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| Circular -
June 2014 |
| We have made
some significant changes to the structure of Africare, to better
enable us to meet the needs of the work, and to prepare for the
introduction of the new Charities Act. Some board members
resigned after many years of service to prepare the way for new
appointments who can take on specific responsibilities. Steven
Gregg, who has been with Africare from the outset, has been
appointed chairman and is now responsible for all matters
relating to land, property and equipment. I will continue to
serve as secretary, and am responsible for promotion and
strategy. Laura Lubwama now deals with record keeping, reports,
case histories, and will use information from Acheru to prepare
the monthly website update. Solomon Lubwama will deal with
liaison, and represent the Acheru staff in our meetings. Other
officers have been appointed, and I will be happy to send full
details to anyone requesting more information on Africare. |
| News from
Uganda is encouraging. At Acheru, work on the new kitchen has
been completed and the new stoves are much more efficient. The
old building has been converted for a number of purposes
including a physiotherapy room, a classroom, and a small room
where tailoring instruction is provided for the children’s
carers in the hope this will give them a useful skill. Making
full use of this building has released more space for patients,
and numbers are increasing. The aim is to keep Acheru full to
capacity, but we have also agreed that rather than turn away
patients needing treatment, we will cover costs of all necessary
care and rehabilitation at CoRSU if there is no room in Acheru.
We had received a proposal to replicate Acheru in the north, but
we would still need to refer children to CoRSU for surgery, and
at present it seems more cost effective to pay the costs at
CoRSU (which are heavily subsidised) rather than build in the
north. However we do see a need to develop outpatient and
community work in the north and are looking at a number of
options, and having discussions with potential partners. More
rural clinics are being run and we can provide an effective
service for those children who are brought to us – but we
still face the problem of so many disabled children being hidden
away, so we have to be more pro active in finding them. Even
after children have been seen and assessed, we have a problem
with so many not being brought back for treatment – fear of
strangers, worries about costs, influence of witch doctors or
older relatives. This can only be dealt with by effective
community work. |
| Thanks to the
generous support of donors we have been able to give assurances
that no child will be refused treatment because of costs, or
because Acheru is full. We like families to contribute to
expenses, but if they are poor, we will deal with all costs –
travel, subsistence, CoRSU and Acheru costs. We are now seeing a
rise in numbers from the north and hope this will continue, as
it’s been a disappointment that we weren’t seeing the
numbers of children from the north that we had expected. |
| Brian Dorman |
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