There is far too much to say in a short paragraph to sum up all my thoughts and experiences, so I thought I would write a snippet on the weekly ward round and the extreme difference to the UK. A consultant led ward round happens once a week, with a consultant physician, two interns, eight clinical officers, 18 nurses and approximately 25 student nurses. Bear with me…Now imagine this in a 20-bed ward where the beds are half a metre apart, family members are present by the bed or peering through the window, and don’t forget the patient!

It is cramped and hot (felt most by us English lot!) to say the least, however I think it profoundly demonstrates the level of keenness and eagerness shown by the staff to learn more about the patients, and their care. This is the time they see the doctors and they really want to learn everything possible: a trait that is very admirable in them all. They do not have the same facilities available as we do in the UK, such as diagnostic blood tests, scans, and ultrasounds. The doctors rely on history and clear clinical signs, an older style of medicine than we are used to and one that is so interesting and valuable to our learning.

At a first glance of the ward, you see family members camped outside cooking and providing food, bedding provided by the family, and quite a lot of chaos; it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions about the care the patients receive. After spending only an hour there, it is so apparent that all staff and family members are working so hard with what they have available and treating what they see in front of them to the best of their ability. The diligence and dedication shown to work and the raw want to learn is something that will stay with me and inspire my career far longer than any of my initial perceptions of ward life.

This is excellent practice for me because it has allowed me to improve my knowledge and skills in paediatrics and infectious diseases. I have also had the opportunity to review patients by myself and provide teaching on the ward round to the clinical officer trainees and nursing students. I hope to provide some more teaching on how to examine children in the next few weeks.

There are significant differences between Ugandan and British healthcare systems. For example it is more difficult to confirm suspected diagnoses because laboratory tests are too expensive, unavailable or the lab is closed therefore doctors tend to provide blanket treatment for all suspected diagnoses.

Antenatal care is also very limited so conditions such as Down’s syndrome and holes in the heart are often only picked up after the child has been born. The experience and exposure have been very good so far and I look forward to completing my attachment in paediatrics and moving on to community care.

Act4Africa Jinja has been putting young people through the Girl Effect project which has been both highly rewarding and an exciting opportunity to develop long-lasting engagement with the local community.

The project has reached and impacted over 180 beneficiaries to date from different school clubs.

Based from the testimonies of the trainees, the impact of the training is positively influencing their behaviours, choices and healthy lifestyles.

Visit the links below to hear what some of the beneficiaries have to say:

http://youtu.be/ZfuaJ4LS8nE

http://youtu.be/4kGHl06rcW4

http://youtu.be/FAlYY7sdC1U

We thank you for the generous support towards this cause that is impacting the lives of young people for a bright future.

Now we’re properly into spring it’s time to think about a good spring clean and declutter. And if, like many others, you have unused and unloved media items lying around at home, we can take them off your hands and put them to good use because Act4Africa has now signed up to Bigfundraising.co.uk which provides a brand new way for us to raise funds.

We’re asking people to donate their unwanted working games, DVDs and blurays.  You can do this by dropping these items off to our office or by sending them directly to bigfundraising.co.uk.

These donations are then converted into a cash equivalent and the amount will come to us!

For more information, contact Alison in the Act4Africa office or head to our Bigfundraising page.

The Big Give Charities Raffle is a great way for you to donate to us via the Big Give. Each ticket costs just £1 (min. 10 tickets) and we will receive 96p for every £1 ticket that is bought for us – with the remaining 4p going towards raffle administration costs.

The fantastic prizes on offer are:

• 1st prize – £2,000 cash, or a luxury holiday for two
• 2nd prize – £1,000 cash
• 3rd prize – £500 cash
• 10 x runners’ up prizes of £50

There are only a limited number of tickets available so you’d better get buying now!

To buy tickets, head to our Big Give profile, you will see a ‘Buy Raffle Tickets’ button on the right hand side, underneath ‘Donate Online’.

There are so many advantages to being a nurse, not that you’ll ever hear about them in the media but it is a career full of opportunities, possibilities and an abundance of intangible rewards. And wanting to give – a desire to care – seems to run through a nurse’s veins like a life blood, pulsating with every new possibility. At least, that is my experience. So when I was presented with the idea 10 years ago of driving 5,000 miles from Plymouth to Dakar (as it was then) in a car that had seen decidedly better days, the cogs of my mind already began to engage as the idea was stored in my bucket list for future reference.

