Community Memorial aids missionary efforts in Africa
Three staff members from Community Memorial Hospital began the New Year in a small African village in the East African Republic of Uganda. This one-week trip to the village of Jinja was a missionary-led effort offering medical assistance.
“This is not our first trip to the region,” said Dr. Robert Delorme, vice president of medical affairs for Community Memorial. “The hospital participated in this program last year. I was approached by the Rev. John and Christy Kamp from The Creative Word Ministries about a year-and-a-half ago regarding Community Memorial’s interest in providing medical support for the villagers. I said as long as I don’t see any snakes, we would be happy to.”
The Dave Felton Endowment Fund through the Community Memorial Hospital Foundation provided financial assistance for some travel expenses. The Hamilton staff included Delorme, Kim Gilbert of the Waterville Family Health Center and Judy Azud from administration. Gilbert and Azud performed triage duties, which included taking blood pressures, pulses, temperatures, weights, heights and pulse oximetry during their week-long mission.
The Creative Word Ministries provides children ages 1- to 10 years old from the village of Jinja with daily activities such as sports, crafts, bible study and nutritional meals. Community Memorial staff provided healthcare for the children and also for family members. The children received check-ups, immunizations and yearly de-worming medication. More than 650 individuals received care during the visit. The medical effort led by local physician, Dr. Moses Batwala helped the CMH staff navigate ordering needed medications and bartering with the store owner for the best prices on multivitamins and antibiotics.
“The hospital has been extremely generous in their donation of medical supplies including gauze, bandages and surgical materials to assist with the clinic,” said Delorme.
“This trip was in an effort to reach out and bless the beautiful, humble people of Uganda. We in turn were richly blessed by their unconditional love and acceptance of us,” said Kim Gilbert, CMH employee and member of the missionary medical team, who also mentioned that there were lots of hugs.
The team had mixed feelings upon leaving because of the high probability that many of the patients would not seek follow-up treatment, since a stabilized continuity of care system does not exist, this region. Efforts to build a local clinic staffed by surrounding Ugandan physicians along with an overseas two-week residency program for US medical students are ongoing.
“At this point the biggest hurdles are the local governments, the ability to raise the needed funds, and a commitment by the African medical community to staff the clinic,” said Delorme.
For more than 60 years, Community Memorial Hospital’s mission has been to provide quality and caring healthcare to thousands of patients throughout nearly 30 Central New York communities located throughout Madison County and beyond. The hospital provides primary care services with the network of five Community Memorial Family Health Centers (Hamilton, Cazenovia, Morrisville, Munnsville, Cazenovia and Waterville), an after-hours urgent care clinic (available in the evenings and on weekends) and 24/7 emergency medicine services.