Uganda Mission Trip
In June of this year a team of eager adults (some young, but all young at heart!) travelled out to Luweero in Uganda to partner with a small N.G.O. "The Healthy Vine Trust".
There have been various presentations held and more are planned, but here is a brief report on what they did and how the money was spent......
The Healthy Vine Trust is a small scale NGO dedicated to improving the general well being of rural communities. It is currently operating a programme in Sekamuli, which is in Luweero Province in central Uganda.
The Luweero Triangle suffered greatly in the years of Idi Amin’s and Milton Obote’s regimes and many testimonies verify to the massacres and torture that occurred during that time. The area is now peaceful but progress in any front in the country is slow and in many cases uncoordinated. Malaria, HIV/Aids and now global warming seriously inhibit economic development.
The Healthy Vine Trust I-AMP+ Programme adopts a holistic approach to primarily reduce malaria and provide clean water. Secondarily, it aims to assist in the control of many of the other preventable diseases commonly associated with living at subsistence level. It defines the requirements within the community, sets the standards, plans, coordinates and arranges for the supply of materials not locally available. It also brings together the necessary expertise, utilising local skills and involving specialist parties.
Malaria is a major killer and accounts for more deaths than HIV / Aids. Pregnant women and children up to 5 years old are particularly vulnerable. Children who survive can suffer various degrees of brain damage. Those escaping long term harm miss regular periods from school or work during bouts of the sickness.
The I-AMP+ Programme’s emphasis is on prevention rather than cure. It implements public health measures using medicine as a back up. This method is durable, affordable and achievable for the community.
Healthy Vine’s policy is for community participation and development leading to ownership. To this end the community’s involvement from inception to ownership, is key to long term sustainability.
We worked in two groups when we went out in June. One group which included Jocelyn Buttimer, Edith Drapper, The Rev. Jonas, Eveisa Kingston, and Pam had decided to conduct the community base line survey. The survey consisted of a number of questions that covered family health, sanitation, water availability and domestic circumstances. This survey gave us first hand information of seeing the conditions of how the villagers lived and offered us the opportunity of suggesting to them how they could help themselves. We were accompanied by local interpreters. The survey would also give us information on what needed to be done and how we could engage the community’s cooperation.
Their primary concern was to find out how wide spread malaria was and what precautions if any were being taken to prevent it. From the findings of the survey, malaria is wide spread, almost every family suffers from malaria, knowledge of its causes is known but little is done by the community to protect themselves or their families. Living standards were for the majority sub-standard and the majority of families were living at a subsistence level. Clean water supply was of major concern to all. The number of Sexually Transmitted Illnesses, more specifically Syphilis was unexpectedly high (but this still has to be confirmed as the diagnosis and treatment may be inaccurate since there are no laboratory tests done to confirm the diseases). Lack of education and corporation among the community was also highlighted.
The other group that consisted of Tom Coombes, Mark Dunwoody, Ben Jonas, Lucy Helen and Jay Dennett concentrated on the clinic. Previous to the June Visit, the local Health Centre which is a class II clinic was not always open to patients some of whom walk for many kilometres to visit the clinic, often carrying small children the distance. Often when they got there and the clinic was open there would be insufficient drugs. This caused a lot of frustration in the community. Also on vaccination days because the clinic had no facility for storing the vaccines, they would have to go on the day of the vaccination to collect the drugs from a hospital in the next town. Sometimes the hospital was out of vaccines so the villagers who came to get their children immunised would have had a wasted journey. This all added to the credibility of the health centre and many in the community began to use the privately owned clinics some of whom are questionable.
With the money donated from West Cork, we were able to install a solar electric system which supplies lighting in all rooms 24 hours a day (if necessary), a solar refrigerator to store the vaccines so that they could be ordered in advance, and a solar freezer.
Other necessary clinical equipment has been bought, as well as a large supply of first aid supplies which will equip the health centre for carrying out a lot more tests and assisting in ongoing pre-natal and antenatal programmes and health care programmes. The ready supply of vaccines has also increased the attendance of patients to the clinic and has allowed for an outreach programme for members of the community who are hard to reach. Money was also allocated to put in a water supply system so that the health centre now has continuous water supply on tap and guttering was put in place to facilitate the catchment of rainwater.
Shelving and cupboards were installed so that the staff could see what supplies they had and medicines could be safely locked away. In the past everything was stacked one on the other and no one had any idea what was available. To encourage the patients to attend a vaccination day was held while we were there and the turn out was excellent – helped with the information that the babies vaccinated would be able to get one or two garments of clothing.
| Since then we have been told by our coordinator that the health centre is working well and we can see from the monthly report that many more patients are going there. They have now got additional staff so that a 24 hour service is available. With the extra money that was raised we are now in a position to build a maternity ward and a laboratory so that they will cater for more patients. The alternatives for mothers now nearing delivery is to walk the 8-10 km to the nearest Health Centre III, go to a traditional midwife or deliver the baby themselves at home because they cannot afford the costs. None of these three options are good as with the first, the mother may have to be delivered at the wayside if the baby comes early, with the second option the conditions are often unhygienic and many are untrained and with the third if a complication arises both mother and child may die. |
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Conclusion
All in all the survey helped the group to see the circumstances that the community life lived with and they were experienced enough to see and offer advice and practical suggestions. The health centre with its newly acquired additions is helping the community to make use of its facilities and they are regarding it as a place where they can go for advice on health issues and also use it on vaccination days as a place for socialising.
All in all it was an amazing trip and has made a tangible difference to the local people's lives in Luweero...Because of the effort of the team who went out and the extraordinary response from people who gave so generously people's lives will be saved and life has been made considerably easier for expectant mothers.
A group of people intend to take this project forward and formalise our links with "The Healthy Vine Trust". If you would like to part of this in anyway or maybe want to offer your skills to go out on a trip please get in contact with Mark Dunwoody or Rev Ian Jonas.
M.D.