Uganda 2004

Uganda  – 24 September 2004

Seminar Report

1. Seminar in Arua

The 2004 seminar was requested and funded by German Protestant Church development organisation “Hilfe für Brüder” (HfB) which, through its associate “Christliche Fachkraft International” (CFI), sends qualified people to work in remote areas. HfB specified that participants were to be invited from South Sudan, Aru in D R Congo and Kei near the northern border of Uganda. The invitations were given and coordinated by David and Heather Sharland, British missionaries with CMS, UK, who are based in Arua but work mainly in southern Sudan.

Thus we had 36 participants, comprising 22 from Uganda, 3 from D R Congo, 10 from Sudan and 1 from Tanzania, as follows:

    “Here is Life”, Kei (8)

    “Here is Life” Tuliki (4)

    “Voice of Life”, Arua (1)

    Gardener, Arua (1)

    Bishop Allison Theological College (in Arua, but Sudanese people) (2)

    Healers from anamed Vurra (6)

    Health workers from Kuluva Hospital (2)

    Initiatives in Aru and Kumuru, Congo (3)

    Initiatives in southern Sudan. (8)

    Tanzania (1)

Dates of seminar: 5th to 11th September. 5 full days.

Location of seminar: Ombachi Training Centre, Arua. anamed has used this centre on previous occasions. The food is good, the staff very helpful.

The seminar was led by myself, David Sharland (agriculturalist), Heather Sharland (nurse) and Mundua Samuel, anamed nurse at Kuluva Hospital near Arua.

Novel or distinctive features of the seminar:

1.     The following medicines were produced: eucalyptus tincture,  chilli ointment, garlic oil, scabies oil, black-stones, anti-amoeba tea.

2.     The seminar very international. It included first-time participants from southern Sudan, D R Congo and the “Here is Life” projects in Kei and Tuliki, as well as seminar veterans from anamed Vurra and Kuluva Hospital.

3.     The majority of participants are very actively engaged in their work, but receive no pay.

4.     The morning break was no coffee break, but on five mornings we drank teas of lemon grass, eucalyptus, moringa, ginger and roselle.

5.     A presentation by Heather Sharland on Natural Medicine and pregnancy. The text will be incorporated into our anamed documentation.

6.     A display of simple solar driers.

7.     An encouraging input from Andrew who has successfully cultivated Artemisia annua in the very dry climate of Rumbek, Sudan.

8.     We established a medicinal garden at the training centre, and prepared labels cut from a sheet of corrugated iron and oil-based black paint.

9.     An American doctor, who had recently arrived in Uganda to work for several years with “Here is Life” said “I am now much more convinced about the importance and value of Natural Medicine”.

Hopes for the future

1.     that “Here is Life”, which operates in the extreme north-west of Uganda amongst people who are very poor and even lack interest in their own development, will experience a renewal in the health and vitality of the local people through their practice of Natural Medicine.

2.     that many people in southern Sudan who work with an absolute minimum of money and resources will be better equipped to support health care and appropriate development.

3.     that the “Voice of Life” radio station will broadcast regular programmes on Natural Medicine.

2. Visit to Kei Health Centre

Following the murder of three people, including an American couple, at the “Here is Life” centre at ESTA in March this year, Birgit Klumpp, the coordinator at Kei Health Centre had only just returned to Kei two weeks previously Also, the American doctor and his wife who attended the seminar are still forbidden to go to Kei by their mission.

Accompanied by Mundua Samuel (Kuluva), Philip Mateja (Tanzania) I made a two day visit to Kei Health Centre. We were impressed by the work of Candiru Christine, a participant in the anamed 2003 Arua seminar, who is actively and successfully training women in the villages in the cultivation of Moringa oleifera and the use of moringa leaf powder for reducing malnutrition and increasing the milk of breast-feeding mothers. We were impressed also by the number of different plants in their medicinal garden.

We were given a warm welcome in the church. Seminar participants presented a lively sketch about Natural Medicine, and I was invited to preach at both the English and Lubbara services.

