Blog - Public Health

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.

Surgical Team in Amuria

Thanks to Kristin Matchett, Dr. Chris Sampson's surgical assistant, for these photos. The surgical team performed over 35 surgeries over 10 days.

Related Links: 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.

Gallery Trauma Treatment Conference

Photos from Trauma Treatment Conference June 2010

Related Links: Trauma Treatment Program, Beacon Medical Centre

This June Pilgrim will once again offer an important training opportunity to human service workers serving the Soroti, Uganda area. A team of experienced trauma therapists from the Trauma Studies Center (TSC), a division of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in New York City, will be training pastors, teachers, health care workers, first responders and others how to recognize and respond effectively to those suffering from psychological trauma. Pilgrim has several counselors trained in this specialized counseling  who work with the numerous Ugandans severely impacted by the combined effects of war, displacement and differing kinds of loss, and is eager to train more through this team's visit.

This is the third time the TSC has visited Soroti. The team will be visiting schools and government offices, as well as health centers and hospitals, to become better informed about the mental health needs of the Teso people. The week in Soroti will culminate in a 3-day conference sponsored by Pilgrim, titled "Restoration and Renewal." In addition to basic trauma therapy, sessions will focus on the fundamental principles of trauma counseling, and conclude with approaches to nurturing the community of care givers. The conference is for all locally involved with trauma therapy.

Prior to coming to Soroti, two members of the TSC team will be in Kampala, where they will offer training in specialized treatment techniques to members of the Uganda Counseling Association. Two members of the Pilgrim counseling staff will take part in this training.

Many of the students at Beacon of Hope College are healing from the wounds of abuse, war and abandonment, and are now thriving due to the extensive long-term therapy available through the counselors at Beacon Medical Center. Pilgrim's goals are to infuse the Gospel into modern accepted trauma therapy, to heal the wounds of trauma with a powerful Christian foundation, and provide more available therapy to the community at large.

By God's grace, Pilgrim successfully completed its second Move on Malaria campaign in the Kumi district of the Teso sub region in northeastern Uganda in September. Kumi is one of the seven districts that form the Teso sub region, and has an estimated population of 358,400.

In March 2009, a review of health facility records indicated that malaria was responsible for 37% of all outpatient clinic visits in health units and close to 50% of all hospital admissions. In the age group 0-4 years, almost 70% of admissions were attributable to malaria, with malaria causing 10% of all deaths. A baseline epidemiological survey conducted by Pilgrim in the region showed a malaria prevalence of 37% in children under age 16, and 23% across all age groups.

In partnership with and under the direction of the Uganda Ministry of Health and National Malaria Control Program, Pilgrim carried out a district-wide malaria treatment campaign over the course of six weeks. All children ages 16 and under were given a presumptive course of World Health Organization approved anti-malarial medication. Adults ages 16 and above were tested for malaria with a rapid test and given appropriate treatment if found to be positive. Over 250,000 people were attended to by our medical teams. Indoor residual spraying of insecticide (IRS) was conducted by the Ministry of Health concurrently the medical treatment. Although data is still being processed, preliminary results from the IRS campaign show a remarkably high coverage rate, with over 80% of the huts in the district treated.

We are now in the surveillance phase, closely watching malaria trends in the district. Results so far are encouraging. Local health centers are seeing a notable drop in malaria cases and deaths due to malaria. We will carry out a follow-up survey in one to two months to measure the impact on malaria prevalence in the district, and then begin preparing for the next round of Move on Malaria in the district.

Related Links: Move On Malaria

The first intervention of Move On Malaria (MOM) in Katakwi was a complete success. The trend of Malaria continues to go down dramatically in the region, and the hospital has been almost empty for the first time in years!

Watch the video to learn more about this intervention.

Video - Move On Malaria, Katakwi

Pilgrim's Move on Malaria intervention successfully dropped the levels of malaria in the district of Katakwi in Northeastern Uganda. Watch the intervention and testimonials from locals.

Related Links: Move On Malaria