Happy Christmas and New Year

Dear Friends of Chitambo Members and Supporters,

Happy Christmas and a very good New year to come.  

Thank you for all your help and support over the year.  We have covered a lot of ground, both through general charity work and Scottish Government Small Grant activities.  Here  are some of the highlights:

2 African partners, including our Zambian Project Coordinator, Mr. Consider Mudenda, came to Scotland in June.  Consider delivered a conference poster at a Medial Librarian conference in Dublin, on behalf of the Chitambo Emergency Care project.  Scottish partners, including myself, our charity Patron, Julie Davidson,  her daughter Catherine, and Friends of Chitambo volunteers Alison Smart and Bridget Innes,  then traveled to Chitambo in September, to take part in a project monitoring visit and a First Aid workshop for ambulance crews.  Levi Chifwaila, Senior Nurse Tutor (now at Kabwe School of Nursing but with a long track record at Chitambo), designed and delivered the workshop, assisted by senior  Kabwe surgeon, Dr. Nkuliyi-Ngoma, Chitambo Medical Officer, Dr. Mwamba, and Friends of Chitambo volunteer, Alison Smart, who is a Nurse Lecturer and Edinburgh's Napier University, Scotland.  This workshop was a great success and many very useful contacts were made.

Our great sadness was losing our Honorary President, Janet Knox, who passed away in March this year.  Janet was a nursing sister at Chitambo in the 1960s and was one of our most ardent supporters.  It was lovely that Levi Chifwaila honoured her memory with a moment' silence, at the opening of the First Aid workshop.  Levi met Janet when he came to Scotland in 2015, as part of the grant project, and they became good friends.

Providing scholarships support for deprived student nurses was Janet's brainchild and we continue her legacy.   'Our' 2 current Friends of Chitambo Nurse Training Scholarship students have just sat their final exams and will graduate next year.  Mr. Kasoka, Principal Tutor, and team, are in the process of identifying new students for our support.  As a result of wonderful new donors, we are able to to increase this support to 3 students next year and are awaiting detail of who they will be.  The students will be supported over the full 3 years of their Registered Nurse training.  Janet's family and friends are major financial contributors to this and other activities.

We ring fence £1,000 a year as a contribution to ambulance maintenance, much needed in this remote, rugged region and, thanks to your donations,  will shortly forward next year's contribution.

We have provided a variety of emergency care resources, including books, tablet and desktop pcs, and smartphones and are helped by skilled information (knowledge) scientists in making this information available to healthcare staff at the point of care.   Also, thanks to grant funds and your substantial private donations, we have provided 4 Very High Frequency (VHF) emergency radios for some of Chitambo District's 'hardest to reach' Rural health Clinics.  These were installed by the Zambian Flying Doctor Service, who maintain the radios, and are working well with potential for saving many lives.  

Dr. Bridget Innes, a semi-retired Scottish GP with experience of medical volunteering in South Africa and Zambia, is working with Chitambo health partners on developing  emergency care protocols and guidelines on issues such as DRS/ABC, postpartum hemorrhage, and use of the non-pneumatic anti-shock garments (Life Wraps) which we donated to Chitambo.  The latter are first aid garments for control of haemorrhage in childbirth.    They were recommended by Chitambo doctors.  However, staff need to be regularly trained in their use and the protocols will help.

The above activities  are supported by all your donations and much hard fundraising work at the Scottish end.  Our local Scottish Trustees have been the mainstay of fundraising activities.  We have also had help from wonderful new volunteers such as Jenny Bailey, a very high flying young Nurse Practitioner trainee.  Jenny has volunteered as a nurse in Tanzania and, although so busy with her current training, found  time to help with our successful Penicuik Christmas  Fair stall.  Her Mum, Lou, also a highly experienced nurse, also contributed, including making many beautiful crafts for sale.  We raised £355 on the stall and, together with your membership fees and many generous donations, are in a good position to continue our above activities over the next year.  Our Acting Treasurer, Olu Sodipo, and our Independent Examiner, Ngeme Ntuli (both trained, experienced Accountants) are a tremendous help in managing our financial affairs.