We hope that, as a result of this year’s seminar and our visit, the anamed Kei group will be rejuvenated, that the community health education programme will be very successful in embracing Natural Medicine, and that the Kei Health Centre itself will produce and use many more Natural Medicines.

I bade Mundua Samuel and Philip Mateja farewell as they started a further 5 day seminar with “Here is Life”, this time for 30 young people at a “School of Technology” known as ESTA about 50 kilometres distant from Kei. And following this seminar, before returning to Tanzania, Philip Mateja ran single-handed a further 5-day seminar over the border in D R Congo at a hospital centre at Adi.

 3. “Training the Trainer” Seminar in Mbale

Dates of seminar: 16 – 23 September 2004. Six full days.

Location: The conference centre of Salem Brotherhood, Mbale. The site includes a health centre, an orphanage,  training workshop in tailoring, a guest house, a tree nursery and a conference centre. The entire site has been planted with a wide variety of indigenous trees which make it very beautiful and create a very pleasant, cool working atmosphere. It provides a very good example of the importance of planting trees.

Participants. There were 49 participants! They came from 21 different projects which were mainly scattered around the eastern, southern and western borders of Uganda, the YWAM AIDS project in Kigali, Rwanda and the St Mary’s Health Unit in Chelelemuk, Kenya (which is not far from the border near Mbale).

I invited participants from the following:

-        projects with which anamed had already had contact in the past,

-        projects that had received and worked with an artemisia starter kit,

-        projects that had been recommended to us, and some

-        projects which had independently made contact with us.

Each project was invited to send two people, who should be ready to train their colleagues on their return.

Starting from Arua in the north-west and going in an anti-clockwise direction, the projects represented were distributed along the western, southern and eastern boundaries of the country:

    1.     anamedVurra, Arua

    2.     Voice of the elderly, Hoima

    3.     SATNET and Tooro Botanical Gardens, Fort Portal

    4.     Kasanga PHC and Karughe Farmers Project, Kasese

    5.     St Paul`s Health Centre Natural Medicine Project, Kasese

    6.     Mbarara Diocese

    7.     Kitokolo Development Project, Mubende District

    8.     Nakaseke Aids Project

    9.     Makukuulu Parish, near Masaka

    10.  Karudeo, Masaka

    11.  Tweyambe School for Disabled Children, Masaka - Kiwangala

    12.  Molly and Paul Child Care Foundation, Masaka

    13.  Spurgeons Child Care, Kampala

    14. NAMEDO, (Natural Medicine Development Organisation), Kampala

    15.  Salem Brotherhood, Mbale

    16.  Faith Action Development Organisation (FADO), Ngora

    17.  CREATE, Kumi

    18.  CIDS (Christian Initiative in Development Services), Soroti

    19.  anamed Katakwi

    20. CHIPS (Christian International Peace Service), Iriri

    21.  Church of Uganda, Karamoja

Also represented were the St Mary’s Health Unit at Chelelemuk which is near to Mbale but actually inside Kenya, and the YWAM AIDS Project in Kigali, Rwanda.

The seminar was led by myself and Innocent Balagizi (anamed South-Kivu), with support from Walter Opiyo (anamed Kenya in Nairobi), Nyakuni Christopher (anamed Vurra) and Dr Prabhakar and Eric Kihuluka (NAMEDO, Kampala).

Novel or distinctive features of the seminar:

1.     This was the first seminar held by anamed in Uganda to be called “Training the Trainer”.

a)     Participants were invited to evaluate the training techniques used as the seminar proceeded.

b)     In addition to the books Natural Medicine in the Tropics I and II and the poster of medicinal plants, each participant was given a copy of a specially prepared “Teachers`’ Resource Kit” (anamed, Natural Medicine in the Tropics III). This was used repeatedly throughout the seminar.

2.     The diet was vegetarian – quite a challenge to meat-eating Ugandan men! This diet, together with drinking no sodas but plenty water, fruit juices and, each morning, a different herbal tea, served to emphasise the connection between diet and health.

