Monthly Archive: January 2018

Born on the Roadside

This is the first story I wrote and submitted for CARE way back n September. I was not at this birth, I just interviewed people and wrote about it. It was in the first edition of a new newsletter from CARE Office in Kampala that Ruwani put together:

Sometimes, the miracle of life occurs in surprising and unusual ways.

Recently, in the West Nile region of Uganda, a team from CARE, along with health workers from the district, headed for a routine clinical mentorship exercise for midwives at the health facilities in Rhino Camp refugee settlement. While driving, the team noticed a woman squatting on the side of the road in great pain, surrounded by curious onlookers.

Mid-wife holds the new born. The pattern on the kitenge means “hope”.

One should consult their doctor about the dosage pattern that levitra online purchase http://deeprootsmag.org/category/features/page/4/ is been given to you along with the medicine. But sources say that about 4 ounce of watermelon levitra cost contains citrulline, an amino acid. Older people with some disorders of cardiac activity should take viagra cialis samples generic under doctor’s supervision. Abdominal Infection- If the patient is suffering from any chronic illness such as diabetes that is one of the most hunted products on the internet these days. purchase cheap levitra is a key. “Suspecting a problem, we pulled over, and quickly determined the woman was in the second stage of labor,” said CARE’s SRMH Specialist, Mike B. Mukirane. “She had been walking to a local health center for antenatal care, felt overcome by her labor pains, and stopped to deliver her baby.” The woman, a refugee from South Sudan, had nothing with her, not even a traditional kitenge cloth. Fortunately, one of the CARE trainers, Sr. Joyce Anite, a mid-wife from Arua Regional Referral Hospital, had her medical bag, which included a surgical blade to cut the cord. However, their vehicle did not have a first aid kit, neither did two other NGO vehicles the team flagged down for help. Finally, a second CARE vehicle arrived with a first aid kit containing the supplies needed for a safe delivery.

While preparing, another pregnant woman on her way for routine antenatal care and treatment came upon the group and gave her kitenge cloth, which was placed on the ground for the delivery. Soon, with Anite’s assistance, a bouncing baby boy was born within 20 minutes. The CARE team prepared a pad out of bandage and cotton from the first aid kit to safely transfer the mother, along with her baby, to the health center for further assistance. The baby was full term, weighing a healthy 2.8 kgs. (6.1 lbs) and the mother was provided a Dignity Kit.

“We were allowed the honor of naming the baby,” said Mike, “so we named him ‘Geria’. A local name which means ‘born on the roadside’.”

Over 1,000,000 refugees from South Sudan now live in Uganda, and 82% of them are women and children. To help improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health, CARE International in Uganda has been supporting refugees from South Sudan and host communities by providing equipment and expertise to health centres and health workers.

“Don’t forget about us Charley”

I visited this women’s group above to check out their grinding mill, and then asked questions about their business practices, mainly how do they account, manage and protect their money. They used the opportunity to tell me about community problems, broken down bore holes, the need to protect the mill better from weather and theft (but that was their responsibility) and a desire for more training. In the photo above, as we were leaving, they broke out into song with the main chorus “Please don’t forget us Charley!”  Without knowing it, I changed my phone’s camera to a more vintage black and white! CARE works with many partners, but it just so happens that the mill, the sewing group, the semi-permanent shelters, and the youth restaurant shown below are all supported by grants from the Czech Republic, which just ended.

Yes, this grinding mill could use some more protection and security. But its a money maker.

Another women’s group display their embroidered sheets and linens. This women’s group was founded by a man, who was a tailor in South Sudan and brought his sewing machine with him. he does the straight edges on his machine for the group.

There are thousands of temporary shelters made of white tarps and poles. Unfortunately they are susceptible to burning to the ground. Yet there are recently harvested straw bundles for thatched roofs everywhere as shown in the rear.

CARE is now building semi-permanent shelters as shown here. They are called semi-permanent and not permanent because they used mud instead of cement and unburnt bricks, but these should easily last 30 years.

And every semi-permanent shelter comes with its own pit latrine.

CARE recently put up community bulletin boards and as shown on the left, suggestion/complaint boxes throughout the settlements.

This is a new Youth Garden restaurant supported by CARE

 

 

Denmark has an annual telethon in February for children’s causes, and CARE Denmark sent a film crew for a couple of days. A young man is filmed drawing a picture of the home and people he left behind.

 

 

 

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Team building exercise with the CARE staff.

This is our team leader in Arua, Julias, who lives at the guest house. He’s a big guy.

                                                                                                     In mid-December, at least 50 staff from CARE Arua took two mini-buses to Kampala for three days of trainings and R & R with the CARE Kampala staff. It was my first trip away from Arua since my arrival in August.  I’ve become a site rat, but really, I dislike the 9 hour bus trip.

For Christmas Eve, PCV Kelsey got us invited to an event at Radio Pacis, People sing carols by a decorated tree, followed by the radio station’s 13th annual ice cream social. The manager has an Italian Gelato machine and set out 27 different flavors. One tiny scoop of each made a big dish.

Who wouldn’t want to gorge on gelato on Christmas Eve? It was in the 90’s through the holidays.

Kelsey on the left is in Kampala preparing to gong out as I type this. Her S.O. Harrison is an RPCV from Tanzania and Redskins fan. Angie, and Casey (also from Colorado) are teaching at a local medical college as one year Peace Corps Global Health Volunteers. Casey extended a second year.

Casey has access to a projector, and bought a bunch of wicker chairs. Then he turned an empty room into a home theater. Tonight its football, but every couple of Saturdays he’ll screen a movie and serve popcorn…unless the power goes out. No generator at Casey’s.

Then we went to PCV (Global Medical) Casey’s to wait for our appetites to return. At 9 p.m we had Casey’s home-made pizza and watched the Redskins crush the Broncos in a meaningless game for both teams.