Bridget's account

A group of Friends of Chitambo Hospital recently visited Chitambo. Scottish members were: Jo Vallis, chairperson, Julie Davidson, patron, and her daughter, Catherine, Alison Smart, lecturer in nursing studies at Napier University, and Bridget Innes a semi-retired GP. Zambian partners were Consider Mudenda, in-country co-ordinator; Levi Chifwaila, former senior nurse lecturer at Chitambo School of Nursing, now at Kabwe; and Emma Ndalameta Theo, a medical librarian from the University of Zambia.

The main aims were to attend a first aid workshop aimed mainly for ambulance drivers and front line clinical staff, and to check on the new radios in the rural health clinics without mobile phone connection. We left Lusaka with a heavily loaded vehicle, picking Emma up, en route. Consider ably drove the long journey to Chitambo. 

Julie Davidson, FoCH Patron, with Catherine (L), Alison R) and Levi (behind)

L to R, Consider, Jo, Alison, Levi, and Julie

The main aims were to attend a first aid workshop aimed mainly for ambulance drivers and front line clinical staff, and to check on the new radios in the rural health clinics without mobile phone connection. We left Lusaka with a heavily loaded vehicle, picking Emma up, en route. Consider ably drove the long journey to Chitambo. 

Loading up for the journey to Chitambo

Chitambo Hospital 2017

The 3 day First Aid Workshop was run by Levi. The talks were given by Levi, members of Chitambo’s clinical team, a surgeon from the trauma unit at Kabwe hospital, Alison and Emma. Chitambo has recently been supplied with two new fully equipped ambulances; the drivers had not been shown how to use the equipment, and we keen to learn. There was also time to speak to other members of staff to discuss future developments. A doctor and technician from the Flying Doctor service visited to discuss the new radios, which they had supplied, and suggestions for further equipment.

Some of us also took the opportunity to visit some of the distant clinics. Consider checked the radios, and Emma introduced the staff to tablets which have heen downloaded with clinical information. 

Consider one of the new emergency radios supplied by FoCH

Emma demonstrates use of a tablet pc

We were pleased to see that the Life Wrap treatment for post partum bleeding, supplied by FoCH, were in the clinics. One of these clinics is over 100km from the hospital, the last 16km being along a single track causeway through swamp. Fortunately it was fairly dry at this time of year, but in the rainy season it is sometimes submerged and the journey for ambulances is very difficult. The clinic serves a population of almost 7,000, but currently is staffed by only a newly qualified nurse and a health care assistant, with the help of volunteer community health workers. Two women were in labour during our visit. In another clinic, close to the village where David Livingstone died, there were no lights as the new staff did not know how to obtain bulbs for the solar lights.

Remote Rural Health Clinic

Motorbike ambulance in use at the above clinic

Ambulance driver and simulated patient

Children served by the above clinic

The team made a lot of useful new contacts and have ideas to take forward to help communication and emergency treatment in the Chitambo district.

Chitambo visit September 2017: Jo's account

Scottish and Zambian partners had  great week at Chitambo Hospital, central Zambia, from 4th to 8th September 2017.  The First Aid workshop, designed and delivered by Levi, went very well.  The 10 participants included ambulance drivers and other frontline emergency care staff.  Facilitators included a top trauma surgeon from the provincial capital, Kabwe and a nurse lecturer/FoCH volunteer from Napier University, Scotland.  The programme was wide ranging including principles of first aid; ABC (airway, breathing, circulation); wound management; blood loss and shock; fractures; burns; poisoning; chocking and much more.  Classroom sessions were  followed by practical demonstrations including simulated exercises based on specific emergency scenarios (road traffic accidents).  


Feedback was good with the majority saying that the training had improved their ability to respond to emergencies and that they would like longer training in the future, with more practical sessions.

