In Dubai... and on the way

So we're in Dubai... 7 hours of airport waiting down, 5 hours left to go. It's actually kind of nice to sit and think about the upcoming days - traveling to the North to visit the children of Kaberamaido and the eRanger Ambulance in Gulu, which will begin on the 31st (Happy New Year's eve everyone).

During our first trip in March, we were privileged to work with the Asayo's Wish Foundation of preventative and direct healthcare. AWF runs an orphanage, the Children's Village, in Kaberamaido, Uganda, an area heavily affected by the war. The children definitely made an impression on us... and I miss them often. There are a few I think of all the time - 5 year old Peace (yes, that is her name), with an attitude like a 13 year old, 11 year old Moses, known fondly as "Punk", who frequently enticed us to chase him round and round the Orphanage, and a little boy who I spent a total of 10 minutes with, after he found me in a crowd full of village children. He was the saddest soul I'd ever met... he wouldn't speak, wouldn't laugh, wouldn't speak. All he wanted was to be held, and it broke my heart.

I'm excited to share that we'll be returning to Kaberamaido for a couple days on the way to the North to check out an eRanger (motorcycle) ambulance, and that we will get to spend some quality time with the children. Convinced that I remember this little boy for a reason, a good friend, Echibu Moses, is searching the village and surrounding rural areas to try and find him. *hoping, and praying*

How thankful I am for the gift of children... one day, when I have my degree and have finished the missions immediately placed before me, I hope to have a large family of my own. Having worked in Uganda, I realize what a great blessing it is to live in an area of the world with such incredible medical care. Once I am in a position to be preparing to have my own family, I know that I'll have all the care I need, and have a variety of options from which I can choose. In Uganda, where on average a woman has 7 children, many districts lack the infrastructure to provide healthcare to all women and children. In addition to the enormous burden of sheer numbers per health center or hospital, there are seldom the transport mechanisms that would allow the people in rural villages to reach health care facilities during labor, resulting in high maternal and neonatal mortality rates.

I can talk about this reality in terms of statistics, but I think that doesn't do it justice. Those "maternal and neonatal mortality rates" are lives, precious lives. When a mother dies, she quite frequently leaves several children behind, forced to help raise themselves and each other. They are required to grow up so quickly. I met a family like this in Iganga District. A mother, in addition to raising her 7 children, had taken in 8 orphans. When she died in childbirth, she left 16 children behind, including her newborn. I can't imagine being the eldest of 15, still a child myself, and trying to raise all my siblings as the sole care provider. I truly believe that childhood should be protected - a time to grow, and learn, and play. The death of a mother is so often not just the death of a mother, but the death of many other futures.

In a conversation Tina, Kristyn, and I had with Iganga Assistant District Health Officer, Dr. Peter Waiswa, he fleshed out the challenges the DHO faces: 1) Ambulances are expensive to fuel. 2) Ambulanes are too bulky to reach rural villages not on any main road. 3) Lack of training in emergency response. 4) Not enough supplies. 5) No centralized communication cetner. Yet, despite these difficulties, the DHO officials in Iganga are dedicated to their calls, and they worked with us to try and find a solution. Together, we found a program called eRanger, a motorcycle ambulance that runs on 10-20% of the fuel of a normal ambulance, is light-weight and able to reach rural villages.

Our new partnership between the Vassar Uganda Project, the Uganda Village Project, and the Iganga District Health Office, is working towards bringing a pilot eRanger Program to the subcounty of Bugweri in Iganga District, with its primary focus of transporting expectant mothers experiencing complicationg to local health centers or the Iganga Hospital as needed.

How excited we are to be participating in such an innovative solution... and how much it teaches me about what incredible people there are in the world from which I am blessed to learn.

We should learn from each other, work together, help each other. And how thankful I am to be learning from the eRanger Program in Purongo, founded by the Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief. We're heading to Gulu on January 1st to watch them in action. Send us good thoughts... and we'll keep you updated!

~ Jacquie Law

March, August and Beyond

Check back here for updates from our January trip to Uganda. Postings should be available by New Year's Day 2009.

In the meantime, check out past entries from March 2008 here or updates from our August 2008 trip at http://www.vassarugandaproject2.blogspot.com/.

Our website has more information about our past trips: http://vassarugandaproject.org/projects.aspx.