Barbie in Kisugu, one of the communities being reached by IMF in its Touch Namuwongo programme.

Jemimah has prepared an update outlining the various projects that IMF is running and noting the numbers of people being reached.

Part of what we do is working with those affected by HIV/AIDS.

IMF has in the last 2 years, with your support; reached more than 25,000 people with health education and preventative messages, tested more than 11,000 for HIV/AIDS and provides treatments for more than 600, of which about 300 are receiving ART.

Click here to read more.

Dennis had been with us for more than a year, we did our very best to treat him and he was very brave in his fight against cancer.

Dennis had many friends on Hope Ward, he was a very special child.

In his last month the cancer spread very quickly to his spine and lungs eventually leading to his death. He was on very strong painkillers and we did our best to ensure he was comfortable in his last days.

We will greatly miss Dennis. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Jemimah Kiboss – Kyeyune

Program Coordinator
International Medical Foundation.

MARTIN SSEBUYIRA

Hope Ward at International Hospital, Kampala (IHK) has expanded its operations by taking children with complex diseases to entertainment places to improve the care given to them.

Ms Jemima Kyeyune, the Programme Coordinator International Medical Foundation which Hope Ward falls under, says this will help relax children with complex cases and enhance healing. “Most of these children are confined in one ward for over a month and this lowers their chances of interacting, smile and having hope of living longer,” Ms Kyeyune says. Maintaining the approach would improve their living conditions.”

Hope Ward was founded with an initiative of making a difference to health care in Uganda. It handles patients with complex conditions who may not be able to afford treatment.

“War victims in the North who require plastic surgery, those with tumours, children with HIV who need hospitalisation, abandoned babies, women with bladder fistulae due to birth injuries, people with cancer and victims of road accidents are the majority patients at the ward,” Ms Kyeyune says.

The cost of their treatment is met by IHK, private donors, and companies. Dr Ian Clarke, the IHK CEO believes that by joining hands with other companies, the hospital can make such services available to the needy.

This comes to us just a few days after receiving an update from Jemimah telling us about the wonderful trip that Dennis and the other Hope Ward children had at the Zoo. We are so glad that Dennis was able to make this trip and take part in a fun day with his friends.

Thanks to Sharon O’Brien for suggesting and paying for the trip to the Zoo. Read about it here…

He’ll be missed.

You can read other postings about Dennis here: http://blog.suubitrust.org.uk/tag/dennis-odong/

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…

Recently this work has been extended to include an HIV/AIDS outreach programme providing counselling and testing for those potentially at risk. Staff have received training from the District and we are hoping soon to be able to provide treatment for those who test positive. These ARV drugs will be provided by the Government; we help to meet the staff and other associated costs.

Jemimah has sent the following update:

Through the Lira Aldo Project: – 466 people were tested for HIV, 109 were found positive. Of those found positive 40 were enrolled on the program for treatment of opportunistic infections and supportive care not involving provision of ARV drugs. This was mainly because we are awaiting accreditation of IMC Lira as an ARV treatment centre, we have received communication that the accreditation was approved and now await a confirmation letter. 63 HIV positive people who were in need of ARVs were referred to other centres where ARV drugs are provided.

Jemimah, our Programme Coordinator, has provided the following analysis and comment:

• 80% of those treated are 18 years or younger, 122 are 5 and under
• We had 63 referrals from the Lira Primary School
• The top two conditions treated were Malaria and Respiratory Tract Infection
• Women being treated for Malaria outnumber men by 2 to 1
• The average cost of treatment in June was UGX 28,613; equivalent to £8.75. In the majority of cases the patient was able to contribute the nominal fee of UGX 2,000 (61p) and Suubi Trust met the balance.

Our continued thanks to our hard working team in Lira and to all of our supporters here in the UK.