letter from Ruth
I am called Nambowa Ruth Bulyaba, the Director of Another Hope children’s Ministry in Uganda.
The situation at the children’s home is right now in an alarming situation. There is no food simply because the money planned for food had to go on rent because the land lord wanted 4 months payment else we would be thrown out of the house. Secondly two of the children fell sick and we had to spend much money on treatment for the two children.
So paying all those left us with no money for food and the children all are looking to me for food.
The major source of funds for this project is my salary and now I have a loan that I got to buy a piece of land where I would like to build the children’s home. So in that case I get half of my salary, the other half goes on the loan.
So I appeal to all of you to send us any amount of money to help us buy food and feed the hungry children.
Our website is www.anotherhope.org
Thanks very much.
This is the budget of the money we need for food:
item quantity amount how long it lasts
cooking oil 5litres 22,000.00 (14 $) One month
posho 100kgs 125,000.00 (77 $) One month
salt 4 packets 2,000.00 (1,5 $) One month
wheat flour 2 packets 3,800.00 (2,5 $) One month
beans 50kgs 77,000.00 (50 $) 2months
sugar 50kgs 71,000.00 (45 $) 1.5months
total 300,800.00 (190 $)
Raising for Another Hope
Yesterday I received a very sad and alarming massage from Ruth that the orphanage was forced by its landlord to pay the rent for 4 month in advanced.
As it is almost impossible to find a new place to rent for the orphanage there was no other chance than paying.
The problem is now that Ruth has no money left for food any more!
The Pocho supply (the main food, some kind of flan made of maize) is going to end today and there is barely enough other food to survive for the next 2 weeks.
Normally I planned to raise the money for the home via concerts but facing this crisis I have to beg all of you reading this blog: please donate money for food!
As there are literally no chances of sending smaller amounts of money from Europe to Uganda the easiest possibility is transferring the money to my german account. I will travel back to Uganda at the 12th of September, get all the money from my account and give it to Ruth.
If you request it we can write you a donation recite which I will bring to Germany with my return on the 17th of September. (Please indicate on the transfernote if you would like to get the recite and that this is a donation for the orphanage)
My account details:
Name: Sebastian Hesse
BLZ: 700 202 70
Nr: 46774876
IBAN: DE39700202700046774876
Swift (BIC): HYVEDEMMXXX
note: Name, Donation, recite yes or no
I wont ask you for any specific amount of money, just send as much as you feel comfortable with. But please tell others from this site and the food problem and hopefully we will solve this crisis together!
Thank you very much for your help
Basi
P.s. if you would like to make a bigger donation (above 150$) you can send it directly to Ruth via Western Union, please contact me or Ruth by mail or phone in case you want to do so:
Me: 002503726133 / hesse.sebastian@gmail.com
Ruth: admin@anotherhope.org
first aid for kids
Friday was my last day in the clinic.
I left with the good feeling that this program could really provide a working model for HIV care in Africa. Through their steady discussions and will to think over things they preserved a very important mobility.
Of course one has to consider that this project receives a huge amount of money from the US and Canada and I can’t imagine that they would finance the whole of the country… but anyways, the process of creation might be more expansive that running the whole thing afterwards.
The second worry came from a doctor working there. He told that the problem with the ART (anti retroviral treatment) is that on the one hand you give HIV infected people the chance to live quite long in dignity without suffering –on the other hand they go on spreading the virus.
In his own words: “For every patient I start on ART there will be 5 more to treat.”
During the weekend I finished the first aid course with the kids.
While the theoretical part went unexpectedly fine, the practical side was quite difficult. I had to reduce everything to the pint that the only things that I could really teach them was how to put disinfectant and a plaster on different sized wounds. Already the usage of pads and a bandage proved not to work out for them so I supplied them with a variety of different sized plasters.
After the kids I wanted to teach the older girls taking care of the homes children.They were even harder to teach and again I had to reduce it to plasters only.I know that it is important to respect the way they managed their live before I came, but I made clear that their practice of putting urine and some plants from the street on wounds has to stop! With enough disinfectant available I hope that there is a chance that their wounds wont inflame as bad as before.
With spending 2 weeks in the hospital (waking up each day around 6…) and living in the orphanage with 25 kids even longer I really felt that I need a rest!
Before starting my journey through Rwanda I will take some free days this week, just spending my time reading and relaxing.
I met some Spanish people from the NGO “in movement” and they invited me to stay with them for a while. I live now in a beautiful little house at the shore of lake Victoria, fully enjoying the beauty of this marvelous country.
There is the chance that we are going to visit the Nile sources for some rafting during the week – but as this is Africa you never really know what will happen the next day 
In any way I get some rest now and prepare myself for the long journey to come.
Have a good start in the week everyone!
