Our key focus at this time is raising funds to build a maternity theatre at Charis Health Centre in Lira, Northern Uganda. This is an essential project that will provide a facility from which local women will be able to access safe maternal delivery services and emergency obstetrics as required. Building works are underway; you can watch progress by clicking on the image below.

We continue to provide funding to support treatment of cancer patients on the charity “Hope Ward” at International Hospital Kampala (IHK), Uganda. These funds help to ensure that such care and treatment is accessible to those that otherwise could not afford it.

Most of the funds raised by Suubi Trust come from individual supporters.

We are grateful to Richard and Pat who have led the fund raising for the theatre build in Lira. Rose and Becci helped to get this fund started.

Alison, her family and friends, including Helen, continue to support the work in Namuwongo that Alison was involved with during her time there as a VSO volunteer.

Kate and Caroline, to name just two, are keen supporters of the Cancer Care fund and are amongst the first to use standing orders and Give As You Earn.

Jamie, Louise, Emily, Sean and Rose helped to raise funds using Justgiving pages.

Our thanks also to church members in Hazlemere and Menorca.

All money raised by Suubi Trust is used to support the work of International Medical Foundation in Uganda. Our Trustees are volunteers and do not charge for any services or expenses. The only administration costs covered by the funds raised, and the associated gift aid, are bank charges and the cost of having the online giving facility at Justgiving.

You can review our accounts and annual returns on the Charity Commission website by clicking on the image below.

Thank you all for your kind and generous support and we wish you all a great 2012.

Jackie and Gary are nurses working with Dr. Richard in the UK. They recently got married and instead of presents, asked their friends to give donations to Suubi Trust for the theatre build at Charis in Lira. They raised over 4 million shillings (about £1,000).

We send them our thanks and very best wishes.

We’re raising money for Hope Ward Cancer Care, the charity ward of International Hospital Kampala. I’m growing a moustache, you’re donating money. Hopefully.

You can donate online by clicking here.

The fun run usually attracts individuals and corporate teams. In 2008 we raised UGX 3.2 million and had 216 runners and last year’s race took place on the morning of 28th November. On that day we had nearly 400 registered runners and the event raised UGX 4.6 million for Hope Ward. We had a total of 7 corporate teams of 30 runners registering for this event. Century Bottling Company registered 3 corporate teams and ANPCAN, Bead for Life, Post Bank, Ministry of Finance, Kids of Africa and International Health Sciences University all registered one team each.

We were indeed grateful for all the support from our participants and friends. This year we would like to register 500 runners at least and many more corporate teams.

For this year’s fun run you can visit any of the IMC clinics (Watoto, Kololo, Kitgum House or IHK Namuwongo) to register either as an individual (UGX10,000) or as a corporate team of 30 runners (UGX250,000). If you are not available to run on that day, you are very welcome to make a donation to support the run.

For our supporters in the UK and beyond, you can help by donating online, just click here.

For more information about our programmes please contact us by leaving a comment below or emailing contact@suubitrust.org.uk

Read more about Hope Ward here.

I am re-posting this, it was first published on February 20th, 2010.

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Last year there were almost 250 patients cared for on Hope Ward. I am always inspired when I read the patient stories and I wanted to share this one in particular; in summary Mubiru’s story is:

• Abused by his grandmother at age 12, locked in a metal box,
• Rescued by his neighbours,
• Thought to be dying, handed over to a hospice,
• Brought by the hospice nurse to Hope Ward, unable to move, talk or look after himself,
• After very many months of loving care and treatment now looking for a new home and a new start.

You can read his story below or by clicking here.

If you would like to help Mubiru and our other patients on Hope Ward click here to find the many different ways in which you can give. Please tell others.

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Mubiru Lwasa is a young 12 year old boy who has suffered a great deal. Mubiru has never really had a place to call home. His mother and father are separated and have moved on to marry other partners and have other children. He lived with his mother for several years and she took him to primary school however he fell sick and she took him back to his father. At this point she had five children with her current husband (not Mubiru’s father) and she could not continue to care for him. This would mark the beginning of a long period of suffering and abuse in Mubiru’s life.

Mubiru was taken out of school and did hard labour for his grandmother and at some point was beaten so badly that his hand and leg were fractured. He was locked up in a metallic box and starved almost to the point of death. When Mubiru’s father noticed that his son was dying, he took him back to his village in Mpigi for fear of the cost of transporting a dead body.

When Mubiru’s father arrived in Mpigi the people in his village were shocked by the site of the boy’s emaciated body. The villagers refused to let Mubiru’s father rest until he had taken him to hospital. On arrival at Mulago hospital the nurses and others who saw Mubiru’s father carry his crippled smelly body into the hospital were so outraged they wanted to lynch him. Mubiru’s father was then ‘rescued’ by the police and taken to Luzira prison.

