‘At my prenatal visit, the doctor was doing an ultra-sound and she noticed something strange so she asked me how I was feeling. I said I've been having lower stomach pains frequently so the doctor said I would need to stay at hospital. I gave birth at 7 months and one week, which means my child is premature.’

 As well as the baby being premature, Davilma also faced a fight for survival during the birth: ‘I almost died as well, I lost a lot of blood.’

Davilma’s baby boy was small and weak, and the doctors were not confident he would survive. But, through the excellent care of the Neonatal staff, Davilma’s prayers were answered. Her baby is responding to treatment and is feeding well. He has a positive future ahead.

‘At my prenatal visit, the doctor was doing an ultra-sound and she noticed something strange so she asked me how I was feeling. I said I've been having lower stomach pains frequently so the doctor said I would need to stay at hospital. I gave birth at 7 months and one week, which means my child is premature.’

As well as the baby being premature, Davilma also faced a fight for survival during the birth: ‘I almost died as well, I lost a lot of blood.’

Davilma’s baby boy was small and weak, and the doctors were not confident he would survive. But through the excellent care of the Neonatal staff, Davilma’s prayers were answered. Her baby is responding to treatment and is feeding well. He has a positive future ahead. ‘I feel proud and joyful that my child is alive and doing well...'

Davilma knows that she probably would not have survived had she given birth at home. Maintaining and growing the maternity and neonatal services at our partner hospital is more important than ever.

Thankfully, the collision happened within sight of our partner hospital and each patient was brought in to triage. Some were transported to other facilities in the region, with others receiving x-rays, surgery and wound dressings.

Without the range of services now available through constant investment in hospital infrastructure, some of those patients could not have received the care they needed.

When he arrived, Stevenson was unable to walk or talk due to his stroke. After extensive rehabilitation at our unit, it has been incredible to witness him now proudly walking around the Rehab Unit as the life and soul of the hospital.

One particular afternoon at our hospital chapel, one of our Chaplains, Samuel, a tetra-plegic survivor from the earthquake and one of our first spinal rehabilitation patients, was leading worship. On the front row, Stevenson was joyfully playing a tambourine and taking the lead with the singing!

Without the care and support from our rehabilitation staff, Stevenson would have been left to struggle on, his quality of life very much reduced by the effects of his stroke. As Stevenson has now progressed and continues to follow his rehab plan, he and his mother can now live independently back in their own home. This is only one of many of the stories of those who have been impacted by the care and support from our Rehabilitation Unit.

The PTC Training provided a unique  opportunity for collaboration among diverse faculty and participants. Cooperative learning was extremely high, with 94% of candidates improving over the course. That same percentage of candidates reported an increased overall confidence following the training. The method of identifying local instructors and training them up in a ‘train the trainers’ approach has been extremely effective and enabled greater sustainability.

Summary of MCQ's & Confidence Matrix Scores Pre and Post Course:

We collected data throughout our PTC courses to assess the impact of the training on participants’ knowledge and confidence in managing trauma patients.

MCQ’s:
• 94% of candidates either improved or remained at the same level pre- to post-course.
• 82.35% of candidates improved pre to post course.
• Of those that improved, the average increase in score was 32.8%.

Confidence Matrices:
• 94% of candidates reported increased overall confidence pre to post course.
• Of those that reported increased confidence, the average overall increase was 44.6%.
• Over a third of candidates (37.5%) reported an increase in their confidence of >50%.

Ratings:
• The average overall rating for sessions on Day1 of the course was 87.9%.
• The average overall rating for sessions on Day2 of the course was 84.7%.
• The average overall rating for sessions on both days combined was 86.3%.
• The 3 highest rated individual sessions across the course were ‘ABCDE + primary survey’, ‘Limb Trauma’, and ‘Airway + Breathing’. Two of these three sessions were led by Haitian instructors.

One of the nurses remembered him from a previous mobile clinic when he had been sent to be admitted into an inpatient malnutrition program in the city of Cap-Haitien. He had stayed at the program for a week but his mother had 4 other children at home, 4 other mouths to feed and no husband. So after a week, she had no choice but to take him out of the program and, instead, took him to relatives in the countryside, in the hope he would improve.

A few months on, he was markedly worse and desperately in need of medical help - often not possible for Haitians living in poverty. This time, HHA were able to get the boy a place on a malnutrition program where he would receive free treatment.

To be able to go into the poorest and remotest communities is vital, to reach those who may otherwise not receive any medical care. That day, a boy's life was saved.

Since then, Modi’s life has been transformed. He received a course of Plumpy'Nut to treat the malnutrition, and is no longer tied to a tree, now enjoying playing football with other children in his community. His mother shared that if it wasn’t for HHA's support she would have buried Modi by now.

UNINTERRUPTED POWER SUPPLY
Reassembled, the system ensures uninterrupted power supply to the hospital.  This is vital for running equipment and providing light during the hours of darkness, when emergency operations are needed to save lives. The system works in conjunction with grid power and generators to ensure batteries are charged and electricity is always available.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
With the abundance of sunshine, our solar panels produce clean, renewable energy.

LOWER FUEL CONSUMPTION
The additional resource of solar energy charging the batteries reduces the need to run the generator, cutting down on fuel and, vitally, saving money.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
With the generator burning a much reduced amount of diesel, CO2 emissions are vastly lowered helping both the environment and the patients.

SAVINGS
Before fitting the solar PV system, the hospital was spending $4,000 every month on diesel and this will be reduced to a fraction of that cost.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Payback for the investment can be measured in months rather than years.

REDUCED MAINTENANCE COSTS
With the battery system requiring far less upkeep, and a significant reduction in generator running hours, the costs for maintenance are significantly lowered.

NOISE POLLUTION
By reducing the running hours of the generator and using silent battery power at night, the noise pollution in the hospital is reduced allowing patients to rest.

‘We visited a school to run leadership training and disability advocacy with the teachers. A teacher asked the question “how best can we look after the traumatized children?”  On first glance, they looked so upbeat; laughing, singing, dancing and running around.  It wasn’t until I overheard 2 boys proclaim, whilst waving a long stick at a group of children, “you cannot cross my border!”  A sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach began to emerge knowing the pain they'd faced crossing borders…these children have seen situations that are too unbearable to dwell on.  15 kids alone in this one school are orphans, we believe most due to the war, a reality too close for comfort.  While we're in the school, adult refugees  look across the landscape towards South Sudan just kilometres away.  Even while the kids sing and dance with us, the sound of shelling and gun fire can be heard across the border, as a new wave of fighting threatens a group of IDP camps HHA has been trying to help.  Those who hadn't fled into Uganda remained in hiding in the bush.

Again, in church on Easter Sunday, looking around I thought, wow there are so many women here! Amazing! And then, I found out why…their husbands, sons, fathers…never made it over the border - 86% of refugees here are women and children. Then you think of your own family and imagine fleeing the house you grew up in, rebels pointing guns at you and your baby, watching unimaginable horrors occur…and it really begins to sink in.’

Samuel now leads daily services at the onsite Chapel, visits patients and relatives, to offer spiritual healing and is a much valued member of the hospital community.  

The Uganda team make regular trips to the Kajo-Keji clinic to meet people with disabilities needing prosthetics and mobility aids. Castings are taken and prosthetics are fitted, working closely with the BidiBidi center and its fully equipped workshop. 

One of first patients the mobile team saw in Kajo-Keji was James, a 22 year old from South Sudan who had his hand amputated in 2008. He was the happy recipient of a prosthetic hand and one of many to receive this life-transforming care.