The team is now back in the UK - read their blog here
The team includes Hilary Fenton-Harris, PAL co-ordinator, nurse/midwife, Dr Antoinette McAulay, consultant paediatrician, Dr Judith Mella, associate specialist surgeon, Alison Ahvee, deputy paediatric sister and Jane Griffin, senior midwife. We will be continuing the teaching and training of hospital nurses midwives and doctors and students nurses at local training schools. Use the link above to find out more about our visit.
About the Poole Africa Link
Poole Hospital has set up a charity link with Wau Teaching Hospital in Southern Sudan.
The Poole Africa Link (PAL) is financed through fundraising activities, and provides training to doctors and nurses struggling to provide care in a community where disease is rife and healthcare facilities desperately inadequate.
Currently, around one in ten children in Southern Sudan will die before they reach the age of five. Children suffer from chronic malnutrition, as well as diseases such as malaria, AIDS, TB and polio. Illnesses that would be easy to treat in the UK are often fatal because of a lack of skills and equipment.
The situation for pregnant women is equally dire. Around 70% of women who attend the hospital in Wau need emergency Caesarean sections, but equipment is in very short supply, sterilisation is inadequate, and the hospital has no oxygen, suction or anaesthetic gases.
Currently, just two qualified nurses are employed at the 300-bed Wau hospital – most patients are cared for by nurses with limited basic training and relatives, who camp in the hospital grounds.
The Poole Africa Link aims to help by setting up basic teaching and training programmes for nurses and midwives, and post-graduate training for doctors. Staff from Poole Hospital will give their time and expertise to support the project, by visiting Wau to carry out training and establish systems to improve ongoing support. The project team is liaising with government officials in Southern Sudan, to encourage them to support some of the hospital’s needs for equipment and services.
A fact finding visit by Dr John Burn, Hilary Fenton-Harris, Steve Frost, Dr Antoinette McAulay and Dame Yvonne Moores visited the hospital in March to assess their needs. A long term commitment has been undertaken to assist the people of Wau and a further visit will take place in the autumn to commence a teaching and training programme.
Click here to read more about the team's visit to Wau
Click here to read the blog from the team visiting Wau in April-May 2011
Click here to read the blog from the team which visited Wau in 2010
Click here to view video footage from the recent trip to Wau
How you can help
If you would like to support the Poole Africa Link, you can do so in a number of ways:
If you would like to make a donation or feel you can help with fundraising, please click on the link below to visit our Just Giving page:
Poole Africa Link Just Giving Page
Alternatively, you might be interested in organising your own event to support the charity. If so, please contact Hilary Fenton-Harris, PAL Co-ordinator, on 01202 448182 or email hilary.fenton-harris@poole.nhs.uk.
More information
For more information contract:
Hilary Fenton-Harris, PAL Co-ordinator
Telephone: 01202 448182
Email: hilary.fenton-harris@poole.nhs.uk
Useful links
Tropical Health & Education Trust website – www.thet.org.uk
Sudan Tribune – www.sudantribune.com
Historical timeline for Sudan - www.crawfurd.dk/africa/sudan_timeline.htm
Diocese of Wau - www.wau.anglican.org
Sudan Information - www.gurtong.net
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