plumb and insulate the building but it is not going to cover anything else.

“We are looking to raise as much money as we can to furnish the place and turn it into the top class training centre that it could be.

“As well as that the Order of Malta Day Care Services in Drogheda provide a coffee morning for the elderly and disabled and we are looking at being able to introduce that in the Navan area.

“We are also looking to see if other community groups would be interested in coming in to use the hall and we are hoping to start teaching as well, we could offer a range of courses to the public.

“We are hoping to turn one of the rooms into a wheelchair accessible toilet so we will need to tile that room and would welcome any donations from local suppliers.

“Work is starting next week so it’s exciting but we are still a long way off funding wise.”

The first aid and community care organisation has a long standing history in Meath and provided training to hundreds of local volunteers according to the Duleek paramedic.

“At a regional level, we take people in and we train them up.

“First Aid Responders is their first level, they move on from there and do an emergency first responder course and if they are successful at that they can look at doing an emergency medical technicians course which is a national qualification and you can work in an ambulance with that.

“We would be very grateful for any donation big or small that would allow us to renovate our hall to its full potential and enable us expand and continue our charitable activities in our community at this critical time.”

To donate find ‘Order of Malta Ambulance Corps Navan Unit’ on Facebook.