Blog - Beacon Medical Centre

A dozen people from the Church of the Redeemer in Boston spent ten days in Soroti, Uganda in late June. Dorsey McConnell, the President of Pilgrim's Board, is Rector of Church of the Redeemer, led the mission team.

One of the projects accomplished by part of the team was a medical mission at a clinic in the town of Amuria. In 2009, Dr. Christian Sampson, a surgeon from Boston who specializes in hand and plastic surgery, spent about a week performing surgeries in this Amuria government clinic. The clinic is very basic, and has a staff which includes an anesthesiologist, but no skilled surgeons. This year, Dr. Sampson brought medical equipment and his surgical assistant. His visit was eagerly anticipated by prospective patients in area who could travel to the clinic. The Boston team, which included Dr. Sampson's daughters Phoebe and Emily, travelled north several hours, to Amuria each day. Each long trip was accompanied by several Pilgrim staff members from Beacon Medical Center in Soroti.

Day 1 was spent assessing patients for surgery. About 35 surgeries were performed in all, and the clinic staff in Amuria did the follow-up after Dr. Sampson left. As is clear from the photos, the setting for medical procedures is quite rudimentary, compared to US standards. On the 2009 medical trip, Dr. Sampson removed bullets from a man who had been injured several years before in the civil violence.

Thank you to Kristin Matchett, Dr. Sampson's assistant from Boston, and Phoebe and Emily Sampson, and all the team from Church of the Redeemer who participated in this trip. Watch for more blogs reporting on the projects accomplished during that week in Soroti.

We at Pilgrim are especially grateful to Dr. Sampson for his donation of time and expertise, but most of all for his generosity of heart. Many Amuria residents will remember the mzungu (Ugandan for "white person") doctor from Boston who spent days in their clinic giving his skill to make them healthier.

Related Links: Beacon Medical Centre

Pilgrim's Agathos Relief and Aid Program completed the distribution of clothing, hundreds of yards of fabric, and musical keyboards donated to Pilgrim, and transported to Uganda courtesy of Thain Boatworks and Earthwise Ventures. Included were thousands of new clothing items from a Seattle, WA clothing distributor, dozens of musical keyboards given to Pilgrim, and numerous rolls of cotton flannel donated by World Concern in Edmonds WA.  

 Pilgrim Uganda's Director of Relief, William Denis Omara, organized and directed the multi-site distribution effort. Six staff from Pilgrim travelled with him to transport and give out the goods; they were assisted by volunteers at each distribution point or village. Targeted recipients for this distribution were the elderly, women with small children, pregnant women, the disabled, and most destitute of each area. The elderly in Ugandan society are often very needy if they have no living children to support them. Each beneficiary received two pieces of clothes; mothers received fabric for baby blankets and diapers, and elderly persons were given flannel fabric for bed sheets.

One distribution site was Namuwongo Revival Church, an inner city church pastored by Pastor Opio Wilson, located in Namuwongo, a large slum in Kampala. Clothing, mostly pants and shirts, and fabric yardages were handed out to the needy, amid much rejoicing (see photos).  These were timely "Christmas presents" to about 600 church members.

Teso Safe Motherhood, a sister nonprofit in Teso, NE Uganda, assists pregnant women and new mothers in the Teso region.  The many rolls of cotton flannel given to that organization will in turn be divided to give out to new mothers for their babies' needs.

Many rolls of fabric were given to the Beacon of Hope Medical Center for various uses such as sheets and nursing needs. The students at Beacon of Hope College received fabric yardage to make bed sheets. The majority of students at the College are completely sponsored by Pilgrim, so this fabric donation helped keep supply costs down. 

The final distribution sites were the vulnerable population of Amotom IDP (internally displaced person) Camp in the Amuria subdistrict, and the village of Kapelebyong, also in Amuria. Local government officials assisted William Omara's staff with the identification of the most needy, assembling people, and distribution.  Notice the large but orderly crowds gathering to line up for clothing and fabric in the photos.

The final kinds of items distributed were piano keyboards. As Pilgrim works with local churches, finding eager takers for these keyboards was not difficult.

Pilgrim's distributions activities of food and other things to the most needy occur when significant amounts donations are given, and often in cooperation with other organizations.  A special thanks to Thain Boats and Earthwise for their generous gift of shipping these goods for Pilgrim.

Related Links: Beacon Of Hope Secondary School, Beacon Medical Centre

In mid-June, Pilgrim partnered with the Trauma Studies Center in New York (part of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy) to bring the trauma counseling and training to Soroti. Rosemary Masters, Betsy McConnell, Paula Gellis, Barbara Rachlin, Rachel Goldsmith, and Judith Friedman all traveled from New York to share their knowledge. For several of them this was their second or third visit to Uganda to train counselors and those who work with traumatized individuals. The fifty conference attendees included social workers, teachers, pastors, prison guards, and people from various other professions. Several Pilgrim counselors attended and several Americans associated with International Teams. I am working on a business project in Kampala, and was able to attend as a special guest of Pilgrim, as I am interested in trauma counseling.

The topic this year was Restoration and Renewal, focusing on background and techniques in counseling trauma victims. The region of Teso has experienced traumatizing circumstances for the past decades. The LRA abducted many children and killed many people. The Karamajong, a pastoralist neighboring people group, have raided their cattle for many years, impoverishing the farmers. And in the last few years the people of Teso have seen floods and famine. The need for trauma counselors is great.

The six facilitators presented the material using different teaching methods. The first day of sessions was devoted to how trauma affects the brain and what symptoms to recognize. The next day dealt with teaching certain skills to stabilize a trauma victim. The last day focused on how to care for oneself as the counselor to prevent burnout. Each day the facilitators presented an act featuring a counselor and a client who they had counseled so that the attendees could learn principles of counseling thru critiquing. The counselor would give a short background story of the client leaving out specific information to protect the identity. Then they would play that client as someone else played the counselor. I don’t know which I learned more from; the American counselors presenting the material, or the Ugandans who lived this work for many years. The stories they recounted of different clients astounded me -the things child soldiers went thru, child rape, or even just normal life to these people. Each day's teaching sessions began with singing cultural songs in Ateso and Swahili and some dancing, and great worship times.

By the end everyone learned and found the material helpful, especially the way in which it was presented. The counselors from the Trauma Studies Center presented at a level available to everyone while covering an impressively large topic. Each day breaks included morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea so that everyone could socialize and learn from each other outside the class as it were. The last day everyone stayed for a feast and one last time to mingle and eat excellent Ugandan food together.

Related Links: Trauma Treatment Program, Beacon Medical Centre

We are proud to premiere a new video created for us by Gregory King - "Pilgrim In Uganda 2009" - that captures the people, work and successes that Pilgrim experienced in Uganda in 2009. Enjoy and spread the word!

Click here to browse and enjoy other Pilgrim videos on Vimeo.

Related Links: Move On Malaria, Beacon Of Hope Secondary School, Trauma Treatment Program, Resettlement & Agricultural Assistance, Beacon Medical Centre