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Target TB Partners’ Newsletter

November 14, 2011 by Suubi Trust

The Autumn issue has the following piece noting the BMJ award for International Medical Group.

Target TB Newsletter

The newsletter can be downloaded by clicking here.

Posted in TB Diagnostics and Treatment, Touch Namuwongo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Poor Housing Increases TB Infection

November 14, 2011 by Suubi Trust

By Joe Nam, New Vision, published November 07th, 2011.

A study carried out in Makindye Division in Kampala, Lira Municipality and Wobulenzi town council has established a co-relation between poor housing and prevalence of tuberculosis in urban centres.

The research carried out by International Medical Foundation engaged 1,366 adults in 1,366 households. The majority of the respondents live in slums in conditions of what is considered poor housing.

“…we don’t have the capacity to stay in good houses. We stay in houses we can afford to pay for. We stay in houses without windows and our roofs leak. When you think of going back to the village, then you think about the hard life there…the places in which we live are surrounded by drainage channels, which flood, making it easy to contract diseases. However, we find ourselves in a situation we have no control over…” a respondent in Makindye says.

The survey found that awareness of TB was high in the population, mainly through some form of contact with a TB a patient. Myths and remarkable deficiencies in knowledge of TB cause, symptoms, transmission and prevention, however, abound.

The survey also found that although majority of slum dwellers are well within reach of a health facility, significant barriers in terms of actual service delivery exists due to lack of drugs, absentee health workers, prohibitive user fees and lack of transportation to health facility, hampered treatment of TB. TB-related stigma was found to be high in communities, with negative perceptions towards persons with TB due to association with HIV/AIDS.

The study recommended planned housing in urban centres for low-income earners, participatory engagement with slum dwellers to improve their environment, enforcement of the Public Health Act minimum standards in the construction of toilet facilities and improving access to medical care.

The study also recommended pegging of TB screening to HIV testing programmes due to the tendency to take HIV AIDS testing more seriously. Uganda is among the 22 countries in the world with the highest number of TB cases, with 100,000 new infections annually.

Posted in TB Diagnostics and Treatment | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Fun Run

November 10, 2011 by Suubi Trust

For the past few years MTN has sponsored a Hope Ward fun run that has been instrumental in raising funds for the ward. External sponsorship in the past has only met about half of the total annual costs of treating Hope Ward patients, the balance being met by International Hospital Kampala.

FunRun

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.

Posted in Fund Raising, Hope Ward | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Hope Ward

November 10, 2011 by Suubi Trust

Hope Ward is a charity ward within the International Hospital Kampala. It was opened in 2006 and has had 1,142 admissions. Hope Ward exists to reach out to the underprivileged and provide lifesaving and complex, high quality medical care. We seek to alleviate the suffering and improve our patients’ quantity and quality of life.

Hope Ward has 16 beds, an isolation room and a cancer treatment centre with two beds. The Hope Ward medical team is comprised of one physician, one medical officer and sixteen nurses. This team is closely supported by various specialists, surgeons, an oncologist and a physiotherapy team.

Hope ward receives a wide variety of patients with complex medical conditions from all over the country. Most of our patients are:

  • Victims who have been traumatized from the war in Northern Uganda and who require plastic or other complex surgery, including landmine survivors.
  • Patients requiring complex cancer treatment for both children and adults.
  • Victims of burns and acid attacks.
  • Children & adults with complications arising from HIV and AIDS.
  • Surgery to repair Atrial‐Septal Defects (ASD) commonly known as a hole in the heart, a first for Uganda.
  • Children born with congenital malformations such as cleft lip & cleft palate

Posted in Hope Ward | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Mubiru Lwasa: The Boy In A Box

November 10, 2011 by Kevin

Lwasa is one of the very many patients who have received life-changing care and treatment in Hope Ward, thanks to the continued support from our generous sponsors, some of whom take part each year in the MTN Fun Run.

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

>>>

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.

Mubiru when he was admitted to Hope Ward Mubiru ready to start a new life

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.

>>>

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.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Fund Raising, Hope Ward, Patients | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

We’ve Started the Build!

October 29, 2011 by Kevin

Over the last year we have been raising funds to help build a maternity theatre at the Charis clinic in Lira, north Uganda.

I am really pleased to announce that we have now started the build!!!

The site is being cleared and levelled, ready for the foundations.