However now that Mubiru’s father was taken away there was no one left to take care of Mubiru while he was at Mulago. Fortunately a kind Ugandan lady (Mable) had compassion on him and chose to look after him, though she did not really have much to offer him but loving care.

Medical personnel at Mulago thought Mubiru was dying and contacted a nurse who works for Hospice Uganda. This lady contacted Hope Ward and asked us to admit him for treatment as she did not think he was terminally ill.

When Mubiru first arrived at Hope Ward, he was in very bad shape. He had sores and wounds all over his body. He could barely support himself in the wheelchair and the slightest movement would make him scream. Mubiru could neither talk nor feed himself, he was incontinent, he was very pale and the hair on his head was so thin, his lips were pale dry and chapped, he looked like a patient with full blown AIDS.

In September 2009:

Mubiru had been on the Hope Ward for about two months. With an improved diet, constant care and daily physiotherapy as well as constant dressing of his wounds, Mubiru’s condition had greatly improved. At this point he was still feeding through a nasal tube most of the time, though he had started a little self feeding. He regained ability to talk and even sang a song to one of our visitors on Hope Ward at the time. Mubiru is a charming naughty boy and all on Hope Ward became very fond of him. One nice cool evening he even requested his carer Mabel to take him out on the wheel chair to enjoy some fresh air in the hospital compound. The physiotherapist noticed that he tried to move his arms and legs (though he would cry while doing so) during his physio sessions.

By November 2009:

Almost all Mubiru’s wounds had healed, his hair had grown back, he was finally fit enough to start a series of surgeries to treat infections in his bones and to straighten his contracted legs. However at this time Mubiru was incontinent and had been wearing diapers since he came to Hope Ward…he had lost ability to control his bladder and bowels because of his long period of abuse.

At this time, Mubiru had gained more strength and began to talk more, much of his memory had returned and he began to give more details of what happened to him before he was brought to Hope Ward. His father had a final court case in the same month (November); Mubiru gave his police statement for the case and we were hopeful that justice would be served but he was only accused of neglect and given an eight month sentence.

We witnessed a very emotional moment on Hope Ward when we called Mubiru’s mother and had him talk to her, he cried really hard and yet she did not commit to come visit him, she was afraid that she would be arrested. Mubiru’s mother has several children from different men, she had left Mubiru with her mother who died shortly after and Mubiru was taken to be with his father where he was abused and almost killed. On the day we put Mubiru in touch with his mother, he asked her when she would come and take him and she said she couldn’t come for him and this really broke his heart. At the time, she had just delivered another baby with her current husband and was not ready to travel to Kampala or take up responsibility for Mubiru.

Today (Feb 2010): We would say that Mubiru has undergone remarkable transformation (as you can see from the pictures). He has had multiple surgeries on his legs, he has had intensive nutritional care and he has grown into a lovely cheeky, healthy boy. He no longer wears diapers and can control his bowels and bladder again; he can feed himself and no longer needs the nasal feeding tube. Mubiru is now receiving physiotherapy to strengthen his muscles and we are training him to walk again. We had braces fitted for his legs which he wears to gradually straighten them. Mubiru’s condition today is much more hopeful than it was about eight months ago when he first came to Hope Ward.

A physiotherapist told me that if you are confined to a bed or if you do not move at all for about three weeks; your body can deteriorate at a very fast rate, and your muscles will atrophy to the extent that you will not be able to walk without rehabilitative physiotherapy. Mubiru was confined to a box and not fed for months; he was left with untreated wounds that transmitted infection to his broken bones. That is why he is unable to walk today. With improved nutrition, tender loving care and good physical exercise, Mubiru will walk again; though this may take a long while.

Presently the hospital ward is not an ideal place for Mubiru to be, if anything he is more exposed to infections from other admitted patients. We have hope that Mubiru will recover and can regain the health and joy a young boy his age should have. However the reality is that his father is now in prison and he cannot return to the people who abused him, broke his bones and left him to die. We are in the process of trying to find a suitable home for Mubiru and we will continue to partner with the home to provide free physiotherapy and any surgery if he needs it to facilitate his return to the normal life of an active and happy young boy. Your kind consideration of our request and compassion for Mubiru will be highly appreciated.

New Life Church has been collecting each week to support our work and I was very pleased to be there in person to receive their latest donation of £500.

Click here to read about their previous donation, referred to as “Scooby-Doo Money”.

This summer Alison, Alan and their family raised £1,171 to help support this programme by speaking at a local church lunch and hosting a Ugandan party for supportive friends in her native St Albans.

Alison (on right in photo above) sent us this message:

We wanted to update you after our latest fundraising venture on 16th July. It was a fantastic evening of fun and frolics in the community centre around the corner from us and was well-attended with over 80 people. Whilst people could still concentrate, we kicked off with a talk from us about our time in Uganda including the work of the Suubi Trust and the Royal Pride School in which Alan was involved. We raised a total of £1168 which we will split evenly between the 2 causes (£584 each). Everyone came in the Ugandan colours and some draped in the Ugandan flag.