Post-workshop team line up

Clinical Officer demonstrares

Experienced ambulance drivers look on intently

Ambulance drivers get hands on experience

A willing 'victim'

Please see our photo and video galleries for some more images of the training in progress: Click here for the photo gallery

We also had great meetings about other aspects of our project on strengthening emergency care communications in the area.  Leaders of  Zambian Flying Doctor Service (ZFDS) traveled all the way from the Copper Belt especially to meet us and discuss potential for collaboration on developing a Central Province emergency care response system based on digital radio communications.  They say that this is the Zambian policy direction for emergency care and Chitambo District is leading the way..   ZFDS has other stakeholders who would be interested in partnering on grant bids.  Discussions with the head of the Kabwe trauma service suggested similar interest in collaboration on grant bids.

Jo with leaders of teh Zambian Flying Dctor Service (ZFDS) 

Top Zambian trauma surgeon teaching on the First Aid course

Other highlights of the visit included a trip to N'Kundalila Falls and Kalwa farm where 6 Moffats are buried (descendants of David Livingstones wife Mary's family). Livingstone's nephew, Malcolm Moffat, was founder of Chitambo Hospital. 

Beautiful Kundalila

Kundalila pool

Malcolm Moffat, founder of Chitambo Hospital 

Moffat graves at Kalwa

Jo and Bridget also had a chance to visit the Bangwelu swamps where Livingstone died. They took a day excursion from Kasanka National Park to see the famous Shoebills.....a most amazing prehistoric-looking bird which nests in the swamps. The visit involved setting off from Gibson, one of Chitambos remotest clinics, firstly in a boat punted through the swamps and then on foot, wading waist deep in these malarial swamps. We were rewarded with Shoebills but also much more....the beauty if the swamps, the strength and character of the people, and insights on alternative uses of impregnated mosquito nets..to make fishing nets! Surprising in this most malarial area but perhaps putting food in the belly simply takes priority over malaria prevention?

Punting through teh Bangwelu wetlands

Creative use of impregnated mosquito nets

Trecking to see the Shoebills

The Shoebill tour started at Gibson, Chitambo District's most remote Rural Health  Clinic.   Jo and Bridget called to pay their respects to clinic staff and saw the new very High Frequency (VHF) digital radio, supplied by our project, in action.

They also saw the  motorbike ambulance used by the clinic to collect patients from surrounding villages.

Motorbike ambulance

Whilst in Lusaka, our team had had the good fortune to meet and dine with the Secretary General of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ).  . She is a remarkable Zambian lady with a PhD on women in leadership within the church. Modern missionary, Ida, made the introduction. Ida is the Health Secretary for the UCZ and her husband, Keith is Education Secretary. Both do a huge amount of health and education work around Zambia, including at remote Mbereshi Mission in Luapula Province. Our team traveled there as Julie is researching for a book about Mabel Shaw, founder of the girls school there. Ida met us there, showed us around the hospital and school and hosted us with a very welcome lunch. Later we visited the magnificent Tumbachushi Falls and enjoyed a wonderful swim.

TumbaChushi Falls, Kawambwa, Luapula Province

Jo's dad had served as a doctor at Mbereshi Hospital for a short spell, n the late 1960s, and she was able to identify the house they had stayed in, now in ruins but recognisable.

Consider drove us very competently all the way to Kawambwa, near Mbereshi, and back and we can't thank him enough for our safe travels

AGM 2017

Please join us for our Friends of Chitambo AGM.

When?: Saturday 14th October 2017, 11am to 1pm UK time ( 12 to 2 pm Zambia time), to hear about our recent visit to Chitambo and other progress over the past year.

Where?: The Community Room, Penicuik Library, Carlops Road, PENICUIK, MIDLOTHIAN, SCOTLAND EH26 9PE: http://www.midlothian.gov.uk/…/penicuik_library/1252/find_us

Here is a link to the agenda and meeting papers: https://drive.google.com/…/fo…/0B6Xci-Qh9PixM09ObEg1R3pMY0E…

Skype access may be available. Please email Jo Vallis, Chair (jovallis@hotmail.com) if you are interested in this option and we will try to link you.

