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Sue and Joe Bamford visited Kagando recently. Their primary mission was to determine how
contributed funds were being spent and to talk with those responsible for implementing programs as well as those participating in and receiving benefits from them.
The experience was rigorous and very encouraging, at times heart wrenching, and not without amusing
encounters. Being “in the trenches”, they are confident that funds are being used wisely and effectively.
Administration:
The computer program for accounts, records and statistics is up and
running. The Foundation funded the purchase of IBM hardware, software programs, training and a maintenance contract. The staff is delighted, learning more daily and becoming more efficient in compiling
data. One result has been a more detailed accounting of all funds and goods received from the Foundation.
Another benefit has been accurate processing of statistics which provide
meaningful numbers to evaluate the efficacy of projects and ways and means of implementing improvements.
A digital camera is enabling medical staff, directors, nursery and primary school
teachers to prepare educational materials graphically and economically.
Hospital:
They found the tuberculosis ward full to overflowing, populated by patients made
more susceptible to the disease by the ravages of AIDS. They comforted cholera victims admitted from communities yet to be provided with clean water and spent
considerable time with lepers young and old, of both sexes, who, as through the ages, were made outcasts by their families and neighbors. They have found refuge,
respect, treatment and rehabilitation at Kagando.
The Bamfords were able to inventory teaching materials and equipment previously
donated or funded and found all in use and in good repair. The prototype nursery incubator designed by Joe and heated by an electric light bulb has been duplicated
seven times. Through the generosity of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Direct Relief International, we delivered medicines with a wholesale value of $22,960.00. As expected, the lists of needed equipment and
drugs are still dauntingly long. However, donations in-kind and in funds from other partners in England, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Japan and UNICEF through the Ugandan government,
attest to the fact that many consider the work at Kagando worthy of their support.
Community Programs:
Much time was spent in the field, traveling along undulating terrain dotted with
subsistence farms growing bananas, beans, papayas, coffee, cotton, cabbage, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, corn and sorghum. They went up into the mountains inhabited by hardy
but desparately poor landholders whose small, terraced plots seemed to teeter on the steep hillsides. They visited with Traditional Birth Attendants who deliver their patients on
banana leaf mats, often by the light of a kerosene lantern. At the top of one peak, they found a maternal and child health center built by Kagando. There, vaccines are
preserved in a butane refrigeration box. Replacement tanks are backpacke d up steep grades for over two miles.
In the valleys, they talked to HIV positive patients who received their medications in
their villages rather than traveling long distances to the hospital clinic. The patients have organized support groups with other AIDS victims and are advocating prevention
in their villages. The Bamfords discussed the problems of malaria control and treatment with Volunteer Village Health Workers whose work saves lives and reduces hospital admissions. They listened
to farmers who talked about skills in agronomy, animal breeding and the use of hybridized seeds learned at the Kagando Demonstration Farm. They awarded certificates and mosquito nets to adult
graduates of a two year literacy course sponsored by Kagando. The group sang songs extolling the new independence and opportunities open to those able to read and write.
Sue and Joe trekked in the bush to inspect the sources, reservoirs, pipelines and
taps of the Gravity Flow Water Schemes, to which the Foundation has contributed $116,000.00 since beginning support in August 2004. By conservative estimates,
the Foundation has provided potable water for 18,000 people. Each outlet tap is within on-half kilometer of their homes. Of course, these are works in progress with much still to be done.
“Wherever we traveled, we were welcomed by friendly, appreciative people who,
along with members of the KARUDEC staff, requested we extend greetings and thanks to their benefactors in America.” - Joe Bamford
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