Basi
musungu problems
Damn… after eating for 2 weeks at the orphanage the same food as everybody else I went to a restaurant at the weekend and cought some GIT trubble maker – nothing severe but I went home from the clinic early and spend my time in bed today, drinking rehydration solution (bahh…) and feasting bananas (whenever possible I use them instead of Loperamide – keeping it real 
In the afternoon I got up again and went to a backpackers hostel to collect some information for my trip -
Even though there wasnt too much of knowledge they have a awesome broadband WIFI connection, so here is a bunch of photos I collected over the time,
enjoy
(as many people start to check out these photos I have to declare officially that all those pictures are mine and no one is allowed to use them – in any other form then looking at them here – unless with my written permission)
life goes on
Hi you all,
as we are without electricity since the last 4 days in the home I sit now in the clinic, appreciating very much their sable and fast internet… means new photos
My work here in the hospital is very interesting and I am learning a lot.
Besides the PedHIV stationI started to join the rounds in the other wards. Yesterday I saw the pediatric general ward, the ped-cancer station (all textbook cases, terrible and fascinating at the same time…) and the malnutrition ward.
I am not sure what effect all those things I see here should have on me, so far I could keep quite a distance.
Anyways there is probably no one who understands what all those kids are going through.
Its kind of surreal to discuss with a 12 year old on failing ART and chemotherapy for advanced Kaposi sarcoma her chances on second line ART… she was so incredible mature.
Everything I write here about my experiences in the clinic is such a poor discription that I almost feel like leaving that part out of the blog; so lets change topic to the orphanage.
Its going great!
Yesterday I bought mosquitonets for all of the beds. (the first time I bought only one to check if everything fits) Luckily I found out that the man selling them to me was heavily overpricing! …its not easy for a white man (musungo!) to get a fair trade in this city.
I also bought the rest of the diagnostic equipment for the home. In the following days I will have to finish the forms to use for the kids checkup.
On monday I invited 2 medstudents from england to the home. They will help me to set up a chart for every kid so that visiting doctors will have a proper history for all of them.
Now I have to hurry for lunch, from 3 there will be a case discussion and after that I will meet with the WhiteFathers here in Kampala.
I wish you all the best and send greetings from all 25 children
Basi
my first day in the clinic…
…kind of sucked
Instead of saving little lives I was filling out form A, carried it to point C,
forgot B, had to wait for it an hour just to find out that they would need some papers (shall I bring them? …no, we wont need them…) so back home, returning to the clinic…
Well, the only cool thing was that while waiting I had the possibility of making myself familiar with the place. Its a pretty huge hospital!
Most of the time though I was sitting together with the patients in the waiting area.
Its amazing how well organized this sheer mass of people is handled! (somehow it reminded me of the bus station)
Once in a while a nurse stood in the middle of the room and cave a class about nutrition and the ART treatment; nice idea of using having all those people together!
I used the time to read on about HIV care and having chats with the parents.
I also spoke to a monk running a project in the slums of Kampala, I will visit him in the next days.
At five I was finally finished, tired but happy that I can come back the next day at 07.30.
I took the bus to the city where I tried to upload some photos, but no chance!
Thank you all for reading on even without getting new pictures, I promise I do what I can to put them up.
My next aim was to get mosquito nets for the orphanage.
Even though in the west we hear a lot about “free net actions” all I found for Uganda is articles saying that free nets are a waist of money… well, for that I collected donations.
After some asking around I found a Indian health supplier selling suitable nets for 3 story beds. (Hochbetten… und dieses verfluchte Leo laed nicht… egal) The one I bought proved to work perfectly and I will get the other 7 nets tomorrow.
In the clinic I had the chance of talking to one of the pediatricians about the 3 cases we have here at the home. He agreed on seeing them at the next chance.
But I also realized that putting this information here open for everyone in the net is not exactly ethical. Especially because photos would be needed and I wont have the time to black the faces out. So for now I considered that its best to talk with the local doctors for medical questions and keep information about patients out of here. Anyways I shouldn’t start to diagnose in my current state of education…
Ruth is facing problems with her work as they want to send her to the northern regions of Uganda. Great thing with having an orphanage to care about in the south…
Anyways its creasy what this woman does. She is really using all her loan to keep the project going. In addition she bought the new land with a credit (around 6000$) and with loosing her job she wouldn’t be able to pay it back (not to mention the interest)
(by the way, anyone who wonders about how much sense it made that she bought this piece of jungle: she really knows what she is doing! Prices for land are rising constantly in Uganda, hers is already worth more than she paid including the interest.
I had a long talk with her yesterday night about that)
My plan is to start fundraising with parties and concerts as soon as I am back in Europe, probably going back to Pecs first
The last thing for today was calling Janvier, my contact at the university of Rwanda.
I made quite a nice plan for this journey, but more about this in time.
So far so good,
Tomorrow I have to raise at six so that’s it for today
Good night and till soon
Basi
Good evening world,
After my introduction into the clinic yesterday I can start there on Monday. It’s a pediatric HIV outpatient center and I will focus on the diagnosis of the different AIDS stages and drug management. Its called the Baylor College Of Medicine – Children’s Foundation Uganda, and is a Center of Excellence in the care and treatment of children infected with HIV.
