Star Fundraiser

When people fundraise for our various projects it is such a huge benefit to our small charity and we are very grateful to everyone who helps us.

In December 2014 Clayton Woltz together his mother and Hubab Hood visited our projects in Uganda and were shown around by our Operations Manager, George Kakonge. Clayton and Hubab had a “drone camera” and took this wonderful picture of the clinic on Bwama Island.

Clayton told his niece Belle about our projects and Belle was keen to help and to fundraise for a playground at one of our nursery schools. We sent her information and posters and she set about her task.

In her own words here’s how Belle raised the funds:

“Upon pondering ways to collect monetary means for your charity, I happened to contact my language arts teacher and very close friend of mine, Megan Macke. Megan advocates for youth community service and has many groups of students, including myself, reaching out and giving back to our small, rural town. In her efforts raise money for a mural, she and other students sold cheese. The cheese is made by Pearl Valley Cheese (http://pearlvalleycheese.com), a local farm not too far away from our county, and one makes 4(8-9)% profit from all sales.

With this being said, the sale of cheese is supporting our local economy as well as the profit going to a wonderful cause, not to mention they manufacture award winning cheese products. I adopted the cheese sales as means of fundraising, as well as networking with many family members and small businesses, and had much support from major healthcare companies. My fundraiser was conducted over the span of one month, with my monetary goal being $500(cost of one playground). Conducting this fundraiser has been such a great experience for me, and I plan to continue my efforts. As you know, I exceeded my initial goal, by raising $541.50. I had $498.50 collected in cheese sales, $241.50 of which being pure profit. I had $300 worth of donations. 

With this being said, my successes show how youth have the power to make a difference, and change the world. My experience has been completely rewarding. I am incredibly thankful for this opportunity, and proud that I have so many individuals connected to Edirisa, from southern Ohio, USA. 

Thanks Belle and thanks also to Clayton who matched her efforts with his own donation!

The playground at Nyakasiru is being built and will be ready when school goes back on September 7th.

Clinic News!

The doctors and medics from the Tropical Medicine School in Slovenia have now left Bwama Island and are heading home.

Whilst at the clinic they have achieved a lot in such a short time. The contract has been signed for the floors to be finished off with a special screed and for the work benches to be built and installed. Meanwhile they have been improvising.

One of the first patients at the clinic

 

They bought some basic tables and chairs and one of the girls enjoyed sitting on the verandah sewing curtains.

Sewing on the verandah

 

The Pharmacy

The government are in the process of building the maternity and overnight ward, you can just see the building on the photo above, right hand side up on the bank.

Lots of things still left to do but we are getting there! Watch this space.

Clinic on Bwama Island, Uganda

The building for the outpatients clinic and accommodation for international doctors on Bwama Island is almost finished and the Slovenian volunteer doctors have started work!

In July and August six volunteers from BRISTOL UNIVERSITY bought paints and brushes and set about the mammoth task of painting inside and out. Every day they canoed over from the Bufuka peninsular to Bwama Island and got stuck in! The builders were still working so they started painting the doctors accommodation.

BVDA Volunteers with Graham Carter

Massive thanks for all that hard work. The building is now awaiting the installation of the water harvesting tank, the required funds have been raised and work should start soon. Now we are busy raising funds for the solar installation.

Here are some recent photos of the clinic.

Just before the gutters went on

With gutters

The waiting area needs some benches!

Waiting area

At the end of September we welcomed a new group of medical volunteers from Slovenia, who will be with us for one month and will help us to open the new clinic. The Section for Tropical Medicine at The University of Ljubljana has been sending volunteers to work at Bufuka for several years now and the clinic has been built to give them better working conditions and to improve patient care around Lake Bunyonyi. The Tropical Medicine School has partnered with us on this project and are responsible for furnishing and equipping the clinic.

The volunteers have moved some equipment and old solar panels from Bufuka over to the island and have had a taste of the work that went into the building; all the materials for the clinic – bricks, cement, hardcocre etc –  was taken by boat  across the lake and then carried up to the site. They had to do the same, all the medical equipment,  boxes of medicines, medical supplies, books, benches, tables, shelves and their luggage they carried over! By the end of the day everyone had had a good workout and was thoroughly tired of moving boxes. Well done for all that effort!

After that it was time for the government staff to move into the new clinic. They had been working from an old building on the island so moved all their equipment and medicines to the new building, ready to begin work with their Slovenian colleagues. Of course in true Ugandan style this move also called for a small celebratory party, with traditional food cooked by the local village women. The next day was spent unpacking and lots of cleaning!
Now the clinic is open the volunteers are spending their time between treating patients and managing carpenters, locksmiths and electricians. Some of the girls have even become tailors, sewing home made curtains (the eyes of all-too-curious school children are keen to see what the Muzungu are doing at all hours of the day!).

For now staff and volunteers at the Health Centre have opened two clinic rooms for wounds and bandages, a microscopy delivery room, and of course room for the reception of patients. The local staff are enjoying working with the volunteers and have excitedly discussed how “very experienced” they are, as well as being impressed that some are already learning the local language.

For us at Edirisa it’s very rewarding to see what was just an empty building a few weeks ago becoming a fully-fledged Health Centre.