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yotkom_uganda

Visiting Doctors from USA

In August 2019, we were pleased to have Dr Laurel Coleman and her husband Dr Steve Coleman delivered to us on a MAF flight . They spent time at Yotkom Medical centre and shared with the broader medical community in our region.  They were able to encourage our team and be involved in teaching and sharing from their backgrounds in medical specialities .

 Laurel is a palliative care physician and geriatrician . Steve is a Gastroenterologist .
Their presence here really added significantly to our capacity and they have also taken up a mentoring role with one of our Clinical Officers , Joan , who is being sponsored to study a one year course in palliative care at Makerere University in Kampala.

Yotkom Compassionate Fund

At Yotkom Medical Centre we take opportunities when we can to assist the most disadvantaged in the community to access curative health care .  Recently, Gifty Lona, a 10 month old child , presented with significant club foot deformities. She had previously been fitted with a brace but this had been damaged and the family was unable to afford the trip to the nearest orthopaedic clinic or the cost of having a new brace.

Without the brace during this critical phase of growth ,  Gifty  will  have a life long disability . Our orthopaedic clinical officer , James and our Chaplain Concy both recommended this family for assistance so we have facilitated the child's ongoing treatment .

Gifts from donors can be directed to our  Yotkom Compassionate Fund specifically for needs such as this. Please just email us when you make the donation and we will allocate the funds to this account.

Moving closer to implementing Maternity services

With the new building open, we are working together to recruit more professional staff and purchase essential equipment for our new Maternal and Child Health building.

Denise Nicholls,  a midwife from Perth, Western Australia has moved to Kitgum to live, along with her husband Richard.
Her full time presence will be invaluable as Yotkom  seeks to establish  a very special,  and safe place for mothers and babies to be received and cared for in this rural area of Northern Uganda .
Jo Hardcastle , midwife from Wesley Hospital Brisbane has also been in Uganda helping us establish clear best practice clinical guidelines, policies and procedures for women in pregnancy, labour and after delivery.

On July 1, an experienced  Ugandan midwife, Mary will join Yotkom as our head of Midwifery.

Over the next few months we aim to  start anaesthetic services , establish a blood bank and ensure we have 24 hour doctor and midwife cover at Yotkom.

We are currently urgently seeking donor  funds for essential equipments which include:

An anaesthetic machine                        $ 25,000 AUS
A birthing bed                                        $ 5000
An operating theatre bed                        $10,000

As you can see,right now we have an amazing empty operating theatre which is just waiting to be set up.

Please consider helping us to reduce death rates amongst mothers and babies here in Uganda by donating to Yotkom
Ways you can give  are outlined on  this  web site in the right hand column .

All gifts in Australia are tax deductible.

Thank you !

The New Hospital Opens

At the end of April we officially took possession of the second stage construction of the Yotkom Medical Centre in Kitgum. 

The new building provides admission wards  for 50 patients , a Maternal and Child Health facility with antenatal unit, two labour wards and a second operating theatre.  We also have a new meeting / teaching  room and administration area plus a dedicated vaccination room .

The covered balconies provide a lot of cool shaded places for our patients to rest and recuperate .

Our overcrowded original outpatient building will continue to function and will now have additional space for a dedicated dental consulting room and possible future day surgery and expanded pathology laboratory .

We have some beautiful murals painted by Joshua, a local African artist and some photos from Australia to hang on the walls and remind us of the  partnerships and donors who made this facility possible , most especially the Gateway Baptist Church in Brisbane.

April Australian visitors to Yotkom

On March 29th , Dr Andrew Wright will be accompanied to Uganda by Jo ( a midwife ) and Kate ( a Paediatric Nurse ) .

Andrew, Jo, Kate, Phil

In April they will be joined by Phil, a builder and project manager from Australia who will help finalise the last stage of the Yotkom Maternal and Child Health project construction.

We are planning to move into the new building within a month.

Maternal and Child Health and Hospital admission facility nearing completion

Current primary health care facility seeing 300 patients per week

The team from Brisbane will be joined by Richard and Denise from Western Australia.

Richard and Denise

Denise is a midwife and Richard a business manager and both have made a commitment to live and work with our Ugandan team on a permanent basis starting in April.

Our goal is to partner together over the next two months  to interview and  recruit Ugandan midwives and establish firm policies, procedures and clinical guidelines  for the commencement of maternal and child health services at Yotkom Medical Centre..

We also intend to work toward starting an anaesthetic service  and building the capacity of our operating theatres to undertake surgical, orthopaedic and obstetric cases.

This year we are asking donors to consider helping us with the purchase of essential equipment needed to undertake these services.

Pastors John and James from Tasmania will be travelling to Uganda to visit South Sudanese communities in Refugee camps in Northern Uganda. They will be sharing on reconciliation and healing after trauma and dislocation.  Over Easter they will be conducting training seminars for Yotkom leaders and the team of medical and support staff.

James and John

Help Yotkom provide exceptional health care to mothers and babies in Uganda

If you have a heart to help women and children in Africa, we believe our Yotkom project is a good place to invest and make a real difference .

For a woman and an unborn baby,  going through a pregnancy and delivery in this part of Africa is fraught with danger.
Death rates are among the highest in the world and over 30 times higher than in an advanced country like Australia.

At Yotkom we have a goal to make a significant contribution to halving these death rates from their current levels of over 300 per 100,000 live births.
There is ample evidence that 80 % of these maternal and newborn deaths are preventable with the implementation of known evidenced based high impact interventions.

In Northern Uganda, Yotkom already has an established Primary Health Care facility employing over 40 Ugandan health workers and support staff where we see an average of 300 out patients per week, providing diagnostic services (laboratory and radiology ), admission facilities and orthopaedic and surgical interventions.

By donating to our expanding work, we know you can make a significant difference to the lives of women and children in Uganda.

A fund raising and awareness web site has been set up to focus on the establishment of a strong maternal and child health service at Yotkom Medical Centre in 2019.

If you would like to learn more or give a tax deductible donation, please visit the site :
MYCAUSE

Or you can make a donation to our Australian bank account  ( see details on this page )