GREETINGS

We hope that this newsletter updating the progress of Gulu Connection, finds you well. In the UK, it has been a summer to remember; great for suntan but tricky for gardeners. It is now easier to empathize with folk in Africa who often have to cope with drought creating food shortages.

ACTION AT HOME Gemma was delighted to be invited by a teacher friend to give a presentation about the work of Gulu Connection ahead of Aylesford School year nine’s annual fundraising effort. Gemma gave a great talk and then she and Pete went round the classes as the teenagers devised their plans. Later we were delighted to be called back to receive a cheque for £498. This is a massive achievement and we are exceedingly grateful to all those who were involved.   ACTION IN UGANDA - OBERABIC STAFF ACCOMMODATION Good News! The building is now being finished off and solar connected so that folk can now move in. This will be a big step in consolidating the long term improvement of this strategically situated unit.     ACTION IN UGANDA - OBERABIC STAFF CHANGES It is all change at Oberabic health unit and Punu Dyang the totally new unit situated in the jungle 20 kilometers away. The heros are being shuffled. Chris, (far right on the photo below) who has run Oberabic magnificently has a scholarship for further training which will keep him away for 18 months. He is being replaced by the equally magnificent Innocent who has run Puny Dyang so successfully and sacrificially. Twice he has been invited to take a break. First last Christmas and second more recently when there was communal strife which would have exposed him to danger. Both times he refused to leave his post. Innocent is being replaced at Puny Dyang by Opiyo, the guy in the brightly coloured top. He will be supported by visits from Innocent, probably using the motor bike we were able to purchase for the unit. The money you give makes a difference every day. It is worth remembering that not that many years ago, we reflected that over a five year period there had not been one visit when all staff were present, and often there was no-one working. The life saving change from totally ineffective to significantly advancing health care is transformational.   MATERNITY CONTINUES TO ADVANCE. We had to find an opportunity to show these lovely photographs! Thank you Nick for sending them.   Gulu Connection money built the new maternity unit. Now the antenatal clinic is 100 strong. This is life saving as, in addition to the education and monitoring that we are used to in the U.K, there is the opportunity for malaria prophylaxis and HIV testing. Deliveries have been as high as 25 in a month although less last month. This is being worked on. The deliveries are not only life saving, the alternative being a birth without trained supervision in a mud hut, but also bring income to the unit through a USAid voucher scheme.   VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS Nick and Tessa’s main activity over the last few weeks have been to use their skill to bring some justice and protection to the community around the Pwunu Dyang unit. This unit has been abused by the government leading to 800 huts being destroyed and many fleeing to internal displacement camps. Twice in the recent past Tessa has gone with MP’s and once with a film crew to expose the army’s actions. This is taking a lot of time. Nick said recently: ''Its been an absolutely enormous few weeks. Tessa today went back to Apaa (Pwunu Dyang) with 230 of the people who had been camping in the UN compound. The army even stopped them for 3 hours at a checkpoint! End of an epic month, but a lot more work to be done. Meetings with the head of the UN in Uganda, US embassy, EU embassy and a bunch of others.'' For folk who are into prayer, this would be a great topic for intercession.   STILL MAKING A REAL DIFFERENCE. The brand-new health unit, 20 kilometers into the jungle from Oberabic, serving a community that had no health care whatsoever at Punu Dyang, continues to thrive. Scovia from Oberabic recently went to help with immunisations.    FIONA'S CHALLENGE From this coming October Nick and Tessa will be in the UK for 9 months studying and researching at Cambridge University. The department will be run by Fiona. We know she will do well with this big responsibility. Another one for intercessors. THANKS Thank you so much for your prayers, emails and financial support. As ever we are happy to receive more. And please remember Give As You Live, particularly for big ticket items.   IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP... You can donate by : Bank transfer and adding your name as reference. Account Name. NOCF Account number : 00190468 Sort code: 30-90-95 Or by making a cheque payable to Nechells and Overseas Care Fund and then sending it to the following address : Mr Peter Hill - Charity Administrator 47 Heneage Street Nechells Birmingham B7 4NF Thank you for being part of the Gulu Connection community Every blessing Pete

NEWSLETTER UPDATE

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

Our main news comes in our newsletter now, please see below for our latest ones. If you would like to receive them please let us know.

 

Here is the March 2018 newsletter...

 