3.     On most days the seminar participants met for a time in the same four small groups, to share their learning from the day, to review the teaching methods and to learn from each other. The walk to observe medicinal plants was also conducted in four small groups.

4.     The practical activities of making ginger tincture, chilli, neem and aloe / artemisia ointments, and soap were particularly enjoyed. Since the group was so large, practical activities were all conducted in four groups, so that each participant was involved.

5.     Anti-amoeba tea made as a demonstration in the seminar was immediately taken by a nurse to treat two children with diarrhoea in the health centre.

6.     At the conclusion of the seminar the participants formed themselves into five regional groups, and committed themselves to occasional meetings in their regions.

7.     A devotion led by a participant, an evangelist in the Pentecostalist Church, vigorously defended the use of Natural Medicine by Christians, in a context where his church condemns the use of herbal remedies.

Seminar funder: Stiftung Entwicklung Zusammenarbeit (SEZ). The attendance of eight participants was financed by their own projects.

 4. Natural Medicine Development Organisation (NAMEDO) and meetings in Kampala

On my last visit in March 2003, I conducted seminars in Arua, Masaka and Usuk (near Katakwi). Since that time Henry Ssewannyana has coordinated a number of people who have

1.     formally founded NAMEDO with a constitution and Board of Management, with the aims of promoting Natural Medicine within Uganda.

2.     organised bi-monthly day meetings at Entebbe Wildlife Park, to which people travel long distances to attend.

3.     started to compile a detailed data-base of Ugandan plants and their medicinal uses.

During my visit this year, I attended the following meetings which were organised by NAMEDO:

1.     On my day of arrival, at Christ the King Church Community Centre, Kampala, a half day meeting “HIV/AIDS – the case for Natural and Alternative Medicine”. About 25 people attended, and as well as Henry and myself, the meeting was addressed by Dr Mawanda, Dr Prabhakar and Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi from the National Chemotherapeutics Research Laboratory.

2.     On 14th September at the Makerere University Hospital, Kampala, attended by over 60 people, a “HIV/AIDS Workshop”. This meeting was opened by Dr Elizabeth Madra, National HIV/AIDS and STDs Programme Coordinator. It was then addressed briefly by myself, and then by Innocent Balagizi of anamed South-Kivu, D R Congo. Dr Mawanda and Dr Prabhakar both spoke, before the meeting was closed by Dr Sarah Kiguli, President of the Association of Ugandan Women Medical Doctors.

3.     On 15th September, the third Board Meeting of NAMEDO.

During the Mbale seminar members of NAMEDO met together with Innocent Balagizi, Walter Opiyo and myself to discuss the proposal that we work together to produce a database of medicinal plants that are used in the East African region. The broader aim is to develop a comprehensive programme of promoting Natural Medicine throughout the region, which is considered to extend from Ethiopia and southern Sudan in the north to Tanzania in the south and D R Congo in the west.

Through Eric Kihuluka, NAMEDO is represented on the East African Herbalist’s Association.

 5. Recommendations for the future

I feel very encouraged. Many people have shown outstanding initiative and commitment, and it seems that Natural Medicine is firmly established as an aspect of life in Uganda.

I was bombarded for requests for books and posters. anamed has had Natural Medicine in Tropics I and II and the posters printed in Uganda, and in the past we have given these out very freely to those who have attended seminars and wished to train others. Now the stocks of books are exhausted, and the demand for more is overwhelming.

I recommend that:

1.     I follow up each group represented at Mbale with a letter of encouragement, and a request for feedback with regard to what has been achieved since the seminar.

2.     I prepare for a further visit in 18 months to two years time, when I

    a.     Conduct a further training the trainer seminar

    b.     Conduct a seminar in Karamoja

3.     I keep in touch with NAMEDEO and offer what support I can.

4.     anamed seeks funding to have our books reprinted in large quantity in Uganda. Many people and projects are either already conducting training seminars in Natural Medicine, or, as a result of the seminars reported here, intend to do so. They all require written training materials. These are given to seminar participants, and also sold by these projects to provide a little income to finance their work in Natural Medicine.

Keith Lindsey

October 2004

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