Kitgum Town

Kitgum Town
Kitgum Town

Monday, June 9, 2014

YOTKOM UPDATE JUNE 2014

Yotkom Uganda         is a small non for profit organisation registered in Uganda.
The project has 5 directors , 2 from Australia and 3 from Uganda.
The board of management is predominantly made up of Health professionals from Australia and Uganda.

Our vision is to improve access and excellence of Primary Health Care services to Northern Uganda.
We seek to do this through building strong relationships , sharing resources and encouraging self reliance.
Our organisation is faith based  and our values reflect this strong Christian ethos.
We value Honesty, Transparency, Compassion , Justice and Respect within our team and strive to maintain these standards in our care of others.
The community we serve in Northern Uganda is defined by high levels of poverty and unemployment and a lack of infrastructure and services due to over 15 years of civil war.
The disease burden is high with many children under five dying from infectious diseases such as Malaria, Pneumonia and Diarrhoea.
Women on average in Uganda have 7 pregnancies, and with each one the risk of mortality is 20 times higher than that in Australia due to limited pregnancy care and safe birthing facilities.
Yotkom Uganda is seeking to address these needs through training and mentoring of high quality health professionals and provision of good diagnostic services.
We are currently working closely with an established Primary Health Care/ General Practice in Kitgum town, Uganda.
We have a regular financial commitment to assist with medical staff wages, chaplaincy and ongoing education and training of existing professionals and future team members who work in this community.
We also have a vision to build a purpose built medical clinic and maternal and child health centre for our team to work in.
Yotkom has purchased strategically located commercial land in Kitgum and developed  a construction plan for our future clinic building.
We appreciate our donors assistance for our ongoing committments (currently approximately $15,000 per year ) and also toward the $250,000 target for our  building fund . We hope to commence building in 2015. Stage 1 will be a primary health clinic , costing approximately $180,000 and Stage 2,  a maternal and child health centre for $70,000.

Because of our size we have minimal administrative overheads and can target our donor funds directly to the health needs on the ground. We also have transparent financial declarations and are subject to monitoring by AUSAID through our partner organisation in Australia, Healthserve. This organisation also provides tax deductibility status for our donors.
Latest developments as of June 2014 include:
1. We are working on our plans for a medical clinic construction, calling on expertise from project managers, builders, architects and engineers here in Australia and Uganda. A significant Christmas fund raising appeal promises to give us sufficient funds to commence building in early 2015.
Please consider helping through your donation to contribute to this Health Care Facility .Your contribution could help us reach our target of completion by July 2015 .

2. In April this year our project team developed a particular focus on addressing needs and researching causes of Nodding Syndrome, a debilitating illness affecting children and communities in Northern Uganda. We have developed a specific project proposal for a rural village outreach to address the needs of disabled children and their families and we are working with other organisations to seek funds for this specific proposal.

3. Doctor  Andrew and Anne Wright are Australian  directors of the Yotkom Project and have made a decision to relocate to Doha, Qatar where Andrew will be employed in a new Primary Health Care/ General Practice role from August this year . We see this as a strategic opportunity which will build strength in the Yotkom project . Andrew and Anne  plan to commute more regularly from Doha to Northern Uganda for supervision and project management and to work alongside  Ugandan medical colleagues. Andrew and Anne will be able to continue to meet all their own expenses related to the project and ensure all  donated funds are directed to delivering services in Kitgum.

4. The Yotkom Uganda Support team will continue to meet every three months in Brisbane to provide support and accountability for then Australian leadership . Our Support team provide their expertise in many areas including Information technology, Business development, accounting, media , medicine, nursing, dentistry and Pastoral Care / Chaplaincy.

5. A container with some medical equipment and materials for the new clinic will be leaving Brisbane in August bound for Kitgum. We thank the The Mater Hospital Brisbane for their generous giving which makes this possible
6. A small team will be going to Kitgum in October with a focus on Emergency Medicine training and upskilling and Womens ministry. We will be working with other health focussed organisations working in the community including DAYS FOR GIRLS,  PRIME INTERNATIONAL ,  and              ST JOSEPHS HOSPITAL .  See web links at the bottom of the blog page for more information on these projects.
Our Team members include Pat and Maree Holdsworth and Lynne Pemberton. (below with Andrew)

Other team members from Gateway Baptist Church in Brisbane will also be travelling with us.
Rhys Tregenza,  Nick Paton and Ainsley Winton :

Rhys
Nick

Ainsley





WE COULD NOT DO THIS WORK WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT.

PLEASE CONSIDER A TAX DEDUCTIBLE GIFT .

WE APPRECIATE YOUR PARTNERSHIP WITH US .
To GIVE....Go to:  Yotkom TAX DEDUCTIBLE Donation Website

or post to Healthserve Australia .
PO Box 3032
Erina
NSW 2250
please state  the donation is for Yotkom Project
Receipts will be forwarded to you