Our Christmas blog is a little early this year but we have lots to tell you and have even a few suggestions if you are still shopping for gifts, especially for those people who are difficult to buy for.
Christmas is an important time for Christians and the messages of peace and love are more important than ever for all of us. For many this Festive season will be very special this year as we can spend it with our family and friends.
2021 has been a difficult year as the world leaders still struggle with Covid19, the developing countries still have low double jab rates due to the limited supply of vaccine and many other countries are again seeing a rise in cases. The Glasgow forum for Climate Change for many, particularly those in low lying countries in the Pacific region, did not lead up to the expectations of delivering a substantial policy to decrease emissions. And in Kampala we recently had a terrorist attack and our near neighbours experienced local disturbances.
There is a lot of good will still in the world and we must have faith that people will help and support each other to make our world a safer and healthier planet.
GlobalGiving Fundraising Campaign – GIVINGTUESDAY November 30, 2021
Since we began the relationship with GlobalGiving in early 2020 the wonderful support we have received during that time has helped us to provide 280 children with access to treatment.
GivingTuesday is a 24-hour window to donate and the participating projects, such as New Hope Children’s Hostel, will receive incentive funds from GlobalGiving based on the amount donated by donors to their project. Now the tricky bit is that the 24 window is based on 00:00:00 EST to 23:59:59 EST on November 30, 2021. For other parts of the world the equivalent period is:
GMT: 05:00 November 30, to 04:59 December 1, 2021: Uganda: 08:00 November 30 to 07:59 December 1, 2021: AEST: 16:00 November 30, to 15:59 December 1, 2021
So, if you have a lazy dollar and are happy to part with it, we can put it to good use. Go to: Help Poor Children with Cancer to Access Treatment – GlobalGiving
Achievements:
Community: It has been a really tough time for our patients and staff with lockdowns making movements and access to our health facilities very difficult.
- Our team of Community workers delivered medicine to our patients unable to get to the clinic, using hired bicycles. Follow up phone calls were made to support long distant patients to get medicine from nearby health facilities.
- Retention in care has increased to 98% for clients enrolled in care from July 2020 to September 2021.
- KHC was among the top best performing facilities supported by Infectious Diseases Institute of Uganda and we were requested to share with other facilities our best practices that enabled us to achieve this level of patient retention.
Children breathe a sigh of relief to get back to school.
We currently have 82 children on our school fees support program. With the two lockdowns it did affect their schooling as they didn’t have the luxury of internet facilities for online schooling. Regardless there were some positive results:
- Children who were to sit for their final examination in 2020 sat this year and they all passed with Grades 1, 2 and 3.
- Assessment of girls for vocational training was completed and 6 of the girls were successful.
- Re assessment was conducted on the children for readiness to continue schooling next year. They were provided during lockdown with scholastic materials and home study and some private coaching with their teachers, which has kept them busy and active. The good news is that all our children are alive.
- Two girls completed their education in plumbing and tailoring and await their graduation.
New Hope Children’s Hostel
The most difficult time is seeing children with cancer come to our hostel who were not diagnosed earlier and treatment is often too late to be effective. Our role then is to provide the family with access to palliative care support. The key to helping children with cancer to have a healthy future is early diagnoses and treatment.
Since we opened our doors in late 2016 we have supported 665 children. More recently in 2021 we have had 141 children and their caregivers stay with us and of these 27 completed their treatment, with 7 referred for palliative care. Sadly 47 children have died.
We are blessed to have such wonderful supporters.
This past year has probably been the most difficult in continuing to provide services to our clients, be it the lockdowns which stretched our capacity to treat clients, but we somehow managed to do it and our medical team went that extra mile to deliver medicines etc. At times we were very concerned about not having enough food for the children at the hostel, then we received donations through GlobalGiving campaigns. Thank you to the many private donors in Uganda and around the world who send regular in-kind and cash donations to support our work.
Our donors who have been with us for the long haul: Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) with funding from PEPFAR and the Infectious Disease Institute (IDI) the implementing partner of the Kampala HIV project. The USAID Defeat TB project, Samaritan, the Open Society Initiative for East Africa (OSIEA), Culture Without Borders, Ceri a private donor in partnership with Friends of Reach Out, the ELMA Foundation and the Rotary Club of Canmore. Thank you, your trust and support has inspired us to continue to make a difference in our communities.
We have had wonderful local support with in-kind donations and we would like to thank them, especially during a very difficult time, they came to our rescue.
Organisations/groups: Give Love Givehope; Human Resource Fun House; EDYAC (Ngo); Kampala South Rotary Club; Rotary Club of Kisasi Kyanja; Healing Water Church; Christ Heart Kyebando; Worship Harvest Nalya (Relentless); Jesa Milk (Company). |
Friends & Individuals: Rodney & Friends; Dhawapacan Ra; Violet Rujumbura; Recheal Kansiime; Melda Kharonon; Family and Friends Corcus; SCOGA girls.
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Give a Gift that keeps on giving
There’s no question that Christmas will look different in 2021. Will your gift giving be different this Christmas?
The Covid19 pandemic has shown us that we were much more connected and reliant on each other than ever before. While we enjoy giving gifts and receiving them, there is now so much ‘stuff’ that we are given and we don’t use or use once and forget about it. Why don’t we shake things up this festive period?
Give a gift that makes a difference, and that people will appreciate it as it will be a gift that keeps on giving.
You can purchase a Gift Card through GlobalGiving and the options are:
- Make a donation in honour of someone special and send them a note and if you wish to support our children with cancer, the project name is“Helping poor children with cancer to access treatment.”
- Or buy a Gift Card and the recipient can redeem it to a project that matters to them. Hopefully our project!
Find out more. Beat the Christmas rush this year and shop early.
Kawempe Home Care – Accredited COVID19 vaccination site
Kawempe Home Care – Health Center 3, has been accredited by Kampala Capital City Authority Department of Health and the Ministry of Health to become a Covid19 vaccination site. The service has been running for 2 weeks now and this has created more awareness about our health centre and the services that we offer in the community.
We are thankful to the Government of Uganda and the partners who have made the vaccines available to our community.
I would like to thank our friends and partners for the kindness and support that you have given us during this past year, which I think has been the most difficult for our organisation since we commenced our journey in 2007.
Despite the difficulties our staff were able to reach out and continue to help our clients which was particularly hard during lockdown with staff using their own transport to get medication to clients. We were able to continue to provide valuable support to families so that their children could access oncology specialists and services. Cancer does not give way to other illnesses or understands lockdowns!
I am very proud of the work our team have done. I would also like to acknowledge the great support and guidance that we received from the new KHC Board members led by the Chairman Assoc. Professor Victor Musiime throughout the year. We deeply appreciate their commitment and enthusiasm. And if it weren’t for the dedicated KHC management, staff and community volunteers who work tirelessly for our clients, KHC would not be able to provide our community with the holistic support they desperately need.
Underpinning this wonderful team is you our partners and friends who continue to support the work we do. Thank you and God Bless.
May 2022 be blessed with peace, love, and joy.
Dr Samuel Guma
Amidst difficulties, KHC team has continued to be ‘moved by love’ to provide services to the patients. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy new year.
Congratulations KHC for maintaining the medical services for your patients during a very difficult time. you amaze me and inspire me.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.