Thank you to all who have given support over the year. You are making a very big difference.

Operation book covering

Through our Scottish Government funded Small Grant project on 'strengthening emergency care communications in Chitambo District' we have purchased 40 new emergency care books from Teaching Aids at Low Cost (TALC):  http://www.talcuk.org/
The books are for an emergency care resource centre at Chitambo Hospital and its 12 Rural Health Clinics.

They include:

• Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care
• Medecin Sans Frontier Clinical Guideines
• The British National (Drug) Formulary  

3 'hard to reach' clinics, in the Bangwelu Swamps, which do not have internet connectivity, will also receive tablet pcs with emergency care downloads (First Aid app etc), so that, despite their isolation,  staff have access to best emergency care evidence.

To ensure durability of the books, we obtained slip over dust covers.

Here are some photos of the books and our Trustee, Margaret (a retired teacher),  helping to apply the covers.

A Penicuik GP also donated 3 quite recent drug formularies to boost our stocks.  These are like gold and we can't thank her enough for the kind gesture.

A very successful fundraising event

The Summer Street Fair took place on Saturday 26th August, in the Friernds of Chitambo (FoCH) stronghold, Penicuik, Scotland..

Running the stall was  a particular challenge this year  as some of us are off to Chitambo, Zambia, on 31st August

Even so, with all hands on deck, the effort paid off , with bumper takings, almost double our usual average.  Congratulations to the team and particular thanks to our new young volunteers, Jenny, Alison and Catherine whose persuasive selling powers are most impressive.

5 team members (Jo, Lou, Catriona, Jenny and Alison) are from health service backgrounds and 3 (Catriona, Jenny and Alison) are currently in high flying health service roles.  Catriona is an Organisational Development Lead in  and Edinburgh Special Healthboard; Jenny is training as an  Advanced Nurse Practitioner, in Critical Care; and Alison is a Nurse Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University.  We are highly privileged to have them all on board.

We were also privileged to have help from Catherine, daughter of our charity Patron, Julie Davidson. With much experience in the field of retail, Catherine has great business sense and sold a lot of raffle tickets.  Her mother, Julie,  is an author and journalist and wrote the acclaimed book 'Looking for Mrs. Livingstone'.  This is about David Livingstone's wife, Mary Moffat, whose nephew Malcolm Moffat, founded Chitambo Hospital in 1908.

Catherine and Alison are joining the group which is travelling to Chitambo on Thursday 31st August. The other travelers include Julie, Jo (FoCH Chair)  and FoCH member Bridget who is a Scottish doctor with extensive experience of medical volunteering in Zambia and South Africa.

Thanks also to Street Fair stalwarts Margaret and Gillian, who provided much produce and guided the novice helpers in the art of fundraising. We could not do without you or without the help of Jo's husband  Richard who, despite his 'bionic' (artificial) leg, is always there to help with transporting the team, cheering us on and  proffering tea and coffee.

Thank you too to Consider and his wife Pharren, in Zambia, who supplied the beads, shirts, and beautiful sandals, all hand made by Pharren, in Zambia.  These attracted much interest and sales.

Also thanks to  our Trustees, Ba Chola and Ba Loveness, in Chesterfield, England.  Chola is a Lala gentleman, from Chitambo and, as such, is a tremendous asses to the charity.

THANK YOU ALL FOR CONTRIBUTING TO THIS SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISING EVENT.

Proceeds are likely to go towards our student nurse scholarships.  More on that soon.



See our Street Fair photo gallery:

Lou and Jenny (wo)man the sandal, beads, and home baking stall

Catherine and Alison pose with the 2017 Penicuik King and Queen 

Jenny takes charge of the garden produce

What a team!

