During a recent visit to Lira International Medical Centre (IMC), Kevin Duffy (CEO) and Clea Meynell (IMF Funding and Reporting Manager) spent some time with Trixcy, the Aldo Project Counsellor. Trixcy has been working as a volunteer on the Aldo Project since 2008 providing help and support to Jasper Okwir, the Project Community Nurse. As Jasper is on leave at the moment Trixcy has been covering for him. She is a qualified Nursing Assistant and has a diploma in counselling; skills which have proven to be of great benefit to the Aldo Project.

Trixcy providing education on initiation of ART to a group of Aldo clients

We accompanied Trixcy on a series of home visits to patients enrolled on the Aldo Project. Patients who receive home visits are either too weak or ill to visit the clinic, or as in the case of the second site we visited, Trixcy can follow-up with multiple patients at one time. The services provided on a home visit include one-to-one counselling and advice on positive living and related issues; home-based provision of medication and clinical care (in collaboration with the clinical officers from the Clinic); and health education related to HIV/AIDS.

Joyce’s Story: The first site that we visited was the house of Joyce, a well-educated woman, who in her time, has worked for the likes of UNICEF and the Electoral Commission. Joyce has been an Aldo client since 2008. She is HIV positive and has TB. Initially she was tested and enrolled for treatment at the Lira Regional Referral Hospital but found that there was often a delay in accessing drugs and that the patients were neglected. A friend told her about the service provided by the Aldo Project and she went to enrol. Since then she has been a client. She received treatment for TB at the AIDS Information Centre and is nearly finished her 8-month course.

Joyce in the courtyard outside her rented room in Lira Town

Joyce has no immediate family, she says that they all died of the same problems, and other relatives ignore her. She rents a single room adjoining a quart-yard. With support from the Aldo Project, she informed her neighbours and her landlord about her condition, and enrolled them to help look after her. Recently she fell very sick and was bed-ridden. Her friends, neighbours and even Joyce herself thought that she would die, but Trixcy and the rest of the Aldo Team have nursed her back to health and now she is relatively mobile again. The team visits her weekly to check on her progress and provide her with medication.

For an individual like Joyce the care and support provided by the Aldo Project has literally been life-saving.

Semmy’s Story: Semmy Apoyo greeted us with amazing energy and hospitality under the structure of a semi-built church which was in the process of being constructed near her house. Semmy has been an Aldo client since April 2010 when she came to Lira IMC after trying five times to access HIV testing at the Lira Regional Referral Hospital. After testing positive and being counselled by Trixcy she returned home and disclosed to her family and friends. She rounded up 7 of her close sisters and friends and took them to be tested as well. They all tested positive. One of them was her 11 year old sister.

Semmy (near right) and four of the women she introduced to the Aldo Project

We sat with Semmy and four of these other women whom she had introduced to the project and talked about their experience of the services they had received. They talked of the quality of service they receive from the Aldo Project, something they really value. After some enquiries about their needs, Trixcy took them step by step through use of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and the importance of healthy living. The educational materials that Trixcy used for this were provided by Mango Tree, and have proven to be very effective in communicating these messages to our community clients.

Trixcy making use of the materials

Yesterday I had the chance to visit with some of our clients on the Aldo project in Lira, Northern Uganda. One of these is Joyce. She used to work as a secretary until she fell ill with TB. Joyce is HIV positive; this and the TB combined made her very sick, she became bed-ridden and was no longer able to work. Joyce lives alone and is away from her family in the village as a result of seeking work in town.

Joyce told us how she received help from the Lira IMC team, in particular from Trixcy and Jasper who run our Aldo project. As she was unable to attend the clinic, they have been bringing the drugs to her and on their regular visits have made sure that she was able to take them. They have offered support and counselling. Her neighbours and church friends helped her with meals and personal hygiene. These acts of kindness have meant that Joyce has been able to regain her strength. She is now able to move around again, she has a good appetite and is almost finished her course of TB treatment.

Life for Joyce is still very, very tough. She struggles to earn some money by buying and selling eggs and is keen to find other forms of work that she can perform as she continues to recover. She doesn’t want hand-outs; she wants to be able to make her own way, with a little help and support. Joyce, for me, is a great example of why we are doing this. It doesn’t take a lot to make a significant difference in people’s lives. My role is to help facilitate and support that. People like Joyce can turn their lives around when they get a little support from family, friends and neighbours. Specialist help from those like Jasper, Trixcy and others at Lira IMC can then make a difference. Joyce is very thankful to all who have helped her, as she says without such love and kindness she wouldn’t be here today.

The Aldo Project is supported by Hands of Help in Australia and seeks to help those like Joyce who are living with HIV. The project works in the community, with the community, giving preventative education, counselling, testing and treatment.

Both Bosco and his wife sought for treatment from the Aldo Project, through that he was sent to Hope Ward for treatment of a Kaposis Sarcoma (a cancer that commonly affects people living with AIDS in Uganda). He has been started on chemotherapy and hopes that one day he will be well enough to find work or farm again and provide food for his family.

The Aldo project is our charity HIV/AIDS outreach and treatment programme at the Lira Clinic, funded by Suubi Trust and Hands of Help.

We arrived just in time to accompany Judith (the CHP Clinical officer) to a village in Kibibi where she was going to conduct training of Community Volunteer Workers. This was the fourth month of training for the CVWs and the topic of their training that day was HIV & AIDS.

It had rained pretty heavily in Jinja that morning and the roads were very muddy and slippery; at some point we had to leave our vehicle behind and walk the remaining distance.

When we arrived at the training venue (a home of one of the projects’ local supporters in the community) we found that none of the CVWs had arrived. However word of our arrival spread rather quickly and within a few minutes the CVWs started arriving at the venue carrying chairs, the white board and other material for training. Many of the CVWs carried files with notes neatly kept.

We were happy to know that Judith had a rather detailed and good training manual and a wealth of information to share. The CVWs began by presenting a Health Education and Promotion dramatization of the topics they had covered in previous trainings. It was interesting to see that they had internalised the information given to them through the training and ‘reproduced’ it in their own local language and in the most creative and entertaining (‘infotaining’) way!! This was evidence of the quality of their training. Judith mentioned that before attending the trainings many of the CVWs were not confident and could hardly speak in public (before a crowd) however as they presented their drama the CVWs exuded a great deal of confidence and mastery of the subject matter.

After the presentation, the CVWs settled down for their lesson. We were impressed with how the CVW were confident, showed a great deal of interest in the training and interacted with the trainer. The lesson was very interactive and the students took notes.

This training session was the first of two in Judith’s day. After this training she would travel some distance to another village to train more CVWs. We travelled back to Kampala, very satisfied and impressed with Judith’s work.

We are glad that the input of Hands of Help and International Medical Foundation is making a difference in villages in Jinja.

Helen Lay is looking into the financial records Judith gave her for an IMF internal audit.

You can download this visit report and additional photos by clicking here…