Suubi Trust

Hi,

3 quick updates from Suubi Trust…

1.    If you want to see a great example of the difference that your support can make then please take a look at our latest postings about Dennis, a young boy being treated for cancer in Hope Ward.

http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/2008/07/12/dennis-odongo-2/

http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/2008/06/20/dennis-odongo/

2.    Friends and Family of Matt and Lauren Bookle raised more than £2,300 as wedding gifts. This money will be used to provide treatment for 300 patients at our Clinic in Lira.

http://suubitrust.org.uk/laurenandmatt.html

3.    Charlotte, Kate and Ruth are “Three Mums in a Boat”; they will be rowing down the Thames in August to raise funds for Cancer Care in Hope Ward. Please give them your support.

http://suubitrust.org.uk/3mumsinaboat.html

Kind regards,

Kevin.

The happy couple

Lauren and Matt were married on Saturday July 5th. Their friends and family have so far raised more than £2,300 in support of our work at the Lira Clinic.

This money will meet the cost of much needed treatment for at least 300 patients…

Our thanks to all who have given so generously.

Sister Irene has sent us a number of case studies for patients recently treated in Hope Ward:

BT a 5 year old boy came to Hope Ward with a swollen abdomen. This problem started in July 2006.

His mother had sought treatment from different hospitals but could not find a solution. With the continuous swelling of the abdomen, BT started to refuse food and gradually began losing weight. Later he developed persistent  excruciating pain around the umbilicus.

Later on he was brought to the Hope Ward and ultrasound scan and endoscopy investigations were done. Finally he was operated on by the surgeon and went home happy and better again.

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MM a 14 year old teenager and orphan was brought to Hope Ward following 3 years of agony. A year ago he had been diagnosed with a kind of cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma in his mouth and had been to various hospitals seeking help and solution to his problem.

From then he was started on chemotherapy but along the way the family could not afford continuity of treatment and they stopped.

Unfortunately, the cancer became aggressive and soon he started getting difficulty in swallowing and had a risk of having a blocked air passage. So by the time he came to Hope Ward his Aunt had completely lost hope and was desperate for help.

For the risk of blocking the airway a tracheostomy tube (artificial airway device) was inserted by the ENT surgeon around the neck region to facilitate his breathing. From that several baseline investigations were done to prepare him for chemotherapy.

Today he has able to get his chemotherapy and is so happy and hopeful.

On Saturday July 5th, whilst some of us were at the Bookle wedding in London, Dr Aine, Deborah, Agnes and others in the team were conducting an HIV-AIDS outreach into Namuwongo.

The outreach was done on the playing field area below the hospital - the big flat area which borders the slum. A very successful day - we didn’t have the ‘big bang’ of the Good Life show (launch day June 14th) but still had a really good turnout. By happy accident there was a football match going on close to where our tents were, which may help explain the high male turnout!

Total attendance 250 (Males 177, Females 73)
Total health education 199 (M 155, F 44)
Total VCT 193 M 145, F 48

20 people tested positive, of which 16 were reffered to the clinic for further testing and treatment

In addition the team provided other treatments to 41 patients, distributed 9,600 condoms and 250 information leaflets.

In the first of the photos below Agnes guards the condoms and if you look carefully you can see International Hospital Kampala in the background.

Lucy has now returned to the UK and has sent some photos of Dennis with his cousin Jimmy…

Ha, you’d never guess it but Dennis has made an amazing transformation! After the surgery, he had more chemo and the tumor is ready for the second de-bulking surgery; it’s fantastic that it is so soon. He may need radiotherapy but is happy about how he is feeling now, mindless of the side effects of the chemo. Today, I gave him a puzzle and a teddy… he laughed so much, it made everyone else in the room laugh too. He has completly filled the colouring book that Jenny gave him and it has become his prized possession. How nice it is to see just how much he and Jimmy, his cousin, treasure every single gift they are given, including this course of treatment.

I didn’t manage to get one of them together looking at the camera but after teaching them what to do with the puzzle took this one. (My sister sent some puzzles away to an orphanage and as noone had seen one before, they shared it out so each child had a piece each, not really understanding what it was for but all the same, each child was very pleased with their piece).

He will probably stay in Hope ward until September. I will send Jimmy home for a few weeks after Dennis’s operation, which is on the 16th of July. The commitment he has shown for caring for Dennis is amazing. They are both such a pleasure to meet.

Thank you everyone.

You can read more about Dennis by clicking here…

The following appears today in the Swindon Link…

After learning about the work of the Suubi Trust in Uganda, Jennifer Allison of Freshbrook has spent a year following university raising money to fund a trip to help.

The charity is working to improve healthcare in Lira in northern Uganda. After twenty years of conflict a truce has been signed but thousands of people remain in camps, reluctant to return because they fear there will be no schools or medical help.