See this relevant TED Talk: No one should die because they live too far from a doctor

Check out this recent TED talk, which seems of real relevance to places like Chitambo District:
Raj Panjabi: No one should die because they live too far from a doctor
https://go.ted.com/CyME

This is why the First Aid workshop which Chitambo partners are running for ambulance drivers, and other frontline emergency care staff (5th to 7th September), is so valuable.

Hallelujah, job well done!

True to their word, the Zambian Flying doctor Service (ZFDS) has installed the 4 Motorola Very High Frequency (VHF) digital radios purchased for the Chitambo emergency care communications project.  They have been installed  at 3 'hardest to reach' clinics, where there is no mobile phone connectivity, and at a 4th clinic which can relay emergency messages to Chitambo Hospital.
We are very grateful to ZFDS for their efficient service.  This should save lives.

The next step is to monitor the number of radio calls and their outcomes, to gauge effectiveness.

Friends of Chitambo Street Fair stall advertised

Friends of Chitambo Trustee, Margaret, posted this article in the Penicuk newsletter, the Town Crier:

" Friends of Chitanbo are having a stall at the (Penicuik, Scotland) Street Fair on 26th August.  We continue to support the hospital and surrounding area in Zambia.  Five professionals, members of Friends, are going to meet Zambian partners and work with them training ambulance drivers in first aid.  They will see the progress made with the 'mini NHS24' (emergency response) service for which we received a grant from Holyrood.  This is a very necessary service  for outlying clinics of which one is 125 miles from the hospital."

Well said Ba Margaret.  As a retired teacher, your writing skills shine through.  Natotela sana mukwai (thank you) for your ongoing support.

Staunch Street Fair supporter Margaret 

'Old' Friends treated to Chitambo hospitality

Due to the miracle of technology, news has been reaching us, here in Scotland,  of the traditional Chitambo hospitality offered to 2 'old' friends, Ron and Andrew Swanson.  Their Dad, Ron Swanson Senior, built the original student nurse hostel at Chitambo, which is still in use today.  Ron and Andrew lived at Chitambo as children.

They have just returned from a historic revisit and have been beaming back pictures and video clips of the tumultuous welcome which only Chitambo people could give.

In Ron's words, it was 'a very special, humbling and inspiring' experience and they particularly enjoyed the church service and meeting the only surviving person who had worked with their Dad.

Twatotela saana mukwai (thank you very much) to all at Chitambo for looking after  Ron and Andrew so well.

Penicuik Street fair stall: Saturday 26th August 2017

It's that time again and luckily we have all hands on deck to help with this annual fundraising event which takes place just a few days before some FoCH members travel to Zambia for the project monitoring and evaluation   visit and First Aid workshop.

A very big thank you to the following local Penicuik businesses for their generous donations of raffle prizes for this and previous events:

• Enhance Beauty: http://www.enhance-beauty.co.uk/
• The Best Seller: https://www.yell.com/biz/the-best-seller-penicuik-3916534/
• Giovani's Italian Bistro: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1068914-d4413562-Reviews-Giovanni_s_Bistro-Penicuik_Midlothian_Scotland.html
• Castle Waerhouse: http://castlewarehouse.com/

Thank you, too, to FoCH Trustees Margaret and Gillian for negotiating these donations with the local shopkeepers and to all FoCH members and wider friends who are also helping with donations of goods, items, baking, and their precious time.

You are all making a real difference on the ground at Chitambo. 

Chola and Loveness are staunch supporters but are too far away to contribute directly.  However, they are planning a stall for this year's Zambian Independence Celebrations in the Midlands.  They are even thinking of designing a FoCH banner of their own, for local use.  

Last year the couple raised a whopping £300 on their stall and this went to purchasing 5 solar lights for use at remote Rural Health Clinics.  As nurses with extensive experience of the pressures of running remote Zambian health clinics, they know how important it is to have access to electricity.  On a recent visit to Chitambo District, they witnessed that nurses were having to sue the light of mobile phones to deliver babies.

