This week Dr. Richard provided TB training for local volunteers in preparation for Phase 2 of our TB programme.
Interesting day yesterday. I have mentioned our HIV outreach clinic “Touch Namuwongo”.Since TB and HIV are interlinked the 110 community volunteer workers from Touch came for training about TB. I don’t think I’ve ever done a whole days training on my own with such big numbers.
83 turned up and what a fantastic group. They all stood at the beginning and sang the national anthem …all 3 verses…then prayers…then they got stuck in. Cheering and clapping all day especially when I told them they could save 500 lives if they found the 500 TB cases I think there are in Namuwongo.
Lovely Deborah, my TB nurse had been on duty the night before and I kept saying to her. “Go home Deborah” but she refused and really delighted me by saying “this is too interesting”
Quite a few did not understand all of what I was saying so Francis my other TB nurse translated key bits into Luganda. Quite good actually, as it gave me time to get my breath back. No idea what he said but he said it all with lots of passion
Amazing the work they did in small groups.Not like teaching medical students!. They were fighting to present first,they were funny and they desperately wanted prizes for the best presentations.
This is Florence and Charles. In her presentation she said the main thing the CVW’s should do is love all their clients. This wag in the audience called Charles asked her,”how was she going to love all her clients”! She said “come out here and I’ll show you”. Lots of cheering…great fun. Who said women are not empowered in Uganda.
They do love T shirts and they are important as it identifies them as a volunteer worker. They go house to house, speak in market places, go to churches and schools. Amazingly for no pay just 10,000 Ugandan shillings… £3… when they come to training days
You may recognise the gent modelling the Tshirts.He nearly got crushed in the rush when we were handing them out. Not too impessed with his posture!!
