Rhona – Friday 9th October
We have a holiday today as it is Independence Day, probably four days is enough for us for our first week.
Our routine this week has been we get up at six and leave the house at 7.15 to get the matatu (mini-bus taxi) to Reach Out Mbuya and are getting surprisingly used to it.
Reach Out is an amazing organisation and Ugandans are great people. There is a genuine warmth and concern for fellow human beings and they have a great sense of humour. We start the day with yoga and then have reflection, with each department taking a turn to organise it. Everyone in Africa seems to be actively religious, they are very respectful of other peoples’ beliefs but don’t understand that some people are not passionately involved with some religious organisation. We sing a hymn and the Reach Out anthem and there are lots of fantastic harmonies added in. There is a bible reading and someone says a few words. The effect seems to last all day, it’s great and although it would not be acceptable in the UK, I think we can learn from the philosophy. Everyone we have met in Reach Out is really passionate about it, and it is run very efficiently on a small budget and with limited resources. Although only 6% of the workforce have a degree, we have been very impressed by the standards, for example the pharmacy is run by a great man Timothy who has a technician’s diploma but is very knowledgeable and committed to developing the department. Few departments are computerised, everything is written down in big ledgers, so Bobby has lots of scope.
The nurses are a great bunch, and again although most have the equivalent of an enrolled nurse’s qualification, they are very professional and patient-centred, and they could certainly show us what compassionate care is. They do most of the diagnosing and prescribing and call on the few doctors for advice about complex cases. The clients, all of whom are HIV +ve, get treated for other conditions such as malaria and TB, and also for hypertension and diabetes etc. There is a department which gives support to people with complying with their drug regimes and also a special team who look after pregnant women and their babies up to the age of 18 months to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. There are WHO guidelines they follow and the have a very low transmission rate. They use community health workers (mother to mother support) and this seems to very effective. All patients with HIV have a community health worker who helps to support patients and alerts the nurses if there are problems.
The executive director Dr Stella is a very charismatic and strong leader and she is keen for Reach Out, and especially the pivotal role of the nursing staff, to be more widely broadcast, and to get some nursing research going. I still have a lot of discussion to have with everyone, but Stella has suggested that I might help nurses to write an abstract for a conference and to work with the nursing team to identify some areas for research. There are academics at Makarere University Institute of Public Health who have just completed an external evaluation of Reach Out, so they may be interested in further research.
So it’s all very exciting work-wise. On the domestic front, we are progressing, we seem to have progressed from camping to feeling that we are living in a bothy, and I will certainly appreciate my home comforts (and built-in wardrobes and fitted kitchen) when I return to Scotland. Also, having familiar people around, but we came for new experiences and we are lucky that we are expecting to see a good few kent faces in the months to come. Our landlord, his three lovely children and two really nice maids are providing us with a very authentic Ugandan experience. Chiseveni took us for a very long walk one evening up the hill behind us through villages and also past some smart houses, one of which belongs to the President’s daughter. He is a really nice man, and the maids Florence and Maria are great with the children, who are
just a delightful combination of politeness, liveliness and fun.
This is the blog for Rhona and Bobby Hogg's VSO experience in Uganda. In August 2008 we applied to do VSO and, following an assessment day in London last October, we were accepted as volunteers . Because of the strong Scottish links, we had set our sights originally on Malawi where we spent a week in June 2008 but joint placements are difficult to find and in February we agreed with VSO to open up the search. At the end of March we were delighted to be offered placements in Kampala, Uganda. We are to work for a HIV and AIDS initiative called Reach Out Mbuya (http://www.reachoutmbuya.org/) where, we hope, Rhona's community nursing experience and Bobby's IT experience will prove useful.
We are due in Kampala on 18th September and have committed to spend a year there. We are very excited about the prospect of living in a very different part of the world and working with Ugandans who, from many reports, are fun to be with. We expect there to be many challenges but our stay in Uganda should be immensely enjoyable.
We are indebted to VSO for giving us this opportunity. Our preparation, including 2 training courses in Birmingham, has been excellent and we are confident about the in-country support that we will get from VSO in Uganda. I understand that it costs VSO around £15,000 to support each volunteer. If you would like to make a donation to support our placements in Uganda please visit the Just Giving site through the link opposite.
