It’s a hot dusty afternoon today, and our outpatient clinic is crowded with Congolese refugees waiting for treatment. Many are very unwell, and lie on the benches waiting for their turn to be seen. A row of children line up at the nursing station to have their vitals assessed and to be screened for malnutrition. A large proportion of children seen in the clinic are significantly underweight and show stunted growth.
Pierre is here today. He’s 10 years old and from Beni in North Kivu – one of the most dangerous regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He sits quietly on one of the benches outside the treatment room, staring blankly at the wall in front of him, while he waits to see the nurse. He’s clearly a very unwell child, with a high fever and chills. I feel his distended abdomen – he has a massive spleen from recurrent malaria, and he’s tested positive again today. Amos, the nurse, calls him into the treatment room to put up his IV and start his treatment. Each day the clinic sees many sick children testing positive for the deadly falicparum malaria. Children and pregnant women are the most vulnerable.
Our clinic, operated through a partnership between ADRA Uganda, Ishaka Adventist Hospital and AdventRelief treats around 2-3000 patients every month for malaria. The cost? A full course of treatment costs less than a dollar. But with a settlement population of over 150 000 refugees, to set up a sustainable clinical service like this is challenging.
An exciting new development that will be happening in a few weeks is the opening of a 10 bed inpatient Malaria Treatment Unit to treat patients with complicated malaria who require hospitalisation and IV medication.
We want to thank all the kind donors who have supported this clinic so far – it’s saving the lives of hundreds of children like Pierre every month.
If you would like to donate to one of our projects, please visit adventrelief.org/donate. If you would like to volunteer at one of our projects mail us at volunteers@adventrelief.org.
