SaltPeter Trust have been fortunate to receive 3 grants totalling of £50,000 from the Welsh Government via the WCVA to deliver a series of Pop Up Clinics in and around Soroti in NE Uganda. These started in 2019/20 when a team of 8 volunteers embarked on a programme to tread some of the rural poor in the communities in and around Soroti NE Uganda. The programme was disrupted by Covid restrictions but were able to restart in January 2023, and were repeated in January 2024 and 2025 with 6 to 8 UK volunteers each time working with a team of 25 or so medical workers, delivering a series of Pop Up Clinics. These offered free initial treatment of all who came, lead by Dr Mark Vaughan, our Medical Advisor, with follow up treatment at Soroti Baptist Medical Centre.
We have been able to hold a total of 19 Pop Up Clinics, and over 10,000 peoplehave received a medical consultation, several have had essential surgery, more have had tests or a treatment plan provided for their medical condition. More still have been sent for tests, and treatment plans for some patients with life threatening conditions have been developed. Consultations with some of these, or with the local & UK medical staff continue on weekly Zoom meetings.
Increased involvement of the Village Health Team workers (VHTs) through advanced meetings, and funded support at the Pop Up Clinics has proved particularly successful. They helped with crowd control, over 400 - 500 people at each clinic need careful handling and their ability to offer translation services is essential. They also encouraged those who had serious conditions to come for an examination, and follow up treatment where necessary. A significant increase in referrals year on year confirm the VHT workers are the key to identifying seriously ill patients from villages close to Soroti.
The addition of an eye surgeon to our team in 2023 opened up a new avenue of work. He saw many who needed glasses and was able to prescribe over 400 pairs of Ready Readers he had taken with him to Uganda. He also identified more than 30 patients who required cataract surgery, many more whose sight could be improved with glasses but who will need surgery within the 5 years. A further 30 patients requiring the same were identified in the 2024 Clinics. Contact was made with the Dr Elizabeth Apio, the head of the Optometry Dept. at Soroti RRH. Her unit was built and equipped by Sight Savers in 2005, but their support ended in 2009. The Ugandan Ministry of Heath do not provide the ‘disposables’ necessary for her to perform cataract surgery, and she had operated in Soroti infrequently. A partnership between SaltPeter Trust, Soroti Baptist Medical Centre and Soroti RRH has been established. Dr Apio has the necessary equipment and staff and the W&A grants have now funded 120 cataract surgeries thanks to Dr Apio's Department. In January 2025, some of her staff were able to join our village Pop Up Clinics, see and treat 311 patients and refer thoseneeding further treatment to the Optom. department at the hospital.
The local Medical Team members from past round of Pop Up Clinics join us, enhancing their training as they worked with the UK medical staff. One of them, Denis, is from a remote village north of Soroti, had trained as a Clinical Officer (2 year course) and is now funding himself through Medical School. He is the only ‘village boy’ on the course, his co-students are amazed he has made it so far, yet he joins our clinics 100-150km from his Medical School to benefit from the guidance from Mark Vaughan, our doctor.
Andrew Bell, the Medical Student from the UK, was a late addition to our team in 2023 and had an exceptional time at the 4 Pop Up clinics and the follow up consultations, seeing conditions so rare he may only see them once in his career. He is now at Medical School in Edinburgh.
Menstrual Health Training for teenage girls was something we had planned to deliver together with another UK charity, but this proved impossible when a key UK contact left them. We discovered AfriPads, a Ugandan company who supply locally manufactured washable pads together with a well developed training system. In December 2023 we purchased 100 packs and so were able to arrange 2 online tuition sessions for two nurses in the Medical Centre. In January 2024 we held our first training session for 50 girls from Soroti Child Development Centre (CDC), led by the 2 trained nurses, and observed by our UK team including 2 nurses and a teacher. Following some fine tuning, the session went extremely well, 150 further packs were purchased and the training was been repeated at 2 other CDCs and the 3 schools which hosted the Pop Up Clinics in January 2024, for a total of 250 girls. SaltPeter Trust received a gift of £1000, sufficient to buy a further 200 kits and together with funds from our 2024/25 WG grant we have been able to equip and train several hundred teenage girls. This has been a most rewarding contribution to our work in Soroti, since those benefitting can now attend school without monthly disruption. The school staff have been delighted, 2 nurses have attended on line Afripad tuition and now deliver trainng sessions to school children. including biscuits and a soda. Several schools and CDCs in the area, including a school for the blind have participated in the scheme. In UK we have spoken about the scheme, resulting in private donations, and we do hope for more to come so yet more Ugandan girls can benefit.
At the end of our PUC in Soroti on 2 February 2023 a very young mother Ariawo Elizabeth came in with 4 month old baby Ajonga and her Grandma. The baby was seriously malnourished, the mother, who has learning difficulties had been raped at 13 and did not know how to feed her properly, and Grandma seemed to struggle too. We made arrangements for the admission of Elizabeth and Ajonga to Soroti RRH and the child and the child’s condition stabilised we were able to introduce them to volunteers from the Happy Youth foundation, and funded them to provide suppport. We met them all again in January 24, mother and child are developing under the support provided and Ajonga is slowly developing. Attempts to provide training in hairdressing for Elizabeth have been something of a challenge for her.
We have also encountered a severely disabled child suffering from cerebral palsy. Our Doctor was able to examine her, and although there seems to be little we can do, we were able to source and deliver a wheelchair for her benefit. She attends Soroti BMC for regular check ups to monitor progress, supported by the Happy Youth foundation. We have also arranged for pastoral support for such patients through Pastor David Echau of Soroti Baptist Church.
Several seriously ill patients have received treatment following attendance at one of our Pop Up Clinics, and continue with follow up consultations and medication. These include Ashiraf who we funded to receive heart surgery in India, Felix who had colostomy surgery and we supply stoma bags from the UK, and now Aliu Paul who is on an 18 month course of surgery to remove facial growths. Together with SaltPeter Trust's childhood cancer programme the Welsh Government's support for the Pop Up Clinics, and follow up treatment has benefitted the general health and eyes of over 10,000 of the rural poor in NE Uganda.
