HEALTH PROGRAMME DELIVERY

It was wonderful to see the team of 5 midwives and 1 medical student from Northern Ireland deliver programmes;

• To all the children in Destiny Christian High School

• To the women of child bearing age and their partners in the Kahara community

• To village health team workers in the Kahara and Kirwala area

• To the health professionals in Diika Health Centre

• It was exciting to see the Kahara Community Hall, built through fundraising in 2015/2016 used for the workshops. 

 

FIVE MASINDI PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Charlene’s Project has funded the STIR initiative through Build Africa for 3 years now. This has involved teacher networking from the 5 local primary schools (includes Kahara and Kirwala) where the teachers share ideas and good practice.

We have been working with Kahara since 2012. Over the last 5 years Charlene’s Project has funded;

• A classroom block
• Latrines
• A kitchen
• Community Hall
• Teacher accommodation
• A borehole

We are also sponsoring over 50 children in Kahara and have provided scholarships for 24 children from Kahara to go to Destiny High School.

Since we were last there in March – Charlene’s Project has installed water harvesting  on one building with a 10,000 litre tank now located near the kitchen. There is underground piping to a tap in the middle of the school garden. allowing easy watering of the maize. meaning the food supply for school is maintained.  The maize grinder is now being installed and this will bring a much needed income stream to school and community.

All the other schools need similar development as Kahara. For example,  one of the schools has over 1,000 pupils with 320 pupils in P1 and only 1 permanent P1 teacher. Yet there are only 44 pupils in P7 as older children are taken out of school to help their parents work the land and early marriage is common. There are 2 tables in the entire school and all the resources for the entire school are kept in one small cupboard in the headmasters office.

The biggest needs are for teacher accommodation, latrines, water harvesting and teacher resources.

Kahara Primary —we have been working here since 2012

Kirwala Primary —started working here in 2015

Bunyama Primary —new area of work

Nyinga  Primary —new area of work

Diika Primary —new area of work

DESTINY CHRISTIAN HIGH SCHOOL

It continues to be a pleasure to support Destiny and the school development continues with new boarding blocks being completed and the kitchen expanded. It was a pleasure to officially open the school clinic during the visit. Health promotion programmes were delivered to all classes in school and included identity and self esteem as well as relationships and sexual health.

24 Kahara children are now sponsored at Destiny. We hope to offer more sponsorship places to this years p7 pupils at both Kahara and Kirwala.

Charlene’s Project provided the money for the 69 young women from the Acholi Quarter to travel up to Luwero for the 3 day retreat, which included health workshops, personal development and mentoring of the girls. 

The feedback from the girls around the programme topics covered was so positive. The girls were so excited to in a different environment and one described how “she felt she was in paradise”.

DIIKA HEALTH CENTRE

Diika Health Centre is a  health centre about 6 km from Kahara community. The staff work exceptionally hard but often do not have the drugs, resources or supplies they need  to help the many people who come to the centre. Charlene’s Project has previously brought medical equipment and supplies to help the centre and has repaired the solar system to ensure deliveries are not by torch light but there remains much that is needed to help. The midwives were able to leave suitcases full of medical equipment, including blood pressure cuffs, as the clinic didn’t have any. This means they will now be able to check the blood pressures of those women who attend antenatal care.   The team did training with the Diika Health Centre staff. They highlighted the need for respectful and confidential antenatal care and affirmed the role of men in supporting women throughout pregnancy and the priority of setting aside some money for delivery and possible emergency at delivery. 

A very useful training session was provided by the Charlene’s Project team on neonatal resuscitation which all the staff of the health facility found helpful. 

Charlene’s Project has developed an exciting new partnership with Masindi Kitara Medical Clinic to train Diika staff, improve health centre systems, supply drug shortages and help increase the overall capacity at Diika Health Centre.

The communities face incredible challenges accessing health care due to the distances and the state of the clay roads when heavy rain falls. 

Our team walked with the Kahara community from Kahara to Diika Health Centre to highlight the difficulties women face accessing health services when they are in labour.

The previous evening our team struggled to get out of Kahara so heavy were the rains and so bad were the roads as the picture above highlights. The walk of 6km to Diika the following day traced the journey women routinely make to access simple health and maternity care. Those with complications then have to make a further difficult journey to Kiryandongo Hospital if further help is needed. The women so appreciated the team trying to understand the struggles women in the community face on a daily basis. This work in supporting these women must continue.