Back then it felt like an improbability – how could we make it across Europe’s seething oceans, over Morocco’s snow caked mountains, past the invisible but very real and angry minefields of the Western Sahara, through the thirsty, unforgiving deserts of Mauritania, and all the while dealing with the overt bribery and corruption that comes with countries living in extreme poverty and deprivation and clamouring for survival? Maybe the drumming African beats of Senegal would be our saviour? Or maybe the former British colony of The Gambia would take us into her arms through some sense of loyalty? But we’d need more than that surely – how could we do all this in an old banger with little more than rust and gaffer tape holding her together and about as much mechanical knowledge between us as, well, someone with none whatsoever!?

A banger called Maisie was the answer! Maisie was the missing link to our conundrum; a 20 year-old Renault Espace people carrier with 150,000 miles already on the clock, a slipping clutch, four fractured hoses and a leaky power steering thingamajig! No worries!! Maisie was temporarily converted into a campervan for our 5,000 mile jaunt, complete with vibrant African print curtains fresh from the markets of Brixton and a levitating double bed secured above the folded back seats. Various adornments were also assigned the job of jazzing up her peeling paintwork and making it clear that this was no ordinary car, no mundane journey and no mean feat to achieve.

With entrance fee paid and Maisie ready to hit the ground running we knew this was finally going to go ahead and our dream journey was about to begin, albeit 10 years after dreaming it! The cogs could now not only engage but really start turning and I searched hungrily for charities poignant to our trip. Of course we wanted to help everyone but in times of austerity we sadly had to be ruthless in our giving so specific criteria were drawn up.

Firstly the charity should be dedicated to the people of Africa – how could we traverse such a large chunk of a continent, enjoy its culture, its people, its weather and its food without giving something back? Specification 2: it must be a charity doing work personal to me – a nurse who is committed to the health of others, who has worked for a fair proportion of her career in the field of infectious and tropical diseases and who has a dear friend living with all the knowns of HIV but also the unknowns. Finally, specification 3: a charity which believes as I do that education is fundamental to the success of a country but also to its health.

After weeks of searching, Googling, brainstorming and virtual exploring I had my answer… Act4Africa met all my prerequisites and more. More – because Act4Africa thinks outside the box – not all education is successfully achieved through conventional classroom style teaching – and this charity, although in its infancy, promotes interactive learning through drama and music – a medium close to my heart and that of a good friend – a drama therapist for the deaf and blind.

With fundraising in full swing, on December 23, 2012 our long-awaited journey finally began as Maisie bulged at the seams, packed full to the rafters with school equipment, toys and clothes to be distributed along the way to orphanages, schools and the needy. Our journey took us first across a restless, washing-machine sea from Portsmouth and then north to south through the land of tapas and castanettes where in the far south we finally met the other five cars and 10 other people in our expectant and apprehensive convoy. After an evening of comparing and admiring each others cars at length we all came down with the affliction of car-envy – a feeling of inadequacy at what souped up feature we had failed to think of!

Entering Africa the next day at Tangier however was a procedure lengthened by red tape and form filling, formalities and backhanders and we became grateful for our more moderate modifications rather than the overstated, conspicuous add-ons that we had thought about. When we eventually drove on to African soil the adrenaline which was to be a prominent feature of this journey really started to pump. One way or another we would make it to The Gambia – there would be no such thing as failure because so many people in so many places were depending on us whilst others were eagerly watching.

Morocco’s High Atlas mountain range presented us with our first real driving challenge with impossibly narrow roads, steep climbs, treacherous drops and spectacular views. The snowy conditions that we had been expecting however were not realized – heavy falls had long since melted and we sailed through without even a wheel spin or a skid. As we then drove down Morocco’s west coast the scenery started to change and sand became increasingly a force to be reckoned with rather than the backdrop for an archetypal holiday retreat. The southern province of Morocco, the Western Sahara, presented the unaccustomed with the challenges of sand storms and roads that rapidly vanish under a newly blown veneer. The province was also undeniably still plagued by undetonated, unsignposted minefields and security issues meant police / army checkpoints halted our journey at least every 10 miles. Despite these obstacles though we arrived at the Mauritanian border proudly intact with only one speeding fine and three flat tyres between us in our convoy of six!

Mauritania was a whole new experience again – a stark and desolate country with hectare upon endless hectare of nothing but sand and shifting dunes.  Baba, a camel herder deserves a mention here for his astounding ability to lead us through the Sahara navigating by the sun and using the individuality of the camel herds as landmarks and the hue of red in the afternoon sky as a timepiece – without him we’d still be in the desert now, sun dried and desperate! Baba got us out the other side miraculously after three days of relentless digging, overheating, pushing, wheel spinning, sweating and despairing and the sight of a sealed road for us and for him was a joy to behold! Running water was a luxury we also enjoyed in the capital Nouakchott and after a well-earned cold shower we spent a night on a hostel roof under a twinkling African sky.

