Update on the activities of AMAP in 2017-18.
Dear Friends,
This
communication is designed to update you all and give you an outline of the work
we are carrying out with AMAP. We have
been approached to invite us to help with the refurbishment of the Santa Maria
Referral Clinic in Zambia. This unit was abandoned by the White Fathers/Sisters
in 1995 and a sister from Ladywell convent in Godalming, Surrey is now in the
process of resurrecting it. Sr.
Rosalia Chilumba is the Licentiate Medical practitioner/ Sister in charge. At
present she is the only medically qualified person in the unit and you will
find below a summary of the suite of services she is trying to deliver to a
total population of 123,000 on the island and surrounding swamps.
The address of the
Unit is as follows; Santa Maria Mission Referral Centre, Box 490039, CHILUBI
ISLAND, ZAMBIA.
The unit is
situated on Chilubi Island in one of the 9 most remote districts of Northern
Province in Zambia.
The Health
Centre was founded by the Missionaries of Africa (White fathers and sisters) in
1903. It started as a dispensary which was later raised to the level of a Rural
Health centre and to first referral zonal health centre. Its bed capacity used
to be seventy-five (75), but was reduced to 56. The actual admissions are more
than 70 patients per month. Santa Maria serves the eight (8) health centres and
three (3) health posts run by the District medical office.
Since 1995
when the White sisters left the Island, the centre was run by untrained staff
until August 2013, when the sisters of the Child Jesus (SCJ) were tasked to run
Santa Maria by the Archbishop of Kasama. From inception the facility had never
undergone any face lift and so the institution was on the verge of collapse.
There was no
running water, no sewer system and no drainage system. The infrastructure at
the institution needed a complete over haul, but thank God, the renovations
that were done by local brick layers and plumbers are amazing. The money for
renovations came from the office of Head of State, the office of Archbishop of
Kasama, and the Kasama Provincial Medical office (MOH.
The Health
facility has a functional operating theatre; the only Licentiate Medical
Practitioner is doing surgery, screening, prescribing and administration. They
have a Medical Imaging Department (Radiological department, ultrasonography)
and the Laboratory department.
The Pharmacy
is fully functional, but sometimes we run short
of some very important drugs like antipsychotics, anticonvulsants/anti
epileptics, antibiotics and pain killers.
AMAP can already help with items for the pharmacy thanks to all our
generous benefactors!
They have an
outpatient Department (OPD) housing the Registry, Dispensary, laboratory,
Mother and Child Health (MCH) Department. The Inpatient Department has the
female ward, Children’s ward, maternity ward (comprising postnatal, antenatal
and delivery room), male ward and Isolation ward.
The Unit is a
diagnostic centre doing a series of laboratory tests. They diagnose and treat
pulmonary and extra pulmonary tuberculosis.
They have a
chemistry analyser, but at times cannot run certain tests like ALT and AST,
Urea and electrolytes, creatinine due to lack of reagents. They do liver
function tests and initiate patients on Antiretroviral therapy for HIV and anti
TB drugs. They also do CD4 counts. (CD4 counts are most
useful when they are compared with results obtained from earlier tests. They
are used in combination with the HIV viral load test, which measures the
amount of HIV in the blood, to monitor how effective ART is in suppressing the
virus and determine the risk of progression of HIV disease.) These are
vital in managing HIV treatment.
The laundry and
kitchen have all the equipment required and they are now fully functional.