Here’s what the site looked like before we started:

The proposed site for the theatre, where the trees are

This tree will have to be removed

and now at the end of Week 1:

Week 01 Clearing and Levelling the Site 111025

 

Last December I posted the photo below and an update outlining our intention to build this theatre. You can read that post by clicking on the photo or read more about our work in Lira by clicking here.

Joel, Leonard, Ian, Phil and Mike discuss the potential building of a theatre

 

Posted in Charis - IMC Lira | Tagged | 6 Comments »

Tuberculosis Health Needs Assessment (2/2)

October 26, 2011 by Suubi Trust

A key element of this study was to assess the housing as well as socio-economic determinants amongst slum dwellers.

1,366 households were surveyed in 3 low income settlements; one in the urban slums within Kampala and the other 2 in rural settings as a comparison.

As indicated in the previous posting there is a need for closer collaboration between the various agencies responsible for TB and for Housing.

Kisugu TB health needs assessment

Some of the survey findings are:

  • 66% did not own their property
  • 48% of properties had just one room, which on average was just 12 m2
  • Average of 5 people per property
  • Average of 3.8 people sleeping per room
  • 66% used a communal latrine

Kisugu TB health needs assessment

We don’t have the capacity to stay in good houses. We stay in houses we can afford to pay for, which exposes us. We stay in houses without windows; mosquitoes bite you and with leaking roofs.

When you think of going back to the village, then you think about the hard life there…the places we stay in are surrounded by drainage channels which flood and this makes it easy to contract diseases.

However, we find ourselves in a situation we have no control over.

Slum dweller, Kampala.

For a copy of the full report please email: imf@img.co.ug

Posted in International Medical Foundation, TB Diagnostics and Treatment | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Tuberculosis Health Needs Assessment

October 25, 2011 by Suubi Trust

Target TB Logo

 

International Medical Foundation and Target Tuberculosis (Target TB) recently completed an assessment of how housing conditions and socio-economic factors affect vulnerabilities for Tuberculosis (TB). A total of 1,366 households were surveyed in 3 low income settlements within Makindye Division Kampala, Lira District and Luwero District.

Kisugu TB health needs assessment

Uganda is ranked 16th out of the 22 high TB burden countries by the WHO, and is one of only two of these high burden countries with increasing mortality. Population as well as urban growth has been increasing dramatically over the last 20 years, with much of this settlement unplanned. Two previous studies in Ugandan slums have shown higher prevalence of TB.

The study found that whilst the majority of those surveyed live within 5km of a health facility they were often unable to seek care due to a lack of drugs or health workers at these facilities, the cost of transport to and from the facility, the cost of drugs or being asked to pay a user fee even though such care and treatment is meant to be free at government health centres.

Lowofu TB health needs assessment

Those surveyed mentioned the stigma and discrimination experienced by those infected:

…you know TB and HIV/AIDS are more or less the same, so when one has TB, they feel ashamed of going to health centres in our community here…

Personal Health Adviser, Luwero.

The study highlighted crowding, poor ventilation and use of bio fuels, amidst a high TB and HIV burden, as important opportunities for partnership between the National TB Programme and the Housing and Environment sectors.

For a copy of the full report please email: imf@img.co.ug

 

Posted in International Medical Foundation, TB Diagnostics and Treatment | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments »

New Life Church, Supporting Mothers in Lira

October 5, 2011 by Kevin

I’ve just come back from a few days in Menorca with Alan and Lyn. On Sunday I was able to give church members an update on our plans for Maternal Care at the Charis health centre in Lira. I mentioned how we are hoping to create a Safe Motherhood programme at a cost of £75 per enrolled woman. This programme will provide at least 4 ante-natal visits, treatments during pregnancy, safe delivery, post-natal care and immunisation for the baby. We hope to ensure the availability of appropriate family planning to all those that want it.

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.

Receiving a cheque for £500 from Alan at New Life Church

Cheque

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

Posted in Charis - IMC Lira, Sponsors | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Value for Impact

September 10, 2011 by Kevin

International Hospital Kampala, IHK, is the largest, and some say best, private hospital in Uganda.

In 2010, IHK gave 2.5% of its income to support the work of the group’s foundation, International Medical Foundation.

As we continue to support IMF in 2011, and beyond, we are keen to ensure:

  1. that savings are made where possible, without impacting the quality of the care being provided,
  2. that all of our programmes deliver value for money,
  3. and most importantly that these programmes maximise the impact being made for the communities and people being served.

Kevin.

 

Posted in International Hospital Kampala, International Medical Foundation, International Medical Group | Comments Off

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