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