My first task after leaving the clinic was to buy a white coat… the doctors told me that this would be impossible for a tourist in Kampala; 2 hours later I was invited from the seamstresses to have lunch with them while waiting for my name getting tagged onto my new coat
(I will have to write here a extra entry about Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Its still far too overwhelming for me to get it, and there are some great photos to make. Alone the so called “New Taxi Park” is a story on its own…)
Today (Saturday) I started the class for the first aid course. My students are Peter (m, 14), Matow (m, 11) and Allen (f, 12) and our first topic were the bones, joints and muscles. They were very keen on learning and I had to go on telling them about the heart and the vascular system. After almost 3 hours I was quite tired but they would have liked to go on the whole day. In the following days we will discuss the whole body including the immune system. After that they will learn about hygienics, infections and first aid. Practical sessions will be held during the theory when suitable and whenever there is an incidence in the home.
In the evening Ruth came back from a course she took in Kampala during this week. It was the first time we had time to sit down together and speak about all the things that we plan. I won’t write too much about it now, for now its enough to know that the place the orphanage resides in now is rented and that they want to move out. Ruth bought land in another town (Wakiso) and the plan is to build a new orphanage and a health center for children there.
Right now we are here: N0˚21’52.67” E32˚31’48.09” 840
(it would be very nice if anyone could make a GoogleEarth tag for that) Currently 22 children are living here (8m/14f) aged between 1 and 14.
4 helpers are employed, they get paid whenever possible.
The monthly costs of maintenance are 1300$, paid by Ruth’s income and loans. Donations are coming in some times but not on a regular basis.(Governmental founding would require bribes that Ruth could never pay…)
The boy with malaria is currently fine. (actually its Matow, one of my students) I examined 3 more infants (between 1 and 3 years) and I will describe their cases tomorrow. If anyone knows a pediatrician please encourage him to read the cases and help me with it!
Good night everyone
Basi
early birds
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Good morning everyone!
As laughing, screaming and the rest of noises a bunch of kids produce in the morning woke me up early this morning I used the chance to take the first pictures. Enjoy J
…and in a few hours my first rotations will start, yeah!
(click on topic to view pics)
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nsanuse okulaba! …or wellcome to Uganda
Hi everybody and welcome to Uganda!
There are many reasons why you could have stumbled upon this page and some of you probably know already all about me. But as I hope for all kind of people to read this, I will start with a short introduction of who I am and what I do -
sitting right now under a mosquito net here in Nansana, a small town next to Kampala – the capital of Uganda.
My name is Sebastian Hesse, but most people refer to me as Basi.
I was born in 1984 in Ulm, Germany.
As life goes I experienced the ups and down of childhood, youth and adolescence but the details are not of too much importance here.
What matters is that as I left school I knew that I want to dedicate my life to the struggle of helping Africa.
A month before starting medschool I visited Dr. David Abdulai in Tamale, Ghana.
Clinical wise there wasn’t much to learn for me as I didn’t have too much of a medical background. But this stay confirmed me in my decision that my future will happen on the black continent.
After 3 years of university this is now my second visit to Africa.
Over the Internet I came in contact with Ruth Nambowa, executive director of the orphanage “another hope”.
Aware of my still limited medical knowledge I spend a lot of time thinking about my possibilities how to help those children.
First of all there is always the need of money, so I set up a charity party in Pécs, a marvelous city in the south of Hungary and the place where I went to medschool. Some of you reading this probably attended the party and I want to thank you again for the generosity you showed, donating more than 2000$ that night!
I will write in the next days what we will do with the money.
First of all I will have to spend some time living here before I get an idea of what could be useful – but ideas are coming up J
There are 2 boys – Peter and Matow - who want to become doctors one day.
They are 14 and already drew some pictures about organs that I couldn’t have done before anatomy!
The next days I will teach them about the human body and some basics about medicine. Back in Germany I wrote down a program for a first aid course for kids. I think those boys are going to be the first participants.
Tomorrow will be my first day in the hospital.
I am really looking forwards to start with some clinical practice!
Here in the orphanage there was already a sick boy when I arrived.
(I will see if I can set up an extra section here with case reports)
Every symptom of him suggests an acute malaria attack:
Fever, headache, splenomegaly and weakness.
He got better today but we will have to see in how many days the fever comes back. Hopefully I will find a possibility to diagnose his blood in the next days – and start him on treatment then.
As our electricity goes on and off without control working with the computer is kind of tiring.
Please excuse that I don’t put on photos and more text right now,
but this blog is in progress and I will try to improve it day by day.
So much for now,
have a good night and please don’t hesitate to suggest me what you are interested in about the place and the project – but give me some time to react
With the best wishes to wherever you are
Basi
