Medical

Life, Death, and Ugandan Health Care

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When my son was fourteen, he spent 4 days in the International Hospital of Kampala, a private hospital started by an Irish doctor, for pneumonia. Despite being the premiere hospital in Uganda at that time, it was a pretty hair-raising experience. I’m very thankful for the British doctor who took over the case the second afternoon, and very thankful that we were able to make the daily payments at the bursar’s office to keep him in care.

I’ve also spent a fair amount of time in local and regional hospitals during the three years I worked with Hospice Jinja and Hospice Tororo. These are the kinds of hospitals with 1930’s style metal beds where you have to bring your own mattress if you want one, and a family member has to stay with you, often sleeping under your bed in a 40+ person ward and cooking on a charcoal pile outside so you have food and someone to change your bandages.

Unfortunately, the latter is the norm for most Ugandans. Since the pandemic, even the government hospitals, such as those I visited, charge in advance for care, effectively excluding most before they can even be seen. Maternity care and labor and delivery services are almost nonexistent.

Sadly, yesterday morning our farmer, Derrick, lost his wife in childbirth. The baby girl is healthy, but the mother passed away. I don’t know the specific reason, but it is probably something shocking to our Western sensibilities because it is so easily treated. This is way too common for Ugandan women.

We have a project up to pay for transport and the burial costs. Yesterday was a Muslim holiday so nothing could be done, but today Derrick will begin the process of burying his wife. We’ve already sent the money for his expenses, but this is outside of our normal budget. If you’re interested in helping, the project link is below.

Mostly, I want to thank you for your support of our compound clinic. While the majority of our nurse’s time is spent on things like malaria, typhoid, and pink eye, both Nurse Sherry and now Nurse Brenda have stayed with our teen girls as they give birth, rushed sick babies to the hospital in the middle of the night and made sure they got seen, and taken hurt toddlers to the children’s hospital in Mulago to make sure they get appropriate treatment and care.

YOU are doing that. You are giving a tremendous gift — the gifts of health and of life. We truly cannot thank you enough.

Mwebele nnyo,

Jennings

PS – I woke up Thur morning and found that you all had already funded this project! That’s amazing!

If you’d like to make a donation to Derrick’s baby’s needs and care, you can still donate to this project (It can go over 100%) and we will purchase baby items and other things the caregivers may need with however much we get in.

Project for Derrick

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THE NEW HAVEN CLINIC

Our new clinic, which we decided to call the Haven Clinic, opened on Valentine’s Day. Its function is to serve the girls, children, and staff in our programs — right now that’s about 60 people not including babies.

We already need to restock some supplies and medications! Our full-time nurse is doing well-baby checks, dispensing medications for cough, doing malaria and typhoid rapid tests, and keeping records on all the babies so we can make sure they’re healthy and developing well.

This is HUGE. Health care, even for very serious illnesses and diseases, is out of reach of almost everyone in the Namuwongo slum. We’ve done a lot of DonorSee projects to help us cover the costs we’ve incurred over the past year. The average has been about $90 — while the average income in the slum is less than $10 a month.

But now, we have scenes like this. Teen mom and Ross House resident Christine’s joy at baby Zoe’s first-ever wellness checkup. Free of charge.

It doesn’t get much better than this!

Thank you for all your help and support as we’ve set up this clinic. Obviously, we will have ongoing costs of medicines, supplies, and the nurse’s salary. You can become a monthly donor (in any amount!) or donate to our current DonorSee project by clicking the button below if you want to help.

Webele nyo!

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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DONORSEE AND OUR WORK

DonorSee listened, and their newest update means more of your money to our programs!

We have loved being on DonorSee, and have had over $8,000 in donations through the platform since September. It has allowed us to quickly respond to urgent needs as well as fund supplies for our students, a daycare, and more.

But the most common feedback from YOU was that 17% of your donation went to DonorSee, 3% to credit card fees, and only 80% to us directly. While your donations also helped us get traction with donors directly on the DonorSee platform at a 3-4 ratio, it was still a basic-math sticking point for a lot of you.

Well, DonorSee listened! This year, they started a Premium Membership for a limited number of partners, and we were invited! Now we pay a flat fee per month — $30 for the first 3 months and $100 after that — and all your donation comes to us (minus card processing). Since we “spent” $1303 on the 17% fee in just 4 months in 2021, this is a BIG deal for us!

With Term 1 of 2022 Skills for Life starting this week, several medical needs, and more up right now, we hope you’ll check it out and donate today! Every dollar counts, and goes to the programs.

Baby Liz received second degree burns this weekend after swatting a bowl of hot porridge out of mom Jenifer’s hand and onto herself. She was rushed to Nsambya Children’s Hospital where she is receiving daily treatment. She’s doing very well! We have a project up for her medical bill, if you’d like to help!

UPDATE: Liz was treated successfully and is fully healed! We are so grateful to our donors on DonorSee who gave to her medical bills!

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