Yotkom Medical Team 2012

June 27th 2012  --------our small medical team will be leaving Brisbane

Dr Andrew Wright will be accompanied by Ben Warlow, a final year medical student who will be spending his elective involved in Tropical Health Care at St Josephs Hospital Kitgum and the Bregma Primary Health Care Clinic . For 4 weeks in July we will be assisting the medical teams who work full time  on the ground in Kitgum, Northern Uganda.
Jade Mansfield is a Nurse working currently at the Mater Hospital Brisbane. She has visited Africa in the past and would like to spend 2 weeks  in Kitgum learning more about the delivery of Primary health care in an African setting.
We have been meeting together as a team to prepare for our time away. We value the prayer support of our family and friends and home churches during our time away.

Andrew will be helping Ben and Jade to make the most of their time in Uganda, as well as building further the Yotkom partnership with health care professionals in Kitgum.

Yotkom Uganda is about:

PARTNERING  TO IMPROVE ACCESS AND EXCELLENCE IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

We are seeking to grow

RELATIONSHIPS

RESOURCES and

SELF RELIANCE

Here is an update on progress since last year:
We have registered as a company in Uganda and have a management board which includes Andrew,  Dr Oringa Vincent (from Bregma Clinic)and Dr Charles Abonga (from St Josephs Hospital ).


A detailed project application has been submitted to Healthserve Australia and approval has now been given for   tax deductibility for donations received in Australia.
Donations can be made to Healthserve  online at :  www.healthserve.org.au

or by mail to  PO BOX 3032.   Erina.   NSW . 2250
If donating please quote our project name: Yotkom Uganda


Medical equipment is being stored here in Brisbane to be included in a container being sent to Kitgum in the second half of 2012.

In the last few months we have been continuing our sponsorship of Richard Yulam as a clinical officer.  He will qualify in July this year

We have also been providing the salary of a clinical officer,  Peter Omara to allow him to provide support for Dr Vincent Oringa in the Bregma Clinic.

There is a search underway to locate and purchase land within Kitgum town boundary with the goal of designing and constructing a purpose built primary health centre . This land will ideally be located near to a future council land grant to allow for expansion. WE need to raise funds for this. The land will be approximately $20,000 AUS. By relocating the Bregma Clinic into a purpose built centre built and maintained by Yotkom Uganda ,the clinic will save over $1200 AUS per month in rent which can assist the ongoing sustainability of this enterprise.

A small business has been started storing and distributing medical drugs and equipment to the Kitgum district. An office/shop front has been rented and fitted out and an accountant/administrator and two nurses employed to work in the Yotkom Drug Shop/Pharmacy. We believe this will generate a small profit each month which can be re invested into the health care service and reduce reliance on donor funding for sustainability of our project.

Please remember us in JULY and check this site for our posts and photos .
with thanks
ANDREW  BEN and JADE

Battling the menace of Malaria

This morning when i walked into Peters consulting room he had a young girl lying on the floor with a high fever. She had slight jaundice and an enlarged spleen, but she also had some signs in her chest. We thought it may be Pneumonia but were able to order a Malaria smear on site and found she had a heavy infestation of parasites. It was good to be able to look down the microscope at the blue rings which scattered across the film and be able to make an accurate diagnosis. She was admitted to our day ward and given the latest and most efffective malaria therapy, intra  muscular artemether along with IV fluids and antibiotics for the pneumonia.  When I walked past her bed in the afternoonn she was looking so much brighter. Its times like this that all the work and obstacles and frustration is worthwhile !

A special photo tonight for Andrew and Rowena Rowe . I delivered a present they sent for baby Dennis. His mother was lying on the verandah with him tonight, recovering from a hernia operation. her face lit up with a smile when i delivered the gift!

Dennis gets his pressie from Weena

I love the african children , so here too  is a shot i took today of baby david who had the emergency surgery this week and is doing very well.
isnt he so cute? he smiled at me as i walked past and chatted to him today.





David





 My last day here today and all of a sudden has come the promise and potential of a new exciting partnership with local medical practitioners which has the potential to mmake a major contribution to primary health care here . It is a story of an amazing roller coaster ride which is too complicated to share at the  moment...but.. more details later...