Thank you to Chola and Loveness for your dedication to helping Chola's home community of Chitambo.  You too are making a huge difference.

Emergency radios and shortcode number for health

News just in from the Zambian Flying Doctor Service (ZFDS) is that the 4 Motorola Very High Frequency (VHF) radios which FoCH purchased with Scottish Government funds and private donations have arrived from South Africa.  They are for Chitambo Hospital and 3 'hardest to reach' Rural Health Clinics (RHC) and will be installed during the the week beginning 14th August 2017.

These clinics, in the remote Bangwelu Swamps area..incidentally the area where Scottish 'hero' David Livingstone died...have no mobile phone or internet connectivity and multiple delays in contacting Chitambo Hospital can cost lives.

During the September monitoring and evaluation visit, the project team hopes to be able to assess how these radios are bedding down  and what difference they are making.

Friends of Chitambo (FoCH) is, in communication with local health leads, also sponsoring an emergency shortcode for health.  This will give all Chitambo District citizens and others free mobile phone access to emergency help and advice.

Purchasing a 4-digit number for 1 year costs in the region of £3,000 and FoCH will do this with a very generous donation from the Twigger family in America, who have also contributed to emergency radio purchases.

Purchasing the 4-digit shortcode number is an interim measure until the Zambian Ministry of Health and mobile phone providers manage to launch the free national shortcode number, 992.   Delays are due to needing to include all emergency services (ambulance, fire, and police), some of which are under-developed and will take time to prepare for inclusion in this initiative.

Please see our online donations button if you can help with this life-saving work

First Aid training for ambulance drivers and frontline emergency care staff

In September 2017, a UK delegation will join Zambian partners on a visit to Chitambo for the purposes of monitoring and evaluating the emergency are project and contributing to delivery of a unique First Aid course to Chitambo District ambulance drivers and other front line emergency care staff.

Levi, a Senior Nurse Lecturer in Central Province, Zambia, is leading this course.  Levi has extensive experience as Charge Nurse and Senior Lecturer at Chitambo and he has long stated the need to train the 5 local ambulance drivers in basic First Aid.

These drivers are highly experienced and dedicated to helping local people in case of emergency.  However, some First Aid training will really save lives by enabling them to respond more efficiently and effectively to emergencies such as bleeding in pregnancy, road traffic accidents, burns, choking, snake bites etc.

This is vital in this vast rural area where distances are great, roads bad, and multiple delays in reaching hospital cost lives.

Thank you to Levi for this great work.  He has enlisted the help of a local surgeon to deliver the trauma aspects of the course.  Click here to see the programme

Alison, a young Scottish Nurse Lecturer is accompanying the delegation to Chitambo and, as a trained First Aid trainer she will contribute, with other course facilitators, to delivery of the programme.  Although she is well traveled, this will be her first time in Africa.

Friends of Chitambo (FoCH) contributes to ambulance maintenance.

Please see our on line donations button if you think you can help with this life-saving aspect.

FoCH presents at the International Convention of Medical Librarians (ICLM) Conference 2017, Dublin, Ireland

Whilst in Europe, Consider, In-country Project Coordinator for our Scottish Government sponsored Small Grant project on 'Strengthening emergency care communications in Chitambo District, Central Zambia', presented the following poster at the ICLM conference in Dublin, Ireland:Click here for the poster

Consider applied to attend this conference whilst presenting a previous poster, on behalf of the project, at the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) conference in Uganda in 2016.  His abstract, produced in record time to an impossible deadline, was accepted and the project enabled him to not only to disseminate important project information at the conference but also extend his own personal experience in rich and fulfilling ways.

The conference theme was 'Diversity in Practice' and there was much interest in Consider's poster.  He networked widely, including with 2 other Zambian delegates, and remains in touch with medical librarians and information scientists around the world.

Enjoying a  glass of Guinness in Dublin

Back in Scotland, Consider also paid a visit to Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, where he is studying for a distance Masters in Strategic Planning.  Here he met fellow Zambians students who were attending for their graduation ceremony.  What a great incentive for Consider.