Inventory
of needed items and the estimated costs
|
No. |
Material description |
QTY |
Unit cost Kwacha |
Amount (Kwacha) |
Unit cost USD$ |
Amount US$ |
|
1 |
Cot
beds |
10 |
1,500 |
15,000 |
149 |
1,495 |
|
2 |
Beds |
24 |
1,800 |
43,200 |
179 |
4,305 |
|
3 |
Mattresses |
24 |
600 |
14,400 |
60 |
1,435 |
|
4 |
Counterpanes |
24 |
200 |
4,800 |
20 |
478 |
|
5 |
Blanket |
24 |
350 |
8,400 |
35 |
837 |
|
6 |
Pillows |
24 |
60 |
1,440 |
6 |
143 |
|
7 |
Bed
sheets |
48 |
200 |
9,600 |
20 |
957 |
|
8 |
Drip
stands |
6 |
870 |
5,220 |
87 |
520 |
|
9 |
Lockers |
30 |
1,800 |
54,000 |
179 |
5,381 |
|
10 |
Pediatric
BP machine |
1 |
400 |
400 |
40 |
40 |
|
11 |
Finger
pulse oximeter |
3 |
700 |
2,100 |
70 |
209 |
|
12 |
Oxygen
concentrator |
3 |
18,000 |
54,000 |
1794 |
5,381 |
|
13 |
Mackintosh |
10 |
300 |
3,000 |
30 |
299 |
|
14 |
Bed
cradle |
4 |
650 |
2,600 |
65 |
259 |
|
15 |
Screens |
6 |
1,800 |
10,800 |
179 |
1,076 |
|
16 |
Bed
pans |
10 |
250 |
2,500 |
25 |
249 |
|
17 |
BP
machine |
2 |
400 |
800 |
40 |
80 |
|
18 |
Back
rest |
4 |
500 |
2,000 |
50 |
199 |
|
19 |
Urinals |
4 |
250 |
1,000 |
25 |
100 |
|
20 |
Industrial
cooker |
1 |
30,000 |
30,000 |
2990 |
2,990 |
|
21 |
Bath
room scale |
4 |
400 |
1,600 |
40 |
159 |
|
22 |
Monitor |
1 |
50,000 |
50,000 |
4983 |
4,983 |
|
23 |
Nebuliser |
4 |
6,000 |
24,000 |
598 |
2,392 |
|
Exchange rate: 1USD = 10.0350 ZMK |
||||||
|
As of 6:25 AM EST
1/2/2018 |
TOTAL |
340,860 |
33,967 |
|||
How can we help with this substantial problem as a small voluntary group dependant on the generosity of knowledgeable donors? The following is simply the outcome of some recent brainstorming we have been doing and nothing as yet is confirmed. Rotary International are one of the biggest charities in the world and a few of us are members of this wonderful group.
Tom Russell
and I are both members of our local Rotary Clubs – Tom in Fife and myself here
in Surrey. There may be several other Rotarians in our community of which we
have no knowledge.
Rotary
International run a series of support programmes of and educational and or
humanitarian variety, where local clubs contribute some funds and the funds we
raise are more than doubled by Rotary Foundation.
One of the
keys to making this kind of programme work well is for a local club in Zambia
to be willing and able to manage the programme and contribute to the funding
requirement. The minimum Global Grant we can apply for is $30,000 which equates
today to £ 21, 228.30.
If all three
clubs agree to this principal then roughly £7k per club would be required, I
propose with the agreement of many of our existing contributors that we make a
contribution to this effort.
One of our
number has already agreed to put £1k in the pot and I am sure we can manage to
raise more in a little time. This is a great start and thank you to the
individual who volunteered this contribution.
I have also
made contact with a senior NHS person here in SE England, who has agreed to
work with myself and another fellow Rotarian who is by birth a Zambian and a
brilliant organiser. My NHS contact has agreed that as the NHS replace and
update lots of equipment all the time she can help us get it if we can pick it
up and get it delivered to Santa Maria Referral Centre. This could include
beds, and many of the items that are included in the list above.
I had a meeting in Folkestone last Saturday 27th January 2018 and the group there send 40-foot containers out to Africa six times per year. Each container costs about £8,000 to hire and ship to Africa and we would have to contribute to this cost too. If any of you have any ideas as to how we may help to mitigate these costs please let us know.
If you or any of your friends or colleagues would like to help with this please ask them to send donations to AMAP electronically. Most of our local bank branches have been closed now including HSBC who hold our funds for AMAP. I have to drive about 20 miles round to bank cheques for AMAP and it would be helpful if everyone could use the electronic systems.
The key Bank
details are as follows: Name: Africa Medical Aid Project Sort code: 40-22-26 Account
number: 92859467. We hope this will make it easy for you to help us with this
project. Please mark each contribution to this Santa Maria Refurb. This will
enable us to keep the AMAP drug support separate from this project.
We currently have £3,652 in the account and we have a request for anti-epileptic products notably carbamazepine to send to Alick in Mali sometime in February.
We plan shortly to send a letter to many of our Pelicans colleagues advising them of these suggestions and asking them if they would like to contribute to this programme too. We hope you feel that this makes some sense as if we can reduce the funds required by each Rotary Club in Fife, Surrey and Lusaka Zambia we can get things going swiftly and quite efficiently.
My colleague
is going out to Zambia for three weeks on Thursday 1st February and
he has on his agenda to meet the Minister of Health for Zambia and a number of
other highly influential and potentially helpful individuals out there. He said
he may also try to visit the Santa Maria Referral Clinic. If he can.
We hope that
you may feel willing and able to help us with this appeal which can and will
bring benefit to so many poor and sick individuals in Zambia.
Best regards,
Mike & John
My details are as follows: Mike Ellis, 3, Durnsford Way, Cranleigh, Surrey GU6 7LN
Telephone
numbers 01483 271314 Mobile 07788 100550 e-mail:
Mike
@Charters.eu.com