Making a difference to Healthcare in Uganda

International Medical Foundation has a vacancy for a Projects and Funding Manager.

The role of Projects and Funding Manager requires you to source and apply for funding for the various community projects, taking on a strategic role in the Senior Management Team to ensure a comprehensive and well planned response to organizational development. You will also be required to track and oversee spend against budgets and progress to targets across the IMF portfolio of projects, with a particular focus on projects in Northern Uganda.

If you are interested and have some of the following skills and experience, then please get in touch… email hr@img.co.ug

• Master of Public Health or similar degree
• 3-5 years experience working in community-based health
• Proposal writing and applications experience
• Budgeting and planning skills
• Knowledge and experience of working with International Donor Agencies
• Experience of monitoring and evaluation
• Great interpersonal and writing skills
• Willingness to spend short periods in the field away from Kampala visiting project sites.

You can read more about the role in this document.

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.

This video features Dr. Richard and I am so glad to hear him say that he got as much from his time here as we got from him, which believe me was massive. His influence continues through his ongoing support for our TB Lab and community hospital in Lira. We need more like him…

Thanks to Dr. Richard for making the submission.

TB is a significant health issue in Uganda and our project, supported initially by Suubi Trust and then by Target TB, has implemented a new TB Lab and completed a clinical trail for the MOT/MODS diagnostic method. You can read more detail about this in the submitted report by clicking here.

Essentially this method enables the team to diagnose TB in about 7-10 days at a cost of just $5. This compares to either the gold standard MGIT test which can cost up to $70 per test or low cost methods that can take about 40 days for a result.

Our thanks to VSO for it’s support over the last few years, first with Dr. Mark who got us started and then Dr. Grania and Dr. Richard who between them managed the clinical trial and the integration of the TB Lab into IHK’s community based health programme Touch Namuwongo.

Read our other Blog posts about this project by clicking here.

The first project that Suubi Trust supported was the development of a level 2 bio-containment facility at International Hospital Kampala to provide a MODS TB culture and sensitivity service. That was back in July 2007.

Since then we have completed the clinical trial and are now using the method to help diagnose patients from IHK and from our community programmes such as Touch Namuwongo.

This work has been supported over the last 3 years by a number of dedicated volunteers including Dr. Mark Russell, Dr. Grania Brigden and Dr. Richard Feinmann. They have worked alongside the local team including Dr. Edith and Bosco, who can be seen in the photo working with some cultures.

TB killed an estimated 1.7 million people globally in 2009, it is the biggest killer of HIV/AIDS patients in Africa. This new method helps us to get an accurate and cost-effective diagnosis much more quickly than before; for our TB patients starting the right treatment quickly is very important. You can read more about our work with TB patients by clicking here.

Photo by VSO/Ben Langdon

This is Dr. Richard as many of us will remember him, enjoying being with the kids on Hope Ward. He made a huge difference in his time with us as a voluteer with VSO. There are more photos of him on the VSO website here.

Even after their VSO stint was finished, Richard and Patricia continued to help, encourage and support us. They came back for an extra 3 months to help us move into a larger health facility in Lira, northern Uganda and are now helping to raise funds for our maternal and child health programme there.

Here’s what Dr. Richard says about working with VSO:

“I hadn’t realised VSO would want people of my age. All my VSO contacts went overseas straight out of university, so I was a little tentative when I contacted VSO and said “I’m an old git, I have reasonable health and these talents, are you interested?” And I really did expect them to say no but was pleasantly surprised.”

Lucy, Amy, Tom (volunteers from the UK) and members of our clinical team from Lira spent a few weeks on this pilot in Pader District to help determine how we might be able to operate Mobile Clinics in parts of the country that lack basic health facilities.

The pilot was a success but we’ve failed, so far, to interest other sponsors to help fund such an operation.

This photo is from June 2008, before I came to work full-time in Uganda. Judith, in the middle, worked with the communities in and around Jinja, helping to train and support the community health volunteers. We had a very interesting day watching her interact with these volunteers and teaching them to tell others about HIV/AIDS. Click here to read more.

Sadly less than a year later Judith died, she too becoming another maternal health statistic.

Such a loss, that in another place and time, may have been prevented. We miss her.

Also in this photo, Helen Lay who came with VSO and worked for 2 years helping to professionalise our management and accounting processes. Jemimah Kiboss-Kyeyune continues her role today as the IMF Programme Manager. In the distance is Ian’s car that I borrowed for the day and had to abandon due to the poor road conditions!

A happy day but now tinged with sad memories.

Our vision is that IHK would help to serve all of the people living in our Division, not just those that can afford to pay for it.

Touch has become a more holistic programme over the last few years thanks to the funds from Civil Society and great work and committment by the team and it’s leaders.

Having started as a simple HIV/AIDS testing programme this has now grown to provide HIV treatment, family planning, TB diagnostics and treatment, screening services for STIs and cancers. A recent initiative resembled “Dragon’s Den” helping to support the community volunteers in their income generation ventures.

“…at the heart of the community with the community at its heart”

As part of the income generation project with the Touch Namuwongo Community volunteers, Alan organised a Dragon’s Den style forum for the volunteers to pitch their business ideas to a panel of experts. On the panel were Alison’ brother, Jonathan who is an investment banker in London, Kevin the CEO of International Hospital Kampala, our friend Amos who runs a tour company in Uganda, and Rita, a lawyer from the hospital with experience in similar microfinance schemes.
Using funds from donations and some of the ‘dragons’ own money, we are distributing loans to the ideas deemed most innovative and likely to succeed. In the first session we had ideas ranging from a fish mincing machine to an ID card business. The other volunteers watched on and hopefully learnt some valuable business skills for their own ventures.
Once the loans are paid back over a 6 month period, the process will start again and the money will be ploughed ino the next winning entries.

This guy is pitching for funds to expand his onion selling business. The dragons are sat on the right.