Students go to Uganda

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International Placements

Posted on 29 March 2010

As part of the Children’s nursing course we all have the opportunity to take an elective placement, of which my friend and I have decided to go to Uganda and involve ourselves in the health related work of the Kabanda Trust.

Our main involvement will be working alongside the school nurse (who offers free health care to children and families of the school, as well as maternity and family planning services for the local community) to conduct a health profile of new starters at the school to identify any immediate health needs and potential health risks and problems. 

These include a lack of health education, a lack of immunisations and a lack of basic first aid; the main health problems caused by the lack of knowledge are malaria and HIV/AIDS.  Many women and children throughout Africa suffer and die from problems that could be prevented by relatively inexpensive treatment if they were able to access it.  Before we go to Uganda we hope to raise money for the Kabanda Trust as this will go directly into their health fund, and be made available for us to use whilst out there to meet the immediate health needs of the child and family.  Another part of our involvement will be providing the basic first aid and health education teaching to aid the prevention of these problems.  For this, any teaching aids and information would be greatly appreciated. For example, basic first aid books. 

We will also be spending some of our time at Mukisa, a Learning Disability Centre; Wakisa, a Pregnancy Crisis Centre; and Sanyu, an Orphanage.  As these centres are not supported by the trust, we hope to be able to contribute to these in different ways, including providing baby clothes to the pregnancy crisis centre, which houses girls as young as 12 years who have become pregnant, usually involuntarily, and have been rejected by their families.  The provision of baby clothes is so important as it can help these young mother’s bond with their babies, whom often they feel no attachment to due to the nature of their pregnancy.  We also wish to obtain other resources which will be greatly appreciated in the orphanage, learning disability centre and the school in which we will be working with.  These may include colouring books, stationery, soft toys, and other toys or games for both girls and boys of varying ages.

The KABANDA Trust was established in 2006 to support and develop the education and healthcare of children attending a school called Rock of Joy and Nansana Royal Primary School in Uganda. The Trust is named in memory of Vance Kabanda, the late headmaster of the Nansana Royal Primary School.

The trust supports over 500 children by providing basic health care, teachers’ salaries and basic school equipment.

It also funds projects which can ultimately be self sustaining and job creating. Current examples of this include a bus which now provides Rock of Joy with regular income and Poultry Projects at both schools which provide income through egg & chicken sales, as well as improved nutrition, education and training for children, staff and parents.

Katrina Capey and Esther Walmsley,

Child Branch Nursing

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