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| Circular -
December 2015 |
| We have to
remind ourselves that Acheru is primarily a rehabilitation unit.
It’s not a hospital, we are not there to provide services
which are available at hospitals or clinics, but we have to
consider each case individually and think about what will happen
to the child if we don’t intervene. An example of this was
Atiam Flavia, rushed to our Minakulu unit with a broken arm
following a fall from a tree and with an untreated broken jaw
from an earlier accident. Her nearest clinic could only provide
first aid, and it was then left to Acheru to deal with
manipulation and casting and also arrange a referral to a dental
surgeon. There are functioning hospitals in the north but it’s
a big area and for many people their only access to effective
medical treatment is our Minakulu unit or our outpatient
clinics. We hope this may change in the long term which is why
we decided not to build a bigger inpatient unit there, but for
now the need exists and we will try to deal with it, providing
outpatient services or arranging referrals to our Acheru base at
Kabembe or to local hospitals. |
| A more typical
case was Auma Linda, a two year old girl brought to Minakulu
suffering swelling to the left lower leg and pus discharge
around the left ankle joint. This was diagnosed as Chronic
Tuberculosis Osteomyelitis Left Tibia and treatment was
Sequestrectomy and biopsy, tuberculosis treatment, antibiotics,
and appropriate exercises. From suffering constant pain she has
now made a good recovery, but often cases are neglected for so
long, or much worse, treated by a witch doctor, that the child
suffers terribly and by the time they are brought to us
treatment and rehabilitation can be very lengthy. |
| We can’t
control Acheru from a distance, so the process continues of
handing over more responsibility. For some time now Acheru has
been managed by their own Board. I helped them put this
structure into place, the understanding being that Africare
would continue as the funding agency so long as the work
continued in line with our agreed aims. Together we want to
maintain high clinical standards, ensure the neediest are
helped, and develop our Christian witness. We provide the
finance, Acheru provides us with reports and accounts, and the
latest step has been the move to a fixed budget. The last stages
of development are a pumped water supply and a small workshop to
support the Community Based Rehabilitation programme. Funds have
been transferred out for these, and we now provide a fixed sum
each month for all running costs. Thanks to the generosity if
donors we’ve been able to guarantee this for three years,
simplifying our administration and giving more security to
Acheru staff who sometimes feared for their jobs in times of
financial uncertainty. We believe it is a generous budget but we
are also encouraging Acheru to develop relationships with other
organisations who may be able to give additional help. We want
to try to secure the future of the work and reduce the
dependence on Africare. |
| However, for
the foreseeable future the relationship with Africare is central
to the work of Acheru and we maintain this by having people go
out to Uganda from time to time to assist with different aspects
of the work or to evaluate it – not just for ourselves but
for the Acheru Board as we all want to see the work realise its
full potential. To help maintain our relationship with Acheru we
wanted to bring Joyce and Harriet here in October and it was a
big disappointment when they were refused visas, but we haven’t
given up and will try again, possibly aiming for next summer. |
| Most of the
reports and statistics we see relate to the surgical patients,
but Community Based Rehabilitation remains central to the work
and we hope this is something which can be expanded in the
future. It’s in the community, often in hard to reach
areas, so the results aren’t often seen in the way that we
see dramatic change with surgical patients, but we know that
many families depend on this work, people living in deprivation,
severely disadvantaged by having a disabled child, and the CBR
programme can bring hope – through giving guidance or
encouragement, arranging treatment or care, perhaps providing
practical help such as mobility aids or other needs. |
| The workshop
will be primarily to enable production of appliances and we hope
many children will benefit. During October there were 38 home
visits – the number was limited by the condition of the
roads following heavy rain. Several children were found who
needed medical intervention for disfiguring conditions and this
was arranged with results which will dramatically change their
lives. It shouldn’t have needed Acheru to deal with such
cases, but the fact is all other treatments sought by the
families had failed but with Acheru’s intervention both
have been successfully treated. |
| In October a
total of 78 inpatients and 87 outpatients were treated, and 24
children underwent surgery at CoRSU. |
| I finish with a
picture of some of our ‘fixator’ patients who are very
happy to be at Acheru. |
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| We want to
continue to make a difference. |
| Thank you,
Brian Dorman |
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