Emergency and Support Funds

Malawi

According to a recent report, UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children, the pressing needs of children in Malawi are staggering:

  • Under 5 mortality rate: 120 per 1000
  • % of population living on < $1/day:  21%
  • % of under 5’s sleeping under mosquito net:  29%
  • Children with HIV/AIDS:  91,000
  • Orphans (all-cause):  950,000
  • Fertility rate:  5.7 children/female
  • Life expectancy at birth:  47 years

Lilongwe, Malawi Pediatric Fund

Children who are born in Malawi face considerable risk of HIV infection as well as respiratory disease. Life expectancies are already well below the average in other parts of Africa.  World Altering Medicine established the Lilongwe, Malawi Pediatric Fund to support  patients and families whose medical needs cannot be fully met within the existing national health system. Eligible families already receive some medical support at a Lilongwe-area pediatric HiV clinic with2400 active patients, and from the busy (250 average daily inpatients) pediatric ward of a regional referral hospital.  To better serve families in dire circumstances, World Altering Medicine has identifiedseveral specific deficiencies in delivery of care for the neediest children, and determined that the Lilongwe Pediatric Emergency Fund will address the following areas:

  • transportation to other locations for specialist consultation and diagnostic imaging not available in Lilongwe;
  • formula for very young infants who are not old enough for other forms of therapeutic; nutrition and are not able to breastfeed (mother is sick or has passed away);
  • hearing aids and eye glasses for patients with disability related to their chronic illnesses; and
  • fees for private pathology services (there is only one public pathologist in all of Malawi).

World Altering Medicine aims to serve the most vulnerable populations and improve and save lives.

Tingathe: Community Empowerment to end HIV/AIDS

World Altering Medicine is collaborating with Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Malawi on an exciting and innovative community outreach program, Tingathe. The goal of this program is to help achieve an HIV-free generation in Malawi, a country where over 30,000 infants contract HIV from mother-to-child transmission. Of these children, over 50% will die before the age of two, and over 75% will die before the age of seven. Tragically, despite the widespread availability of life-saving prevention and treatment modalities in Malawi, most HIV-exposed and infected infants cannot access the care they need.

Baylor’s program seeks to change the paradigm through empowering and training Malawians to serve as community health workers (CHWs) within their own communities. “Tingathe” means “yes we can” in the local Chichewa language, and its program of door-to-door HIV testing, adherence supervision, patient advocacy, and community education and sensitization has truly yielded positive and impressive results. Within the first two years of the program, Tingathe community health workers educated over 40,000 people on topics related to HIV, tested over 30,000 people, identified over  3500 new HIV infected persons, and enrolled over 1000 children into care. These efforts have led to a dramatic ten-fold increase in patient enrollment at our participating clinics.

But beyond these numbers, Tingathe has accomplished something even more critical.  Our CHWs, many of whom are HIV-infected or affected themselves, have contributed to a sense of community between our clients and have a developed a true safety network for our patients. For many of our clients, having a CHW has been the first time they have had a true advocate within the health care system. One of our CHWs, Joel Mposa, summed it up well when he said, “I really care about these people. They are now like my blood relatives – they are my family.” Our CHWs have demonstrated that “yes we can” prevent and control HIV-AIDS, and the best way to combat the epidemic is to empower and mobilize the community. Your support will help us continue and expand the scope of this work.

Our hearts in harness shall beat as one / Arming the rhythms of it’s song “TINGATHE” / Of course we can

Uganda: Hospital Support Fund, Tororo District Hospital

World Altering Medicine has expanded its reach to Uganda with the establishment of an emergency fund at Tororo District Hospital (TDH).

Tororo is on the eastern edge of Uganda, near the border with Kenya. Tororo’s District Public Hospital serves the small town of Tororo and its surrounding rural areas. Patients who come to Tororo District Hospital are generally impoverished and have no other options for healthcare. Often, patients and their families must travel long distances on foot to reach the hospital, and their conditions are quite grave once they arrive. The hospital lacks enough in-patient beds causing many sick patients to lie on floors. Many of the ailments treated at Tororo include: malaria, HIV/AIDS, complications of pregnancy and childbirth, respiratory tract infections, malnutrition and severe anemia.
Tororo’s three full-time physicians and small nursing staff are not nearly enough to cover the professional medical needs of it’s 200+ patients. Medical supplies are limited and often times result in preventable casualties. TDH does not even have a functioning operating theater available for common procedures such as Caesarian sections and emergent abdominal surgeries.

