Stories from the Education Conference
Rhino Camp Trip
This morning some of the team travelled to Koboko, about an hour’s drive north of Arua and the birthplace of Idi Amin. We visited Edward Mika, the chief clinical officer, and his team at the new Binary Medical clinic, which is supported by CRESS. The premises were spacious with outpatient consultation rooms, separate treatment rooms with beds for men, women and children. There was also an antenatal clinical room and a delivery room. We met some of the patients who had used the clinic and they commented that they had received the best care and service at the clinic and that the staff were very friendly. We met the mothers of the first three babies to be delivered in the clinic, baby Jeremy, baby Caroline ( named after Caroline and Jeremy Metcalfe of CRESS UK ) and baby Alex, who was unwell with malaria.
The highlight of our visit was the delivery of a healthy baby boy, weighing 3.45kg to a first time mother whilst we were there !!!! A lot of cheering and singing of Happy Birthday was going on and Asaba jumping for joy !
The clinic aims to be the best in the area and to deliver high quality healthcare services to the refugees and local poor people. Their focus is on disease prevention and improving the quality of life of their patients. They provide truly holistic care with spiritual nourishment alongside physical treatment. The maternity services have reduced the incidence of malaria by providing mosquito nets to pregnant women and also in treating anaemia in pregnancy have improved maternal outcomes.
We returned to the CRESS Africa office in Arua to have a delicious lunch, cooked by Juan, with the office staff. Caroline gave instructions to the cook on making English nescafe coffee with milk!
We had a debrief on the weekend Education conference, which we all agreed had been a great success. It particularly demonstrated the meticulous planning and organisation that had gone into holding the event, with attention to detail. The whole team had worked together coordinating their different areas of responsibility. They had planned for one hundred and fifty attendees but the actual number was one hundred and seventy seven.
It was so encouraging to see the new young team running CRESS Africa working so well together.
Tomorrow We travel to Rhino to see some of the 20 new groups and celebrate with some Ugandan Refugee co ordinators – it is hot and a long day so we pray for stamina for the team Pippa is going to stay behind with Lulu and do some learning. On the need for a clinic in Imvepi camp.