From Mauritania we headed enthusiastically for Senegal hoping for a change in rhythm and a country personified by Youssou N’Dour and his mellow music. It was an expectation soon dashed however as we were presented with new hurdles and a whole new culture of kickbacks and favours. As we arrived at the Senegalese border from no-man’s land we had no choice but to foot a hefty bribe of €180 per car in order to enter the country and this was to be the first of many such encounters! Senegal, it seemed, didn’t like our old cars nor their owners; we were given just three days to leave the country again on its opposing border with The Gambia. With our plans scuppered and an awful lot of driving to do there was little time to enjoy the laid back tempo; the authorities were tough, the red tape hard to break and the roads long and bone-shaking but the people were warm and the vibe was captivating.

Senegal was a place you couldn’t help but forgive for its dishonesty and exploitation. Sadly however in our requisite rush for the border, disaster struck on the worst pot-holed road that side of the equator… Maisie came a cropper! With a leaking oil pump and a dry engine there was nothing for it but to accept we would only make the last 100km to Banjul on the end of a tow rope! And so we and poor Maisie limped across the finish line in Banjul pulled by a car who had seen her own fair share of mechanical issues including a blown radiator in the middle of the Sahara! At first and in our exhausted state at one in the morning it felt like we had failed but then the reality of it hit home – we were in The Gambia and so was our car and all its supplies. At auction, even in her troubled state Maisie raised an amazing £1,300 for Gambian charities supporting child protection campaigns. Our mission was complete – we had successfully completed 2013’s Banjul Challenge and raised in excess of £1,100 for Act4Africa!

You can still support Emma’s incredible journey by heading to her JustGiving  page.

Lazarus and Agnes are two of our first community trainees (TOT) to have graduated through all the training levels on the Kasese project.

At a community gathering in Kagando Village, among the coffee plantations on the lower slopes of the Rwenzori mountains, Lazarus demonstrated how to use condoms to minimise the risk of HIV and then they led a vigorous discussion about gender issues.

Women revealed how they had to sleep next to the wall and get second choice of any meat on offer. The men listened. The women also debated their sexual rights with the men in a full and frank manner.  This may have been the first time these issues were ever discussed.

Local community workers were delighted by the responses and the turn out. This was training of trainers Act4Africa-style and it was clearly working. Our Kasese team had passed on their knowledge to these two and here they were leading the workshop without any prompting.

Another reason our CEO Martin was recently in Uganda was because it was time for the annual stakeholder meeting of the Kasese project. Here’s his account of the event:

We had invited the delegates but were not entirely sure how many would actually turn up.

By 9.30am we had a small gathering but slowly the hall filled up and eventually there were over 70 attendees. Beneficiaries of the project plus local dignitaries such as the mayor and local leaders. I was really pleased to see that there were several people with disabilities represented as this is a specific target group for us. If you are disabled and HIV positive you can be doubly stigmatised within society.

I was asked to welcome everyone in my role as CEO but I really wanted to see how the community would respond to the first year’s Act4Africa delivery in their sub counties.

I need not have been concerned as the feedback was both vigorous and very encouraging. They all really appreciated and valued the services. A single dissenting voice noted that condom disposal should be covered in our training as this could be a potential environmental problem.

One man noted how his marriage had been transformed after he received teaching on domestic violence. A community development officer also spoke about the benefits of HIV testing through the Act4Africa approach of offering testing to the whole community rather than just the youth. Through this over 30 more positive cases had been revealed in his community.

A young Act4Africa female, school based, peer educator told the audience how her family now operated on fairer gender based values since she had taught her parents about what she had learned from Act4Africa.

In summary it was a good day and provided us with an excellent platform for the next year’s delivery in the next group of project target sub counties.

If you caught the Top Gear Africa special on the BBC recently, you’ll know that a trip to Uganda can often come with a few hitches when trying to get from A to B. And our CEO is no different. Our very own Jeremy Clarkson (Martin) tells the story…

It’s never fun breaking down on the highway but when you are in Africa with only an hour of daylight left it can start to seem a bit hairy. We had travelled from Jinja for over seven hours and were within 30km of our destination Kasese in the west when there was a funny noise.

As soon as we stopped in the rural trading village we were surrounded by a hoard of inquisitive local men all offering advice and a strong arm with a spanner. Several were also obviously keenly eyeing our luggage in the back.

After it became clear it was more than a simple fan belt problem requiring spares from far away Kampala, it was time to push the vehicle to the nearby police station for safekeeping and hitch a ride with a local taxi as darkness fell. Our driver was obviously keen to reach home as soon as possible as he screeched around mountain bends and sped along at breakneck speed. Kasese at last appeared out of the gloom, a very welcome relief.