(Alison’s husband Alan is in the centre in the photo above)

So, in summary, this means that the first church event raised £587 and this latest event raised £584 – a total of £1,171.

Our thanks to Alison and all her friends for their generosity and continued support; this will help to make a difference for many of our Touch clients receiving care at this clinic.

Even though STDs are very prevalent in Kampala, and are responsible for a lot of death and disease, very little attention and minimal resources are focused on this area, beyond HIV. The Touch Namuwongo team work with the poorest members of the Kampala community local to IHK and offer services for HIV, TB and STDs. With respect to STDs, prior to Alison’s involvement, the team were just able to treat the symptomatic cases in their hospital clinics and community outreach. However, this approach was only scratching the surface of the problem as 50-70% of disease can be silent. There was no system or resources in place to identify and screen those members of the community most at risk from these diseases and who were often without symptoms. As well as unknowingly transmitting these diseases on to others, the presence of STDs also facilitates transmission of HIV so further fuelling the HIV epidemic. Alison developed a risk score tool capable of identifying such members of the community and which would also then appropriately target their limited resources to the most in need of treatment. Despite resources being very stretched, with the enthusiasm and commitment of the Touch Namuwongo team, the support of IMG and the help of kind donations they were able to get establish a comprehensive service which identified both symptomatic and asymptomatic disease.

Alison also obtained some funding from Oxford University to carry out a research project that aimed to derive and validate this risk score tool. As an associated benefit, the study also funded a large volume of screening and medicines for treatment of STDs in the data gathering process.

The Touch Namuwongo team took on the extra burden of work involved in the study without complaint and worked tirelessly to deliver the service and also produce the data which is in the process of being analysed to develop an effective protocol going forward.

Initially Alison was heavily involved in the actual running of the clinics, but by the time Alison returned to the UK, the team was delivering the service without any additional input and continues to do so with great effect, despite the challenges and hard work this entails. Even though the clinics are already very busy, the team recognise what a valuable service it provides and so continue to reach out to the community to encourage others to be screened and treated, especially those communities where the need is greatest. They have got a good relationship with the local commercial sex workers, who continue to attend the clinics and who themselves are becoming advocates of the service.

The research funding has now drawn to an end and so there is a desperate need for on-going funding to continue to deliver this valuable service. Alison continues to raise funds for the STD programme through Suubi Trust, recently speaking at a local church lunch and is soon hosting a Ugandan party for supportive friends in her native St Albans.

Last year when I was with Alan and Lyn in Menorca they asked me to say something about our work in Lira, which Pamela followed up with on her recent visit. Since then the church members have been giving their loose change each week.

Lyn sent us the following:

New Life has certainly embraced Suubi Trust in a big way. They refer to the “Scooby-Doo money” and are so faithful to bring their loose change each week which soon mounts up to a reasonable amount. We originally pledged 50Euros per month from our change but have had other sums come in as well which have brought us to 100Euros!

This extra money came from:

• Offering from Carol Service
• Hermann asked for his birthday gifts to be donated
• One of our members is the Entertainment guy at a holiday resort and had two people donate their Bingo winnings when they heard about Suubi Trust
• Trisha asked for her birthday gifts to be donated.

Thank you so much for the funds and your continued support and promotion of Suubi Trust, we really appreciate it.

Kevin.

Please accept our “thank you” note for your support to Rose’s Journey – we couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you to all the companies that supported us with publicity and other logistical support: Sanyu FM Breakfast show, Power FM, CBS, Rwenzori Water – we thank you.

Thank you to all the walkers / runners – you were stars … your level of dedication was exceptional – well done you all! Your messages after the journey have been very encouraging and we are even more motivated to keep organising this event. We are so glad to hear that this was more than a ‘walk’ or ‘run’ to you – many of you feel that this was an expression of your own journey in life and of the things that touch your very humanity – hope, love, courage, inspiration, victory… and much more.

Rose quotes J Piper on her email signature thus: “Love is a way of saying to another: It’s good that you exist, it’s good that you are in the world” – this is the message that I feel most of you conveyed by support Rose’s Journey and joining us to walk / run the many kilometers from Bamunanika to Kiwoko.

It is rewarding to note that we had at least 82 walkers/runners. We have already collected $15,000 for Hope Ward (mostly from online donations), collected 3,018,000/= in Uganda and are following up 820,000/= in pledges. Your generosity is much appreciated … we know that you have planted the seeds that we trust will yield even more donations so as to achieve our goal of fund raising for the treatment of needy people on the IHK Charity Ward (Hope Ward) and for a nursing scholarship for deserving but poor students. Thank you for touching those around you …

Thank you for bringing hope and adding your voice to Rose’s Journey.

Hannah Magoola