Each month, Becca sends a letter back from Uganda, about the Parish Project for 2006 which is Kagando Hospital
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Parish Project 2006

Becca's Letter from Uganda

December 2006

Thank you again so much for your support. We've now purchased the pulse oximeter as you can see in the picture. Those of you who have been in hospital in the UK will recognise it as a standard piece of equipment that NHS staff and patients take for granted, but which has the potential to save many lives. It will mean so much to the hospital to have such a vital piece of equipment.

Pulse Oximeter

Our machine is a very nice one, it does continuous monitoring, which we need for very sick patients, and can be used on adults and children. It has a battery back up so, importantly, will work when there�s no power, and this plus the fact it is light, means it can be used to check the oxygen levels of many peoples� blood. It cost 2,179,250 Ugandan shillings, which is equivalent to about £677 with the exchange rate at the moment.

So it's just arrived. Over the coming weeks I will be teaching the nurses how to use the equipment and, with the surgeon, establish a protocol for how the nurses should react. Next month, once the machine is in use I hope to send you some of the nurses� comments and thanks, and a picture of it being used with a case study.

Thanks to the generosity of your villages, through St Mary�s Church we have also been able to place an order for a blood pressure monitoring machine, which we expect to arrive in the next few weeks. Emma who is a nurse on the ward, said "Thanks so much, may you be blessed, this equipment is really going to help so many people".

Gordon Gray writes: This year�s project has taught me an awful lot about our ability to send aid to the third world. When we read the news there seems to be so much need that it is impossible for us to think that we can do anything to help address the problem of poverty, poor heath and the inequality of the use of the world�s resources. The simple fact is that as a result of the actions of the people of our villages there are people alive today who would otherwise be dead. Those people have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, husbands, wives who today are not in mourning for a dearly loved family member.

Individually it has cost the people of our villages hardly anything � most people�s contribution was little more than the £3 entry fee for the Open Gardens event in June � yet we have done something remarkable and made a significant difference to a village community in Uganda. Thank you everyone for your support so far, throughout the year.


Letters from previous months