Malaria and Marathons

This is going to be a celebratory blog this week - looking at overcoming malaria and marathons...

Malaria

You may be wondering why this blog is coming out slightly later than normal? It's because in the last week we've all been anxiously waiting to hear more news of Moreen who was rushed to hospital with falciparum malaria last weekend ... and thankful we can now report she's at home and on the road to recovery. Although people in Uganda often get malaria - falciparum malaria is the worst kind (malaria plus plus plus in the words of Mike our regional director).


We give all of our children mosquito nets and talk with them about the importance of using them - but obviously they are not under them the whole time and unfortunately there is no vacination that we can give them to help to protect them from this killer disease yet.

One of our trustees Nicola Sansom was also struck down by this severe type of malaria earlier this year and this is what she has to say about it. "I can honestly say that it was one of the worst times of my life - your head aches constantly as light burns your eyes, your ears ring and even small noises cut through you like glass. You constantly want to vomit so taking your medication is a battle just to keep it down. The fever makes you shake with cold while you're burning up and in your semi lucid state you just can't understand why people are being so cruel as to take your blankets away. And if you are lucky enough to survive you then have a long battle to rebuild your strength, as you are so pysically weakened and exhausted all the time - I still needed a month off work after coming out of hospital just to get my strength back enough to be able to walk from the bus to the office."

"I was lucky because I didn't get symptoms until I got back to the UK so I was extremely well taken care of by the NHS in a specialist tropical ward - I got my own room and round the clock care ... The vast majority of people who get this in Uganda can't afford that kind of treatment. They are lucky if they can afford to go to the local clinic for a drip/ medication - but after that most people would have to go home to be taken care of by their family and hope for the best..."

So from this I hope you can understand why we are so happy that Moreen is on the path to recovery now - it's not going to be easy for her, she's going to be behind at school and feel very tired for the next few weeks ... but she's over the worst of it now and will have all our support to be fighting fit again before too long!

UK News

We're also very pleased to say that despite all the baking sunshine John Pegington managed to slog his way around the Edinburgh marathon to help to raise money for Salve last weekend. A huge thank you and congrats to him - it helps to make all the work we do out in Uganda possible and is currently adding to our fund to buy our own land!


And another massive thank you must go to the Melbourne Rotary club in Derbyshire who invited us to come and speak with them about our work this last week and kindly gave us a donation towards our land fund too!

Do get in touch if you are interested in having someone from S.A.L.V.E. come and speak about our work at your school/group/workplace etc. We are very keen to get the word out there about the work that we are doing to support the street children in Uganda! Contact: info@salveinternational.org

The Show Must Go On ...

Hmmm what's this? A blog being written from the UK team instead of from Uganda. As you may have noticed we have made a decision as a charity to have a little break from volunteers in Uganda - not permanent we promise! We just felt that a year on from starting the program was a good time to do some serious evaluation and bring the intern program back even better than before later in the year ... so watch this space if you're interested in applying.

Holiday fun

Mike, Assy and Stephen are currently enjoying the school holidays with all the S.A.L.V.E. children. It's great to have a chance to relax and play together. And also for the first time we're getting the children involved with our staff in making their lists of requirements for the new school term, which could be fun ... Will we just be asked for the normal book, pencils and uniform this term? Or will that essential pet elephant that we just haven't considered before get added on?

New Children

Our Ugandan team is also working very hard at the moment with some new boys who we hope will be ready to enter our sponsorship scheme soon. It takes time to build a trusting relationship - but as soon as they are ready we can't wait to welcome them into the S.A.L.V.E. family. If you think that you've got what it takes to become a sponsor - why not get in touch (info@salveinternational.org) and find out more?

UK Fun and Games

And as for us in the UK, we continue to work hard to raise awareness of our work out in Uganda and to raise the vital funds we need. April was an incredible month for us - with our fab London event and amazing army of runners (huge thanks to everyone who got involved!). We are excited to build on that energy as we head towards summer ...

In London we are recruiting for people to join our local fundraising team (caitlin@salveinternational.org) - a couple of hours a week to help us raise that much needed money ... I hear rumours of a ceiliegh coming up so get your dancing shoes ready!

In Manchester John Pegington is getting ready to take on the Edinburgh marathon for us - good luck with your final training!

Meanwhile if you like swimming - do keep the first weekend of September free ... more info coming soon!

We're sad to say that this is officially our last blog as SALVE International interns out here in Uganda. Our four month stay in Jinja has flown by so quickly - although it's not been without its fair share of dramas, hard work, fun and excitement.

We spent most of this week wrapping up our internship and saying goodbyes to the many friends and contacts we have made out here .... and most importantly to the SALVE children, who we took for a fun-day out on Friday. As we know how much the children all love swimming we decided to take them all swimming for the day and as the pool is situated right next to lake Victoria we also took the opportunity to go on a boat ride across the lake. The day was a huge success and everyone went home throughly soaked and exhausted (the children only briefly left the water for food before making a rapid return!).

We have both learnt a great deal during this internship and it has given us many opportunities to meet and interact with some really interesting and inspiring people. There have been many great times had with the children, making breakthroughs with research projects and adventures out to the villages. There have been the inevitable difficulties and harder times. Working with children coming from very difficult backgrounds can be very rewarding but also very challenging and we have experienced both angles over the past few months.

We have also experienced the challenges of working for a small scale newly-formed NGO and the various trials that they face. Struggling to maintain good relations with schools, other NGOs and at times the children and trying to establish ourselves firmly within the community.

This internship has been an invaluable experience for us both, giving us the opportunity to learn a great deal about the day-to-day functioning of a small NGO and to be able to input into its progress. SALVE has a bright future ahead of it and we hope that the work we have been able to carryout whilst here will be continued and contribute towards that future.

We are sorry to say goodbye and we wish SALVE international all the best in the future.

The interns