Clinic

Free Health Care Is Crucial To Our Girls

Since we opened the Ross House in November 2020, providing health care and medical treatment for our girls has been a priority. It is a lot easier to get sick while living in Uganda’s largest slum than it is to stay well!

Up until February, we sent all our sick girls to Dr. Francis, who gave us a discounted rate and didn’t require up-front payment. Still, the cost of an exam, treatment, hospital visits for daily IV injections, and transportation added up. And the bigger we got, the more we spent. (Thank goodness for our partnership with DonorSee that started in September 2021!)

But one day in January along came the idea fairy, who dropped the idea of an on-site clinic in my head. After adding up what we’d averaged per month on medical treatment and comparing it to what we’d have to pay a full-time nurse plus medications and supplies, it was quite obvious that the better solution was to open an on-site clinic.

Lately, we’ve had a run of typhoid in our community, thanks to the rains and dirty, contaminated water that the girls drink at home. Malaria also surges when there are lots of puddles and congested drainage ditches for mosquitoes to breed in.

Because of the Haven Clinic and nurse Sherry, however, our costs are still below what we spent in an average month treating fewer girls. The girls and children are healthier and do better in class. And few are getting very sick now, since we can treat things when they start, not when they’re “bad enough to justify a doctor visit.” It’s been a big win-win!

As always, thank you so much for your support! Please forward this and all our emails to anyone you know who might be interested in our work. I’m available to speak to groups, too! Just use the Contact form!

Webele nyo!

Jennings

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THE CLINIC IS OPEN!

During 2021, we had a LOT of medical issues come up for our girls and babies. The most common were malaria and typhoid, but we’ve also had intestinal parasites, pneumonia, and burns… to name a few.

We have a wonderful doctor who sees our girls at a discount and without requiring payment up front. But he does, of course, require payment in short order, as does the hospital where most treatments have to be done. (Many meds for advanced typhoid and malaria, as well as antibiotics for children, are done through an IV canula that stays in for a week). Plus there’s transport to and from the hospital on boda bodas.

We’ve done a LOT of DonorSee projects to cover medical bills… So I’m not sure why I didn’t think of it before, but in January it hit me: OPEN A CLINIC, DUMMY!

So we did! We’d contracted for more space within our compound in August, and at the end of the year most of it was finally ready. That allowed us to move the Ross House girls to a more private apartment area and free up rooms in the main house. VOILA! A clinic was born.

We are now officially open for business, with a fully stocked medicine cabinet, first aid supplies, IV supplies, a bed, and a full time nurse.

We’ve already had our first patients!

Of course, this is free to our girls and their children (and our staff). But it’s not free to US. We will have ongoing expenses to restock medications and supplies, as well as the nurse’s salary. We also had the expense of setting it up. If you’d like to help, just click the button below – 100% goes to the program.

Thank you ALWAYS for your amazing support! We’re so grateful to have you with us.

Blessings,

Jennings

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HOW WE’RE USING YOUR DONATIONS

As you know, we had a lot of donations in December. It was truly amazing! So we wanted to let you know how we’re using your money so far in 2022.

Right now – today – we have finished our daycare!

This has been a long-held dream for us. We’ve watched our teen moms go to class with babies on their backs or having to chase a toddler around during lessons, and it was (of course!) obvious what we needed. But we didn’t have the space or the budget. Until now!

Thanks to your donations, both directly and on DonorSee, we got the funds to create the daycare. Our soft opening is this weekend, and we will be open for “business” (it’s free!) on Monday. Our wonderful social worker Sarah, who has a baby of her own, is in charge.

The Literacy class had its last day of “soft launch” today, too. Monday is the official launch, and we’ve got 20 girls ready to learn basic reading, writing, English, and math.

Monday, the great photographer Bob Ditty is coming to spend the day doing a photo/video shoot. I had a Zoom meeting with him yesterday and can’t wait to see his images and videos. He usually works in rural areas of Uganda, so he’s very excited to take his work to the slum.

And then Tuesday, we start work on the clinic! Having a nurse and stocked clinic onsite will save us SO MUCH MONEY, not to mention catch the common illnesses like typhoid, malaria, and pneumonia early. The nurse will also conduct regular health and hygiene seminars, and visit our families in their homes. We are really excited to add this to our compound and community.

We have a DonorSee project up to help with the clinic. If you’re interested in helping us, click the button!

Thanks for all your support and encouragement – know that you are making a HUGE difference everyday!

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