Andrew and Doc Vincent talk about new possibilities

 The big bus trip tomorrow, with my travelling companion Doc Laurel, then a long flight home on Sunday. Thanks so much to you for your emails and messages and prayers and support
The last few days have been pretty tough going here . I have really felt the power of your prayers  , especially in the last couple of days when some pretty amazing lows and highs have been happening... but i am leaving with hope and believe i will be back !

My work here is almost done

Malnourished child from Sudan

The medical superintendent at St Josephs Hospital has aked me to come and help in the childrens ward at some time next year. I spent some time there today with Dr Laurel and it brought back memories of  working there in 2003. I enjoy working with children and will give some consideration to returning and being involved with the 100 bed ward, the nutritional unit and a planned neonatal ward.  There have been some significant improvements in the hospital since i worked there and there is a good atmosphere there.  There is a lot of need.
Today we saw a little 1.8kg premature baby being nursed in very simple surroundings with no technology. You have to be tough to survive here!




premature baby 1.8kg with mum on the floor

 LAst night we had the privelege of visiting the home of the IGF Clinical Officer, Peter, meeting his wife Sheila and son Shadrak as well as his mother. What a simple life he lives outside of work!  I really admire this guy.
The clinic at IGF is now functioning well and can operate independently under the direction of Peter.  My "to do" list is complete with all the half finished jobs from my last visit tidied up and patients from the community being seen. the pharmacy is also working well. Please pray that the team here will work well together and be effective and receive support from the IGF administration in their work.  My influence is going to be significantly reduced when I leave on Saturday.

Judge Judy African style

Prime real estate in Kitgum

Yesterday I was asked to resolve a dispute which had arisen on some land which i purchased in 2003. At the time I was considering developing a medical clinic on the site but since then have got involved with helping Irene at IGF to expand her facilities on site. The land is a short walk from IGF on the way into town. There are two families living on the land. John Achola ( terribly disfigured as a result of LRA atrocities) and his wife wife Grace and their 4 children, living alongside a widow who works as a chef in the AIDs hospice, and her 7 children !  Quite a little community. I also discovered there is another man living in a tiny room on the land, paying rent to the previous owner !
A dispute arose over fights between the children and became quite acrimonious, leading to a district official being involved and a fine being made.
So in the hot sun, I walked up with Peter my interpreter and put on my family court (Judge Judy )hat to try and settle everything down and avoid blood shed on my land !  I believe it is settled now and i am considering what more to do with this rather nice place where the vegies are thriving.

with some african guys on the block

Today the building guys moved one step closer to completing the incinerator and ash pit. I was intrigued to watch them lifting the pipe and supporting slab up onto the top lof the chimney.. quite a precarious undertaking... i was tempted to shut my eyes on a couple of occasions.

We were also excited to receive our drug order for the month from Kampala, ready to stock the pharmacy.





We did ward rounds in the AIDs Hospice this morning and it was a great opportunity for Dr Laurel to do some teaching of the medical team.

Ward rounds

the top of our incinerator lifted into place !

Visiting an amazing Kiwi

Lois Ford is an amazing Kiwi woman who has been working in Kitgum for some years. She has a  project called Tender Trust  which provides residential care to about 100 disadvantaged, at risk and in many cases disabled young children. Steve Curtis Ch children and she has Ugandan assistants on site. We visited and Lois treated us to a feast of western food which she prepared in her kitchen. Thankyou Lois , it was soooo good! I was expecting beans and pocha (maize) but a real surprise to have shepherds pie, cooked tomatos, cole slaw, rasperry cordial, plunger coffee and finished off with banana cake.  MMm ..highlight of the day!
Its always very emotional visiting Lois and meeting her children because they have so many struggles.  Also, she is caring for Ben, a young man who had shrapnel in his neck inflicted in the Kampala terrorist bomb blast about 12 months ago. He has been left with a serious spinal injury, meaning he has very little movement in his arms and none below the neck He also needs a tracheostomy tube permanently. He is a lovely guy . We spent some time with him and prayed with him.

During our visit the children were playing happily  in their yard, collecting water from the water bore, having a wash after the hot day, and then enjoying some food prepared in their big kitchen,.

After that we could here them singing downstairs while we chatted together upstairs, at times in the dark, due to the power going out.

It was a good time.

Spending Sunday in church and with the EXODUS  team