World Altering Medicine’s Hospital Support Fund will assist TDH in helping to meet the growing needs of its patient population. It doesn’t take much to make a difference. As little as a few dollars can purchase antibiotics or anti-malarial medication needed to save lives.
Volunteer physicians collaborating with WAM work closely with an excellent Ugandan physician, George Welishe.  The tireless work of these doctors has helped WAM identify and procure some of the hospital’s most needed supplies:

  • Oxygen concentrator for operating theatre and pediatric wards;
  • Instruments for gynecologic examination and surgery;
  • Intestinal clamps for abdominal surgeries;
  • Autoclave equipment – to clean and sterilize the surgical instruments;
  • Well functioning scale for pediatric malnutrition ward; and
  • Hepatitis B vaccination for hospital staff.

To help supplement the Hospital Support Fund, volunteer doctors collaborating with World Alerting Medicine have started a Patient Fund to help support the treatment of patients who are destitute and dealing with disabling or life-threatening illnesses. Veronica Ades, a volunteer physician currently working in Uganda, is helping to identify the hospital’s pressing needs as well as distribute supplies purchased with WAM donations. Learn more about Veronica’s work and what we have already accomplished at Tororo District Hospital at http://www.veronica-wanderlust.blogspot.com/

Swaziland

Swazi Emergency Fund: $1 Per Day Is The Cost For a Child to be Hospitalized

WAM’s doctors travel extensively throughout Africa and other parts of the world to practice medicine. One of the most difficult experiences for us has been working with families with gravely ill children who cannot afford even the most basic care. An impossible choice for doctors in such situations is to send children home to an almost certain death, or offer some financial assistance with hospitalization in the hope of saving a life.

That is why World Altering Medicine established the Swazi Emergency Fund, to financially assist poor families who have no other recourse in caring for the sickest children. In these extreme circumstances, and in many cases where a life could be possibly saved, WAM provides the funds needed –often a very few dollars — for hospitalization, transportation to and from the hospital, food for the family’s caretakers and medicines not covered by the hospital. For as little as the $1 per day it costs for a child to be hospitalized in Swaziland, WAM is helping families in crisis cope with life and death decisions and is ultimately helping to save lives.

WAM’s founder and President, Dr. Dan Dewey, tells the story of how WAM was able to help NM, a 19 month old child born HIV-positive in Swaziland, as the result of generous donations.

“She had been losing weight for months and had a recent bout of fevers, vomiting and diarrhea, NM’s mother brought her in for a medical visit. She was weak with a papery-thin skin, weak cry and the weight of a newborn at nineteen months. Can you imagine a 19 month old child weighing 9.6 pounds? I could not stop thinking about the dichotomy of childhood obesity in America and severe malnutrition in Africa. Knowing that most children this malnourished will likely die without prolonged hospitalization, I recommended that the child be admitted to the hospital. The mother refused. Yet I persisted, thinking perhaps she did not understand the gravity of her only child’s condition. And then, head lowered, she told me she had no money for food, much less for a hospitalization. I found myself in a most impossible situation: either send NM home to a near certain death or offer some assistance for the hospitalization with some chance of saving her  life.”

The needs in Africa are overwhelming, but a little goes a very long way toward improving and saving lives. Often, $1 per day can make the difference. Can you help us help more families like NM’s in Swaziland?

Swaziland: Mbabane Government Hospital Assistance Project

One of World Altering Medicine’s exciting new projects in Swaziland is the Mbabane Government Hospital Assistance Project. In Mbabane, Swaziland’s capital city, we have initiated a fund aimed at improving the facilities at the city’s main hospital.

Initially WAM’s support will facilitate the purchase and installation of hand soap dispensers, provision of mattresses for the mothers with sick childrenat the hospital, the installation of heaters and possibly new paint on the walls to liven up the atmosphere of the hospital’s pediatric ward.