Story
Last year we both had an incredible opportunity to visit Mike and Sue (Javan's Parents) in Kisoro, Uganda where for the past 5 years they have been spending their time and energy developing the work of the project. We are very lucky in our lives and feel what greater way to celebrate our wedding but to help make a real difference for others and hope you might agree that this is a brilliant project to support. Below is some information about the work of Potters Village written by Mike and Sue.
Potter’s Village Child Crisis and Children’s Medical Centre is situated in Kisoro in south-west Uganda. We worked there for five years returning to the UK in March 2018. Sue was Director of the project while Mike was in charge of the Medical Unit.
The Crisis Centre looks after the babies of Mothers who have died in childbirth, abandoned babies and the babies of mothers who are too mentally ill to care for them. After about six months when the babies have been weaned, the children are resettled to family members if possible. A few have to be fostered. We don’t charge the families for looking after the babies. Once they are resettled, they are given some
financial support, as we know it is an extra mouth for a relative to feed when they probably already have too many mouths to feed. We would like to give funds to the UK treasurer to help support this aspect of the work.
The Medical Centre sees children from the community up to the age of 12 and has two children’s wards for admissions. There is also a special care baby unit looking after premature babies and asphyxiated babies. We are the only facility of this type in south west Uganda. Some babies come direct from the community while others are referred to us from the local hospital or other health centres in the District. We can provide oxygen or something called CPAP when babies are having severe difficulty in breathing. We also keep babies warm in an incubator when necessary and provide necessary care and treatment. A lot of babies are referred to Potter’s Village for specialized care and there is a need for further oxygen concentrators. If we could fund an extra machine, that would be of considerable help in saving lives.
We have a Nutritional Unit for children who are severely malnourished. We charge families a token £2 a week but the costs for the unit far exceed this. The children are fed every 3 hours day and night until their appetite returns. Then, we provide them with highly nutritious food. The children stay with us for an average of 4 weeks. Once home, they are monitored in the community by our head nutritional nurse. The Department runs at a considerable loss. We would like to give the UK Treasurer funds to help with this work.
A short video from Potters Village from 2017 -
https://youtu.be/9T2wn5cFsGw
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