Hire and Rental News - February 2017

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40 ACCESS IN ACTION • FEBRUARY 2017
Stuart is a Director on the Board of
‘Changing Nations’ and a founding
member – a philanthropic trust with
a mission to change nations by
engaging with less fortunate third world
communities to train and skill people so
their lives may be transformed.
And he is calling on the hire industry in
Australia for help.
“I would like to engage the hire
community to contribute older and/or
under utilised plant, tools and equipment
which we could collect and freight to
Uganda,” Stuart said.
“Equipment we ship, (we have the ability
to get containerised freight there) can
be used in building, construction and
farming projects and in the trade training
centre we plan to establish.”
Currently the Changing Nations focus
is on Uganda, a country war torn and
ravaged by unrest. It has been a very
volatile area in the recent war years – the
region was terrorised by the LRA led by
Joseph Kone, with many massacres/mass
graves, forced child soldiers and child
brides, Stuart said.
“We have moved away from the
traditional ‘aid’ model to a training model
which will enable communities to be self-
sufficient rather than reliant on external
support.
“Currently our main focus is the
community of Pader in Northern Uganda
– a community devastated by war and
A new use for used hire equipment
As we start the new year, Stuart King of Swan Hill Hire in Victoria reminds us not
everyone in the world has it as good as we do here in ‘the Lucky Country’.
conflict since the 1970’s. One of our
main aims in the next three to five years
is to establish a secondary school and
trade training facility where we can train
the next generation in skills such as
farming, building and construction and
mechanical skills.
“Changing Nations would not just be
educating students but also be educating
the community as a whole in order to
prosper and advance them by giving
them greater understanding of how to do
farming, building, mechanics, etc.
“I have experienced firsthand the
construction equipment, or lack thereof,
in Uganda. The classic example is the use
of bamboo/stick scaffolding to construct
multi storey buildings – it is actually
pretty incredible what good old fashioned
hard manual labour (and no safety
parameters!) can achieve. I’ve witnessed
wheelbarrows of brickies mud being
wheeled up ramps inside stick scaffolding
to the third storey of a building. It is
not primitive – they have cars, trucks,
machines, etc – however in the more
remote areas where we are focusing
there is less of this, and often where they
are available there are not competent
operators or people to maintain/fix
machinery.”
This is where the hire industry could
come into play.
“In the short term budding
philanthropists could contribute
financially to assist in the acquisition of
land and construction of the secondary
school and training centre,” Stuart said.
“In the longer term, my vision is the
hire industry can assist by donating
surplus and/or disused equipment for
shipping to Uganda for use in training
and commercial projects. There may also
be opportunity for those experienced in
training to provide training in Uganda.
“For me, Changing Nations is an
opportunity to give back to those in need,
and provide specialist skills and support
to develop a region that has massive
needs. Success in business is not all
about me or just us, but about being able
to use our resources to help and develop
others in need.”
Contact: 03 5032 2107 or email Stuart on:
Changing Nations is calling for used hire
equipment to help Ugandans in need
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