Projects 2019

The projects we are raising funds for at present are:

1. Dr Ray Towey’s work

For the last 24 years Dr Towey has dedicated his life to the improvement of health care for the poor in Africa. He has worked as an anaesthetist in rural hospitals in Nigeria and Tanzania and has spent the last 13 years in St Mary’s Hospital Lacor, Gulu, Uganda, training doctors, anaesthetist and nurses in intensive care and anaesthesia.

African Mission has assisted Dr. Towey in his work at St. Mary’s Hospital which has not only enabled him to give effective care to some of the poorest patients in the world in the field of anaesthesia and intensive care but also enabled him to carry out peer reviewed published research which will give inspiration to current and future health workers in sub-Saharan Africa. A summary of this study can be found elsewhere on this website.

St Mary’s is a not for profit, church supported, general hospital of 476 beds in northern Uganda. For many years it has had a small four-bed Intensive Care Unit near the operating theatre, which was upgraded to an eight-bed unit in 2005. It is a teaching hospital for anaesthetists, medical students, nurses and laboratory technicians and it is attached to Gulu University Medical School. The majority of the patients are the rural poor and can come from remote areas up to 100 miles away from Gulu.

Dr Towey’s special interest is to provide sustainable and affordable intensive care to the poorest patients in rural Uganda. His research (published in a major peer reviewed journal, Anaesthesia) has demonstrated that even in remote rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa a modified form of intensive care is not only possible and sustainable but is both affordable and life saving and can be made accessible to the poorest of society.

Find out more in this the peer-reviewed paper (pdf).

2. Education for disabled children, Fatima Mission, Zimbabwe

Fatima Mission is a very large mission (900 sq kms in size) based in rural Zimbabwe. The majority of those living within its boundaries are poor subsistence farmers reliant on Maize, Chomolia (a green vegetable) and a few cows, goats or chickens as their only source of food. The mission is run by a Franciscan Catholic priest and a Franciscan Sister. The priest in overall charge is Fr Jeya who has been at the mission for over 12 years. It has a church, a pastoral centre, a number of primary and secondary schools, a clinic and a project for disabled children within its boundaries.

A particularly vulnerable group living within Fatima Mission are those who are disabled (blind, deaf or mute) and Fr Jeya was particularly anxious that they should be given the opportunity of an education. 19 disabled children live at the pastoral centre during term time and attend a nearby school (with the exception of one who attends a different school). The school is the only school in the province offering a specific education for blind and mute children. Above is a photo of some of the children at school. In addition to their academic education they also learn skills to help them live and prosper with their disabilities. Before coming to Fatima many of these children led very isolated lives and were faced with a bleak future. Thanks to the educating they are receiving and the fact that they are living in community with others, their confidence and ability to relate with others is growing.

Of the 19 children, 9 are unable to speak, 3 are totally blind and 7 are partially sighted. Many of the children were being looked after by a single parent or a relative, many of whom who are in poor health and living in poverty. It costs £485 per year to cover the school fees and living costs for each child.

Due to the success of this project, Fr Jeya intends to increase the number of disabled young people benefiting from it. It is his intention to make it a permanent project so that all of the disabled young people living within Fatima Mission’s boundaries have the opportunity of an education.

3. Activities centre for disabled children, Fatima Mission, Zimbabwe

At the end of the school day there are no activities to occupy the young people. Fr Jeya would like to rectify this by building an activities centre. What he has in mind is a large room with three smaller rooms off the large room. The large room would be dual purpose i.e it would be used as a dining room and a sports room (when not being used for meals). One of the three smaller rooms will be used as a library, a second room will be used as a music room and the third as a computer room. As you can see from the photo below, the work on the Activities Centre has begun. To date (August 2019) we have raised £49,064 of the £54,564 needed to finish the work.