A CHARITY that supports Islanders with learning disabilities is launching a fundraising campaign as it pushes ahead with its approved plans to develop a five-bedroom nursing and complex-needs facility.
Les Amis is seeking to raise around £2.5 million to facilitate the development of a bespoke nursing home in Trinity and has issued a rallying cry for donations.
The charity has already purchased a property on Rue du Bechet for just over £1m in a transaction which passed through the Royal Court last month.
Les Amis managing director Shaun Findlay explained that the development would also enable the charity to provide end-of-life care for those it supports.
“So for people who are elderly, become really frail and require nursing, they won’t have to leave Les Amis,” he said.
“They will be able to move there with the staff and have a good death.”
He told the JEP that the charity hoped to start construction next year, which will also mark its 50th anniversary.
Mr Findlay said: “It all depends on the fundraising, so this is my opportunity to reach out to Islanders and say if you feel that this is a good cause, and you want to support vulnerable adults to have a good life and more importantly a good death, then visit lesamis.org.je, donate and support us to achieve this.”
Mr Findlay added that the charity was looking to raise around £2.5m to develop and equip the facility.
“We will be doing a major campaign that will be launched very shortly, with the main impetus of having that money coming in in the 50th year,” he said.
The chair of trustees for Les Amis, Leslie Norman, added: “We’ve got to raise a bit of money and we are on the trail.
“It’s not going to be easy; funds are tight in these times, but if we can raise the money, we intend to create a five-bedroom nursing unit there.
“Our residents are very prone to dementia, Alzheimer’s [disease], and then [we could provide] end-of-life care too if they get cancer or something – we want to be able to care for them to the end of their life, so they aren’t going somewhere far and somewhere they don’t know and wouldn’t be happy.”