 March 2018

Dear Friend,   It has been a long time... It has been ages since we sent a newsletter but the brilliant work in northern Uganda continues to go from strength to strength. The delay has been occasioned by Gemma suffering the pain of losing her father. I know all readers send their condolences. Gemma has also gone through the happy, life changing event of getting married in November. Thanks A big thank you to folk who are giving regularly and also recently two very handsome one off donations. Thanks also to intercessors; your prayers release Holy Spirit power - so necessary for the work. A real need expressed Some years ago, on my first working visit to Gulu, I visited the District Health Officer to introduce myself as someone who was working in the diocesan health coordination department. He was dismissive to the point of rudeness. He asked what I was hoping to achieve and I mumbled something along the lines of improving the health care for the truly poor. At this point he got up and left the office. I thought I might have said something that offended him. He returned to his office with a big map of Gulu and surrounding area. He pointed to it, showed me large areas of the district that had no health care cover and said, “If you want to help the truly poor, open units in these areas.” A real need being met Opening units in new areas is exactly what Nick is doing. Tessa and Nick sent out their newsletter recently and the full version can be read HERE. We have copied in the section on Nick’s work in its entirety as it gives such a good picture of the fabulous work that is going on and brilliant view of the future vision. Excerpt from Nick and Tessa's Newsletter Challenge: Ten new health centres Nick arrived home late, plastered in a thick orange dust like a tasteless fake tan. It takes 3 hours from Gulu to reach ‘Punu dyang’ in Apaa. First you stand on the side of road and catch a passing truck, then grab a motorbike to take you onto narrow dirt tracks past rapidly depleting rain-forest, monkeys and scattered huts. Nick’s newest health center is about as inaccessible as it gets. There are no NGOs or aid agencies in this far-flung forgotten spot. And since a long-simmering, complicated land conflict involving Government, a South African hunting ranch and two tribes boiled over last month, nurse Innocent’s health center is now the only source of health care. Dusty-fake-tan washed clean, Nick showed me some pics from the day. On the left, nurse Innocent setting up the drug cabinet, on the right, the local pastor and church members welcome the new clinic: Last year Nick and the Diocese team set up four new health centers in remote spots with little or no available healthcare. All the clinics are in small, rented buildings and run by one or two nurses. After six months, Nick makes the critical call: are enough people using the clinic to make it self-sustaining, running off minimal patient fees? If the answer is yes, the clinic stays. If the answer is no, he moves the nurse, furniture and equipment elsewhere. Against many odds (floods, betrayal, land conflict! hyperlinked) three out of four of the clinics he opened last year are becoming self-sustaining. This means they aren’t reliant on ongoing donor money, it’s a model that the community can support themselves. The stories of the staff running these frontier clinics are beautiful. Community members who are so grateful to have help when they get sick within walking distance they bring gifts of beans and sweet potatoes to the nurse. The nurse in Apaa who is so dedicated to his mission there he flat refused to come back to Gulu for Christmas. The idea is working well, so Nick has decided to go big. A common sight these days in our hut is Nick pouring over google maps of Gulu and surrounding Districts, identifying more healthcare ‘black holes.’ He aims to set up ten new health centers before October this year. Each Health Center costs 4000NZ dollars to set up, but with over a third of this already raised its looking possible. If you have money that you’d like to give to a great cause this year, or you know any organisations that might support the initiative, flick through an e-mail. Below, Nick with his health team at St Philips (their biggest center), and his amazing assistant Fiona (purple jacket).

And here is the April 2018 newsletter....

April 2018 Dear Supporter, We hope this newsletter finds you well, that you had an enjoyable Easter weekend and, like us, anticipating some spring like weather… Hopefully coming soon! Oberabic This newsletter centres on Oberabic health centre which is the main interest of Gulu Connection. Oberabic is situated in a very rural area with a poor population and virtually no healthcare. As well as providing facilities for the local people, it is the springboard for the brand-new health unit at ‘Punu dyang’ in Apaa, which is deep in the jungle, as outlined in last months newsletter. Oberabic health centre Sorry - no new pictures as Nick's camera was stolen Continuing high standards Nick has just forwarded the latest support supervision report from the unit and it continues to function well. With your help, Gulu Connection financed a maternity unit and recently, there were 25 deliveries in one month. Each of these deliveries would have been in danger of being conducted in a mud hut with no electricity or water. New venture We are very excited that Nick has been able to organise a start to building new staff units at Oberabic. This development is vital for this strategic health unit to succeed. It is situated in such a remote area that staff have to live on the premises and currently accommodation is so appalling even the most dedicated find it difficult to live there – if they are married it is almost impossible. This undertaking will be by far the largest single financial commitment we have made and it would be great if supporters could consider helping us. Story from Nazareth. Supporters might be reluctant to dig into their pockets for staff accommodation. It is much easier to get motivated when the funding is for drugs or new staff. When working at the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society Hospital in Nazareth, where there was a lot of new equipment, Peter was horrified by the standard of the toilets attached to the wards. Medical director, Dr Hans Bernath explained that he could get money for equipment, medicines and staff but when it came to something like toilet blocks money was not forthcoming. We hope supporters will see that building staff accommodation at this unit will be as life-saving as providing drugs for malaria, or staff or maternity care. It would be great if you could help We are so grateful for the support several give through prayer and financial giving. In this present situation we are asking if those who have not yet helped might consider doing so. One way is through Give as you Live. Some of our supporters are using this. You might like to join them. Details are below along with the link to the Give as you Live home page Also you may consider setting up a standing order for an amount so small that you would not miss it (£1-£2 per/month) in the knowledge that the money would make a big difference to the people we serve in Uganda.Details below. THE MAIN COST IS TIME. If you would like to help... You can donate by : Bank transfer and adding your name as reference.  Account Name. NOCF  Account number : 00190468  Sort code: 30-90-95 Or by making a cheque payable to Nechells and Overseas Care Fund and then sending it to the following address :  Mr Peter Hill - Charity Administrator  47 Heneage Street  Nechells  Birmingham  B7 4NF Or by signing up to Give as you live Thank you for being part of a Gulu Connection team Gemma and Peter