Jennifer is spending two months in the area working in the community to improve healthcare and sanitation, as well as helping in local schools and orphanages.

She has joined Lucy Eastgate, the university friend who first told her about the Suubi Trust. They both graduated from Cardiff University last year and wanted to see more of the world. They decided to plan their own expeditions rather than sign up with a company that organises voluntary work overseas.

Lucy, from Wootton Bassett, studied nursing and has been helping to set up a mobile medical centre to take services to people returning to their farms and villages.

Jennifer, whose degree was in maths and statistics, expects that part of her role will be to raise awareness of the plight of the people in the area and to document how the charity is helping.

As she prepared to leave there were some last minute nerves. “I’ve never done anything so adventurous. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises people not to travel to northern Uganda because there isn’t a peace agreement with the rebels who have been fighting the government for years. But Lucy says there isn’t a problem and she feels really safe.”

To support its work, the Suubi Trust needs to raise £1,500 each month to allow them to provide primary health care to the most disadvantaged people in the region.

Make a donation at:

www.suubitrust.org.uk/jennifer

Suubi Trust is one year old tonight. Earlier today we had our Annual General Meeting at which Steve presented our Financial Summary. In our first year we have raised just over £48,000.

We have been able to support all of the following:

• We established a new TB Lab at the hospital in Kampala and helped to support the work of Dr Mark, Dr Grania and Bosco as they led the way in establishing and validating a new TB diagnostic method, MOTS. Target TB has recently provided a grant to help complete the clinical validation and initial phase of testing and treatments.
• In Lira, Northern Uganda, we have been providing primary healthcare to 250 patients each month since the start of 2008. This work has been supported by St. Peters Methodist School in Canterbury, Aspect Capital, Port-P, Wesleyan Assurance and Kuvuka Coffee. We provided funding for staff to receive training by the Ministry of Health and this team has recently started an immunisation programme for those living in and around Lira (immunisation drugs are supplied by the Ministry). In the second half of 2008, in addition to continuing the work above, we hope to start an HIV-AIDS community outreach programme in which the team will provide voluntary counselling, testing and treatments; in this initiative we are working with Hands of Help.
• We have provided various funding for care given to patients at Hope Ward. These have included a number of surgical procedures and cancer treatments. We have further supported Hope Ward by working with a number of organisations, including Cardiac Report Limited, SonoSite, Inverness Medical UK and Morriston Hospital Swansea, to provide much needed medical equipment; the value of which we estimate to be just over £40,000.
• We have just started a new project in Pader, Northern Uganda, where we are working with the Government to renovate, equip and manage the Health Centre. We are hoping that this facility will become the prime referral centre for this region and be a base from which we can perform community based outreach providing much needed healthcare. If we can find sufficient funding this will include perhaps up to 5 mobile clinics that can reach the most rural areas; this initiative is being heavily supported by Dunavant Cotton, HIPS and USAID.

We are absolutely delighted with the level of support received and want to thank you all so much.

There’s lots more to be done, together we can make a difference.

Please consider helping; you can read more about Giving by clicking here…

Read an update about Dennis by clicking here…

In April 2008, Lucy made a visit to the state hospital in Lira, here she met Dennis.

Dennis Odongo is 7 years old; he has an older brother of 14 years and three sisters, each of 5, 3 and 1 years old. His father died in 2007 and his second brother died in 2000.

In February 2007, Dennis developed a growth on the side of his face. 1 year later his mother took him to see a traditional healer who cut the lump open, drained it and stuffed it with herbs. This caused the rapid growth and aggravation that led to Dennis’ decline in health and admission into Lira state hospital.

On the day of Lucy’s visit, Dennis had been in the hospital for 3 weeks; he had only seen a doctor once (on admission) and was having no medical treatment. He had been prescribed antibiotic drugs on day 1 but these were too expensive for his family to buy for him. He had also been advised to have a diagnostic x-ray, which again his family was unable to afford.

Dennis was referred to Hope Ward in Kampala where he was accepted for treatment. His cousin Jimmy, 13, came out of schooling to accompany him to the hospital as his primary carer, his mother being to sick to travel herself.

On his arrival at International Hospital Kampala, a biopsy of the growth was taken which tested negative for cancer. Unconvinced, the doctors performed a second biopsy, which this time indicated that the tumor was cancerous. Unfortunately, the second biopsy caused further aggravation and the tumor quadrupled in size, becoming almost the size of Dennis’ head.

Dennis is now having chemotherapy along with strong steroids. Consequently the tumor has halved in size, he is no longer in pain, is eating well and smiling again.

If Dennis had stayed in Lira, he would not have received the treatment he needed and would have most certainly died. Through the care of Hope Ward, Dennis has been given the best chance of survival.