Consider with fellow Zambian students

Consider at his university

Consider's university believes in keeping fees low

Africa to Scotland

June was a very busy month for Friends of Chitambo (FoCH), with visits to the UK and Ireland by 2 African partners, Consider and Blessing.  This was in relation to our Scottish Government sponsored project on 'Strengthening emergency communications in Chitambo District'.  In April 2017, we received a second round of funding for this work and are forging ahead with related developments.

Please see the following link for a summary of progress:Click here for the summary report

Whilst in Europe, Blessing, who is Knowledge Broker Development Manager for the project, worked with NHSScotland Knowledge colleagues on developing the Knowledge Broker role. Knowledge Brokers are library and information scientist who help health staff to translate (access and use) vital information into action at the frontline.

Consider, who is In-country Project Coordinator, complemented the Knowledge Broker work by downloading 5 apps/pdfs to 3 new Lenovo Yoga tablet pcs purchased for teh project.  These are for use at Chitambo's 3 'hardest to reach' Rural Health Clinics (RHC), where there is no mobile phone or internet connectivity.  The downloads include:

• Medscape: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.medscape.android 
• ZeroMothers Die:http://www.zeromothersdie.org/
• British Red Cross First Aid (general and child):https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cube.rca 
• Dynamed: http://www.knowledge.scot.nhs.uk/home/tools-and-apps/mobile-knowledge-config/mobile-resources/dynamed-plus---mobile.aspx 
• Zambian national Formulary: http://www.moh.gov.zm/docs/znf.pdf 

We also purchased 40 new emergency care print books from teaching Aids at Low Cost: http://www.talcuk.org/

These include:

• Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care (16 copies, one per 12 Chitambo District Rural Heath Centre plus some to spare for the resource centre)
• Medicnes Sans Frontier (MSF) Clinical Guidelines (12 copies, 1 per 12 RHC)
• British National Formulary (BNF) (12 copies, 1 per 12 RHC)

The books will be carried to Zambia in September 2017 when a UK delegation travels to Chitambo for the purposes of project monitoring/evaluation and a 3-day First Aid Workshop for ambulance drivers and front line emergency care staff, which is being organised by Chitambo partner, Levi, a Senior Nurse Lecturer.

Despite the busy Scottish visit schedule, there was some time for soem socialising and FoCH Trustees Chola and Loveness paid a visit to Penicuik, Scotland, to meet up with Consider.  Chola and Loveness are nurses in the Midlands of England.  However, Chola is a Lala gentleman, and is from Chitambo.  This makes him a real asset to FoCH as  he has close contacts on the ground at Chitambo and can advise on all local matters.

(L to R: Chola and Consider enjoying nshima in Penicuik Scotland)

Loveness and Chola in Penicuik: Whata fine couple they are

See our new logo

We have a fine new logo designed by Friends of Chitambo member, Consider, who is a computer specialist based in Lusaka, Zambia. Thank you Consider!

How I have benefited from a Friends of Chitambo Nurse Training Scholarship

Here's an extract from a letter from one of 'our' Scholarship students:

                                                                                         Chitambo School of Nursing

                                                                                         April 2017

How I knew about Friends of Chitambo and how I have benefited

I came to know about the Friends of Chitambo and the scholarships they offer through our group tutor.  I am half orphan.  My father is dead and we are being looked after by Mum who is a full time housewife.  I have challenges paying my school fees because the money Dad left is not enough to sustain I and my siblings.  So at one time my mother was called to school because of the financial situation I was having and upon hearing her cries my group tutor decided that I be included in the scholarship that Friends of Chitambo was offering.

The sponsorship has really relieved me of the anguish of paying school fees.  It was quite demoralising every semester when time for paying school fees was mentioned.  At one time I even thought of stopping school because I thought I was going nowhere.  But thanks be to God through the Friends of Chitambo who came to my rescue.  Now I see a light at the end of the tunnel,

Thank you Friends of Chitambo for giving me hope.  It's my prayer that you may do for others what you have done for me. AMEN.

