Thursday, February 12, 2009

Nursing in Uganda

A nurse from the UK is about to return to Uganda to help give health care training. Pam LLewellyn works with Voluntary Service Overseas, an UK charity that sends people to the under-developed world to help out. Mrs. LLewellyn spent 10 months of last year in Uganda, and is returning for six months more.

In a story for the UK newspaper the Malvern Gazette, Mrs. LLewellyn explains the differences in nursing and her work in Uganda. More on Voluntary Service Overseas can be found at this website.

“It is very different over there,” said Mrs Llewellyn. “I went out as a community nurse to try and improve the health in the villages, specifically tackling malaria and HIV.

“It is a very poor area, and it was quite an adjustment when I got out there. The contrast with back home could not be greater. We have everything and they have nothing.

“There is no transport, there are often no nurses in the hospitals and all the little things that we take for granted are just not there.”

A large part of Mrs Llewellyn’s work in Uganda was to give healthcare training to almost 100 local volunteers.

“The whole idea of VSO is that you go and set up a project and leave behind something that is workable and can carry on without you,” she explained.

Ahead of her return Mrs Llewellyn is trying to raise £10,000 to subsidise the purchase of mosquito nets for every household in the area she has been working.

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