|
|
| April 2012
Report - The new hostel at Acheru is almost ready for occupation
and we are now running a second clinic in northern Uganda. |
| The new
patient/relative hostel at Acheru is almost ready for
occupation, and we hope will soon be filled with children from
northern Uganda, helping reduce our waiting list. The north
remains a priority. Every two months, sometimes more often, an
Acheru team travels north for our Minakulu clinic, south of
Gulu, where our partnership with the local health centre has
worked out well, and we know there will be lots of children
there for assessment. We have tried working with other groups in
the north, and we are now running a second clinic at Awach, 50km
north of Gulu. At present that is as much as we can cope with,
for staffing and financial reasons. |
| The Minakulu
and Awach clinics were run last week, many children were seen,
and 10 of the most urgent cases were selected for surgery. They
were to come next day to travel back with the team to Acheru,
but only 6 of them turned up. This is a continuing problem. We
don’t know the reasons they didn’t come, but we know
from previous cases it could have been fear, perhaps never
having travelled out of their own area, or a mistrust of us, if
they hadn’t yet seen what Acheru is capable of. Possibly
older relatives or witch doctors persuaded them not to come, as
many still believe a child was meant to be disabled and there
shouldn’t be any interference. The result is unnecessary
suffering, a deterioration in their condition, and more
difficult treatment if we do eventually get them to Acheru. |
| We are now
looking very carefully at how we could do more in the north.
When the hostel is ready we can take more inpatients but there
may be potential, working with partners, to do more outpatient
work in the north. There is a lot we need to think about. We are
blessed with generous support, good facilities, and dedicated
staff at Acheru, and we want to help as many children as
possible. |
| Brian Dorman |
|
|
|
