Nurturing hope

CHILDREN WHO were destined to die have been given a lifeline thanks to the efforts of an Irish overseas development agency which has been helping impoverished families in Uganda to overcome life-threatening illness.

An estimated 20,000 children will receive life-saving treatment at a new Nurture Africa specialist HIV paediatric clinic near Kampala in Uganda.

The clinic incorporates a primary healthcare facility and its patients will be from among the most vulnerable in Ugandan society, according to Brian Iredale, a former nurse from Dublin and founder of the agency.

It has been estimated there are two million Aids orphans, and 110,000 HIV-infected children living in Uganda. Of these, over 80 per cent do not receive medication, and are expected to die before their fifth birthday.

The official opening will be attended by the Uganda health minister Dr Cristine Ondoa and the recently appointed Irish ambassador to Uganda, Anne Webster.

It is the culmination of 14 years’ work for Iredale who first visited Uganda as a volunteer in 1997, the year he met his Ugandan-born wife Annet.

Inspired by Irish travel writer Dervla Murphy's book The Ukimwi Road, Iredale did a 3,000-mile charity cycle across six African countries, raising funds and awareness about the plight of HIV-infected children on the continent.

The Ugandan clinic cost €300,000 to build and the running costs will amount to at least €140,000 a year.

Irish workers have made a huge contribution to the project with the Communications Workers’ Union having raised close to €60,000 while the Impact trade union has also made a contribution. Irish Aid has provided €30,000 and Dublin City Council has provided €13,000 for a water harvesting system, water tanks and plumbing.

Iredale estimates the organisation’s Irish volunteers will contribute €250,000 this year to Nurture Africa’s work in Uganda which also involves education and promotion of small business enterprises for those struggling to eke out a living. The 100 or so Irish volunteers, mainly nurses and teachers, who have done two- to three-week placements in the country in 2011, raised their own travel and other costs.

The new clinic, which will mean the difference between life and death for thousands of children and their guardians, will provide treatment for those suffering from malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and measles as well as HIV.

These diseases are the biggest causes of death for under-fives in the developing world. Only 27 per cent of HIV-infected children are currently accessing life-saving anti-retroviral medication.

Iredale explains that diarrhoea and pneumonia can also be lethal if the necessary healthcare is not in place. While the anti-retroviral medication is provided free, getting the message across that people will not survive without it can be a challenge.

“Most people in rural areas have radio so we tell them that when they hear the news in the morning and the evening they should take their medication,” explains the former nurse who abandoned that job just two years ago to concentrate on the work of Nurture Africa.

Based in Dublin with Annet, who works in the convention centre as a host, and their three children, he divides his time between Ireland and Uganda.

Fundraising has always been a challenge and the organisation is trying to respond to the challenge of the recession. “Our volunteers are fantastic and we hold events like black-tie balls and white-collar boxing,” explains Iredale, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro twice to raise funds.

Nurture Africa has a policy of empowering local people to help themselves and a key part of their work in Uganda involves helping families who live below the poverty line to make a living. “We deal with vulnerable families, who have no savings and no collateral and who will never get a bank loan,” he explains. As well as training people the charity also organises small loans.

“It could be to help someone in a rural area to buy a few piglets or it could be to help someone who wants to sell tomatoes to get started,” he says.

Improvement of literacy skills and the protection of children’s rights are high on the agenda for the organisation which has three mobile libraries operating in rural areas of the predominantly English-speaking country. So far 17,000 books have been donated, many with the help of Irish primary school children.

There are 41 Ugandan people working for Nurture Africa, mainly as health and education workers. Irish nurses have already volunteered at the new clinic this month for a short-term placement but the health centre will be run by 16 local staff. “There are 110,000- 120,000 children in Uganda who are HIV infected – the figure in Ireland is about 100,” says Iredale. He says while the mortality rate among under-fives is massive, there is much positive news as children who have access to the proper medication can live full lives with the virus.

“The challenge sometimes is that they can seem as well as anybody else and so can think they are cured and stop taking the medication.”

He expresses his gratitude to all who have helped get the clinic operational. “We wanted it to be a best practice clinic in line with WHO standards,” he says. “The bottom line is that it will save lives.”

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It has been estimated that there are 2 million Aids orphans, and 110,000 HIV-infected children living in Uganda.

Of these, over 80% do not receive medication, and are expected to die before their 5th birthday