Bwalya


Friends of Chitambo supports 2 student nurses through their 3-year Registered Nurse training at any one time.  Bwalya and Mary,the other student we are currently supporting, are in their final year.  We are in discussion with Chitambo colleagues about selecting a further 2 students once they graduate in 2018.


Training a student nurse costs around 21,000 Zambian Kwachas (£1,7986) in total for the 3 year training (around £596/year), although this changes from year to year as costs increase.

See our online donation button on this blog if you think you can help.

Here is a list of items which the costs cover:

Bill's Story

We are indebted to another remarkable story of friendship.

FoCH Chair, Jo, almost deleted the email thinking it was junk!  What a mistake that would have been! It was the offer of another very substantial donation, from Mr. Bill Twigger, American penfriend of Jo's father, Dr. Hamilton Currie, who was doctor at Chitambo during the 1960s and 70s.

More correctly, the offer was from Bill's daughter, Nancy, a community pharmacist in Arizona, USA. Sadly, Bill passed away in January 2017, aged 96.  Please see his obituary here: Click here

Mr. Bill Twigger

Bill, wife June and daughter Nancy

Bill, a former Customs Broker in Pennsylvania, USA,  had contacted Jo and her sisters some years ago, by email.  Again, they were a bit suspicious but soon realised the contact was entirely genuine!  Here are some extracts from Bill's letter to them titled, My Story:

"Dear (Girls),

Where shall I begin?  To say "I was born" would risk plagiarizing the great Charles Dickens.  Yet, born I was, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 25, 1920 into a family poor in the exchequer but rich in the stuff of life.  About the time of any measurable accountability, we three children (myself and my two younger sisters, Mabel and Jane), along with our dear mother, managed to survive the Great Depression.  We grew up with little of this world's goods, but managed to keep body and soul together. 
  

In 1936 (my senior year of high school) my English literature teacher asked me if I would be interested in engaging in correspondence with a Scottish school student my age.  The novelty appealed to me instantly.  She gave me the name and address of one HAMILTON CURRIE.  As academic -- and other "growing-up" -- responsibilities allowed, we engaged a healthy exchange of letters and photographs which resulted in the establishment of a friendship which rivals any I developed with people with whom I had daily eyeball-to-eyeball contact........

I'll bring this epistle to a close by telling you that, in the not-too-distant future, you will receive an envelope containing some photographs and other trappings from my years of correspondence with your very special father and my dear friend.  With intentional irreverence, I now hereby declare that Hamilton Currie will be among the first "people" I'll be seeking on that blessed day when my Lord and Master calls me home to Glory.   Cordially yours,   
Bill Twigger"

The envelope duly arrived, to Jo's delight.   Sadly, the sisters later lost touch with Bill.  However, he had not forgotten them.  The reason his daughter, Nancy, contacted Jo was to say that her Dad had left a note specifying a wish to make a large donation to Friends of Chitambo, in memory of his penpal:

"Because I have wanted (ever since his untimely death) to make a substantial gift to the African (Zambian) enterprise which my pen-pal Milton Currie directed for 25 years, I want you to send a bank draft in the amount of 5000 Pounds Sterling (about $3700) to Jo Vallis.  Ask her to arrange the purchase of some piece of equipment which the hospital at Chitambo is in need of."    

Nancy Twigger agreed that much needed emergency radios would meet Bill's equipment wish and matched her father's very generous donation with one of her own. This was enough to buy 2 Motorola Very High Frequency (VHF) Digital Radios for Chitambo District.  These will make a vast difference in an area where distances and lack of communications cost lives, especially of women in childbirth.

  What a Godsend!

A heartfelt thanks to the Twiggers.  A  kinder family you could not find anywhere on this earth.

Twatotela saana mukwai (THANK YOU in ChiBemba, the language of Chitambo District)