International partners in hope: REACH Bwindi
The Kellermann Foundation works with over 50 international and local partners in its mission to provide hope and health in Uganda. These partnerships cover the whole spectrum of life, including healthcare, education, homes, land, agriculture, spiritual care, social work, and the journey to self-reliance. This summer, we heard from two of our international partners after their field visits to Bwindi.
REACH Bwindi is a UK-based charity founded by healthcare clinicians supporting Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH). REACH is an acronym for Resourcing Effective Accessible Community Healthcare.
REACH Chair Dr. Marian Davis recently wrote to us about threats to patient access. She also wrote about malnutrition, mental health illness, and epilepsy in the region. Although BCH and the BDP have reduced malnutrition to less than 1% among our Batwa communities, Marian is concerned about neighboring communities.
“While recently in Bwindi, I witnessed the direct impact of BCH’s programs. As a retired physician, I am passionate about good nutrition for babies and children. Malnutrition causes wasting and stunting, and it affects long-term development, including brain health.
“Treatment for severe cases takes place in the hospital and may last 2–3 months. Outreach services are also provided in remote settlements over an hour away from BCH.
“In one remote settlement, I worked with BCH’s medical team to review 22 children who had been identified some months earlier as malnourished. The nutritional status of all 22 had improved largely thanks to RUTF sachets—Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food which contain high-calorie peanut paste and vitamins. We counseled villagers about nutritious crops and meals and distributed more RUTF sachets. In the yard of one house we visited, a young girl sucked at the sachet given to her by one of the community nurses and then shared it with her little sister.
“Also during my recent visit, I met a mother of five children with severe epilepsy who experienced the life-transforming benefit of using medication. Anti-seizure medications reduced the number of seizures and allowed her children to go to school.
“Another woman spoke of her grandson who had mental illness. Because of his behaviours, she contemplated not being able to care for him as he grows older. Having access to this medication changed everything for this family.
“The benefit of BCH’s high standard of care to the community is easy to understand. Yet, new financial difficulties faced by the hospital—cuts in overseas aid, reduced Ministry of Health funding, increased cost of basic medical supplies—have the potential to negatively affect outreach.
“Historically, lack of ability to pay did not prevent community members from accessing care through BCH, which subsidised up to 80% of treatment costs. What was once an out-of-pocket cost of just $1.50 per in-patient treatment of a malnourished child has increased to $675. Medications to treat epilepsy and mental health illnesses to this population have risen to $20,000 per year.
“This reduced funding will put patients, their families, and the wider community at risk. BCH is taking steps to adjust to the new financial reality, but during the next few years of transition, support is required to ensure that the poorest of the poor are able to access the treatment they need.”
—Marian Davis
Pictured below left to right: a Batwa family enjoys their new home; a nurse monitors newborn nutrition; Batwa workers make interlocking-bricks; a child eats a RUTF nutrition sachet with valuable calories and nutrients; a new water catchment tank provides safe, easily accessible water.