A major Rotary-led project to refurbish a hospital in Uganda has been completed with a handover ceremony to mark the occasion.
The Freda Carr Hospital in Ngora has had a strong association with Rotary in the Thames Valley.
Reading Matins Rotary was at the forefront of a $216,000 project to refurbish the maternity ward, operating theatre and water tower at the hospital, which lies in eastern Uganda.
The project was supported by a Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation, with contributions from nine Rotary clubs, five Rotary Districts, Rotary Doctor Bank G&BI and the Water & Sanitation Rotary Action Group. The key partner in Uganda was Kampala Central Rotary.
The major project has refurbished the maternity ward, operating theatre and water tower.
The hospital, which was built in the 1920s, has been the focus of a number of Rotary Vocational Training Team visits of UK doctors, midwives and paediatricians.
They are committed to visiting every six months over the next three years to teach essential life-saving skills to healthcare staff and students at the Nurse Training School.
The first full team visit was in April 2017. Aisha Alzouebi, a member of Elthorne-Hillingdon Rotary and an obstetrics and paediatrics doctor, was the team leader, having previously been on many of the visits to Kamuli Mission Hospital, also in Uganda.
She was joined by Gillian Pearce, also a member of Elthorne-Hillingdon Rotary and a midwife, and Jacqui Gillbanks, a midwife from Banbury.
The operating theatre project has been completed.
The Freda Carr hospital was built in the 1920s and is a non-governmental hospital supported by the protestant church.
The hospital sees an average of 1,000 patients each month and delivers about 30 babies each month.
The hospital provides care to a population of 145,000 directly and up to 250,000 indirectly.
There are also 12 health centres in the area.
However, there are just two to three doctors at the hospital and the maternity ward is often managed by student nurses from the adjacent nursing school.
