HEALTH INITIATIVES IN RWANDA AND UGANDA

We have just completed the process of organizing the Neo-natal resuscitation project which will take place in Rwanda in January 2010. Dr.Petty, an anesthesiologist, and his wife came from Cedar City, Utah to get things organized. For short-term specialist in their 70s, they were a couple of fireballs. There were a number of obstacles to overcome when we first went to Rwanda. We visited the office of the UNHCR in Kigali and found that the woman in charge had previously worked on a NRT program in Angola with the Pettys. She spent some time making phone calls to friends in the government and by noon all of the necessary doors had been opened for meetings with the Minister of Health, the U.S. Embassy,USAID and the necessary hospitals.


Art and Dr. Petty meeting, at the University Hospital in Kigali, with the Chief of Obstetrics and the hospital's pediatrician.

We found this though provoking poster in the office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. It was especially meaningful to us after our experiences in Southern Sudan and the refugee camps in Uganda.

Elaine with the Chief of Nursing for the Ministry of Health and one of the Head Instructors for the School of Nursing in Kigali.

There are many reminders in Rwanda of the 1994 genocide. This is the Parliament building in Kigali where the last battle was fought at the end of the genocide. Note the bullet marks around the top walls of the building.

While we were there, we also made arrangements with the UNHCR to go with them in September to the refugee camps in Rwanda to help distribute the shipment of 11 relief containers the Church is sending from Salt Lake City. There are currently 53,000 refugees from the DR Congo in three camps in Rwanda.

COUNTRY WIDE VACCINATION PROGRAM IN UGANDA

When we returned to Uganda the Church participated with the World Health Organization in a measles and polio inoculation program which vaccinated 5.5 million children, below the age of five, throughout the country. Members acted as volunteers at some of the 1500 vaccination posts (including those under trees).

The full time missionaries helped cheer up the kids and got to practice their Lugandan language skills.

Elaine, of course, brought her usual supply of balloons and candy.

There are many misconceptions and superstitions in Uganda about vaccinations. Sometimes the volunteers had to go house to house encouraging the parents to bring the children for shots.

Here a member of our Branch in Mengo comforts a little girl after "the big event".


We went to check on one of the orphanages to see if they had received the vaccinations and ran into a girl's soccer team from Provo, Utah. They were in Uganda teaching girls to play soccer. Here it is exclusively a boy's sport.It was quite a surprise meeting them. They were travelling around Uganda for two weeks doing clinics.

By the end of the four day drive, 520 of the members of the Church in Kampala and Jinja donated a total of 7,150 hours at the schools and vaccination stations. We had an interesting experience with the 27 members of our Mengo Branch who worked a total of 970 hours. On the first day, the Red Cross van took them 6 miles out to various stations in a very depressed area of the city and left them with the promise that they would be back. Unfortunately, they did not go back to pick them up after dark. None of them had the 50 cents necessary to ride a Boda-Boda home. They did have cell phones, so they met up and walked the 6 miles home, arriving at 10:30 P.M. The next day at church they told us that they had been "disappointed" by the way they were left by the Red Cross but that what they were doing was important for the children. That afternoon and the next day they all went back to the same area to continue working. We gave them money for transport in case they were left again. The Ugandans are kind-hearted people who share with others regardless of how little they have themselves. We are always touched by their kindness.