IN HIS OWN WORDS

 

Nick recently visited Oberabic and posted a page with photographs on his blog. It is brilliant with fascinating insights and news. It is posted in full here. 

 

The whole of the blog is fascinating. Gives a good insight into the work and opinions of Nick and Tessa. You can get to it here: https://ugandapanda.com/ 

 

 

Birth in the Bush

Posted on October 15, 2017by ntlaing

Locals say Oberabic Health Center is ‘in the bush’. Although there’s plenty of forest around, that’s not what ‘in the bush’ means. It means a long way away. A long way from healthcare. A long way from electricity. A long way from prosperity.  There’s no place to deliver your baby safely within a 15km circle of Oberabic. In some directions its 30km. If you’re in labour, even 5km can be too far to walk.

Tonight, Adong and Acan pace the maternity room. Then sit. Then lie. Then pace. Hands on hips. Arched backs. Their husbands, sisters and mothers watch on. Its 9:30pm at night, and the labour pains start to bite.

Nurse/Midwife Chris stands between the two soon-to-be mothers. Labour isn’t easy

At 3:00am, superstar combined nurse/midwife Chris delivered Adong’s baby. Everything went smoothly, but its not always the case. The most important intervention which stop mums and babies from dying, is to have a skilled attendant deliver the baby. Chris knows how to use drugs and equipment when things go wrong. Chris knows when the situation is so bad the mother needs to be sent to hospital.

Adong’s boy. You may wonder if its OK to think black babies are cuter? Its OK. They are.

Adong is 23, and this is her 3rd baby. When Acan delivers in a few hours, it will be her 8th. Before she goes home, Chris tries to convince Adong to use family planning so she can at least have a break from new kids for a while. She says no for now, but promises to come back in 2 weeks to discuss it again. Will she really come back? Chris is confident.

Grandma admires her new grandson. Acan (right) is still in labour!

Chris is confident because he does an amazing job helping women take control of their lives. In the last year over 600 women have received some kind of family planning at Oberabic. ‘In the bush’ at Oberabic you have more options for family planning than in many clinics in the developed world. If you want to wait for 1 month, 2 months, 3 months. 2 years, 3 years or 5 years Chris and the team have you covered!

Chris with the ‘family planning’ cupboard. 8 different family planning options!

The irony is, the most helpful (and cost effective) thing we can do for these women is not to deliver their babies, but help them have less. If like Acan you have 8 kids, you don’t get education or serious paid work, and you are utterly dependent on your husband. You may also put your daughter on the same path. If you have 3 children, you’ve got a chance, and so does does your daughter who you can afford to send to school.

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FUN WITH A PURPOSE

Team Building Day

 

 

 

 

 

Great imagination from Nick lead to an excellent day for the health care workers at the Diocese. It was team building, even a fun day and it looks like ----- fun!

 

 



Another Great Team Member.

Some time ago Nick was really pleased to report the progress of a new team member. Emma had fitted in so well with the role given. I thought I had misinterpreted Nick's antipodean accent when he said he (not she) is making a huge difference. In the UK, Emma is normally female but our Emmanuel is a bloke!

 

He is proving to be a perfect fit taking over some of he roles of Natasha, nurse educator, teaching remand home inmates and health unit staff for half of his hours and the rest of the time he works at St Philips.

A great nurse and radiant Christian, he is having a very positive effect.

Oberabic

The Next Steps

Oberabic Health Centre

We are so excited at the progress in Oberabic where patient care and facilities are advancing together.

Oberabic is very remote and poor. It is a privilege to help such a destitute community where there is no electricity, poor water availability, very limited health care facilities and where many children show signs of malnutrition.

At the health unit, we recently financed the building of a two roomed maternity unit. This has been a success as a report from Nick posted above shows. To take progress further we have four advances scheduled.

1. Maternity Unit Equipment.

Two beds and a haemoglobinometer are needed. Money is set aside for these when Nick and Fiona make the request.

     2. Repair to Borehole



The health unit shares their borehole with the local  village. The water is now polluted with mud. This will take time to organise but we have money set aside for when it is.

Children collecting water

  3. Improvement of Staff Accommodation.

Staff have to live on the campus and the accommodation is terrible comprising of a small single room each with  an incomplete partition wall and no ceiling meaning it is cramped, affords no privacy and has no insulation -  Uganda can get vey hot. When we have proper accommodation we will be able to upgrade the health unit further by being more attractive to staff. This will be a big step forward.

This will take around £25,000. We have asked Nick and Fiona for a full estimate

Staff accommodation

   4. Apaa

As the post below shows the opening of this new venture was delayed on account of communal vilence. The unit opened last week with funds from Gulu Connection. It is in a very, very remote area more than an hour along the track from Oberabic. Our prayers and thoughts are with the nurse who is going to staff this facility. Being so remote she will face some very serious health issues. 

Apaa Unit in Operation

Pastor who came to open unit, with patients.