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A chain of duty is a line used to ensure the service offered, fulfills its obligations concerning work-related well-being, safety, and work fluidity. The idea behind it is, that everyone’s duty links to the other.

Our daily duties and responsibilities guide the growth and advancement of the organization. Our devotion and love for our day-to-day responsibilities define or summarize the Hospital’s progress, so aligning with the Hospital’s mission.  This is essential to its success.

Looking into reality, progress is not likely to be realized while one person completes assignments. However, it’s undeniable when everyone involved contributes humbly, promoting fluidity in the workplace. This is surely clear to be seen all over the Hospital premises whereby every service offered by any hospital worker is connected to the other.

On a certain day, I found myself sitting next to one unknown man who seemed to be new to the Hospital. His complex looks and his eye’s changing constantly direction surprised me, making me curious. I began trying to figure out what was going on inside his mind, but I failed to come up with anything relevant, so I gave up trying. I resumed what I was doing on my phone.

In the turn of things, when I was in my world doing what I was enjoying, this man uttered some catchy words: “Wow! This is marvelous, the true definition of God’s work manifesting in front of my face”. His words made me even more confused, but this time I was able to say something. “What do you mean sir?”, I asked.

“Oh my God! Young man, can’t you see what is going on here? He spoke. “What is that, sir? I asked again. “One is cleaning the place; the other is giving medicine; another one is attending to the new patients; a technician is there working on the light system; a nurse is pushing a wheel chair”. Don’t you think this is beautiful?” “Yes, it is. This is how things are done here, sir”, I replied. He responded: “Every service is linked to the other. If all mankind did things like this, I believe, the world would be a safe place for all of us”. “True sir, if a man would realize the value of a fellow man, then the devil will not succeed in his work”, I answered.

Then another thought came to my mind. There are so many benefactors and well-wishers, who unknowingly join this chain of duty and responsibility.

The joyful donors assist us financially by providing any support needed to run the hospital. Still it needs the link to the Hospital by the administrators to complement what they are supporting by leading the health facility inside. But even the management cannot do it by itself, they need the doctors to treat the sick. The medical doctors additionally need nurses, midwives, laboratory personnel, x-ray and ultrasound operators, to carry on from where they left off; cleaners, compound workers, accountants, technical staff and many others need each other in whatever they are doing to maintain the chain of work fluidity in the interest of our patients. Often, I hear the expression: “The patient first!” In fact, this is the main purpose of the existence of the Hospital and we are all part to fulfill this task.

By Achia Emmanuel

When our bodies are in pain and our hearts begin to question our life path, the fear of losing our precious life takes a toll on our normal reasoning, sending us into a spiral of fantasy. Looking for hope in a difficult situation becomes our primary goal, and we embark on that journey by bringing a patient to the hospital with the belief that healing is possible here.

Upon the arrival of these critically ill patients at the hospital and successive admissions in respective wards, primarily the Medical Ward, the sadness yet hopefulness for recovery written on each patient’s face digs into our Health workers’ hearts with sympathy, arousing the feeling of pity which, in turn, motivates their creativity and teamwork in a bid to save lives.

“When I first arrived here in April 2018, my legs were blotted `and’ I was struggling to walk, I couldn’t eat because the sickness had detached my appetite for food,” Kerisa told our news hub. “My sister helped in pushing me around in a wheelchair to see a doctor, which was very generous of her.”

Kerisa and his newfound friend Nadien are the two boys ever-present in the compound of St. Kizito hospital Matany, which they call home; the boys with blotted tummies have been brought down to their knees by a disorder they are in, and their homes have become a distant memory. This is such a reality that is often hard to embrace.

“These two fellows are being managed for liver cirrhosis under chronic care,” said a diploma nurse Hillary Anyakun, the in-charge of the medical ward, the hospital medical center. “Kerisa is a hepatitis B negative patient and Nadien is a hepatitis B positive patient, they have been in supportive management with our treatment, and they are under the Samaritan fund helping most vulnerable patients to pay their bills.”

Samaritan fund has been a revelation to many patients who are unable to meet their medical bills, imagine without the fund, where will the two boys dig for the money to pay their medicinal bills. As the name is pronounced, Samaritan funding mimics the Samaritan who helped the wounded man in the wilderness after being beaten by the robbers to the sorry state.

Nobody will ever feel comfortable living with a chronic illness; however, some unfortunate people have done so, and some have died as a result of the awful ailment. Kerisa Emmanuel and Nadien Francis are some of the unlucky patients in our hospital.

“How I wish that someone comes up with the treatment to clear the wounds in our livers,” said Nadien, “some good people love us despite our complex condition, but some immoral ones laugh at us, and this makes us sorrowful.”

The plea of these two boys is not the call for their stomachs to be filled with food, though they need it. But a plea to get well again. But how possible is it, my friends? It is only possible if we can manage to extend our hands to areas that seem unreachable so that we provide them with the best treatment needed.

Imagine if these boys became well again! Imagine how happy they will be! Imagine them being with their families! Imagine how happy you will be for them, and imagine the blessings you will get if helped by you… Thanks.  

MALNUTRITION IN KARAMOJA, FROM THE EXPERT’S PERSPECTIVE

St. Kizito Hospital Matany Nutrition Unit

Malnutrition is a condition or encounter, which is never desirable in a young child’s early life development. However, undernutrition is a reality that many young children are suffering from without their choice. Mr. Samuel, a well-trained and educated personnel, has added this fact to our attention. He offers us some perception of the problem of malnutrition in this interview.

Mr. Samuel Korobe is a Nutrition intern at St. Kizito Health Center Matany, Uganda, and a fourth-year scholar of Uganda Christian University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics. He also holds a Diploma in Clinical and Community Nutrition with 7 years of experience amongst diverse non-governmental organizations; NGOs. Besides the above, Mr. Samuel works with the NUYOK project, handling the sensitization of the groups on good child feeding and caring practices, hygiene, and good child survival outcomes.

What may have influenced Mr. Samuel to pursue a course(s) on nutrition?

Being born in Karamoja, He has grown up seeing and experiencing instances of malnutrition because of bad nutrition status among groups. This arose emotions of pity and the need to be of assistance to those groups.  In his words, “Malnutrition is something I couldn’t appreciate. I continually visited hospitals, handiest to locate, a multitude of kids who’re significantly and reasonably undernourished”. He constantly needed to work with any Nongovernmental organizations willing to cope with the element of malnutrition inside the Karamoja vicinity. This continually pushed him a long way and effectively, he has now finished his ambition at St. Kizito Hospital Matany, for which he chants hymns of praise.

What is malnutrition in line with Mr. Samuel?

Etymologically, the term is derived from a Latin word, “malus” which is translated as “terrible”. Therefore, placed simply, malnutrition manner something awful. But it can be literally out that ‘Malnutrition is a state of affairs where the body has insufficient nutrients or lacks adequate vitamins.’ The loss of vitamins inside the frame exposes the former to numerous dangers of illnesses e.g., kwashiorkor, marasmus, and anemia.

He places forward unique not unusual sorts of malnutrition; under-nutrition and over-nutrition. Taking a close take, look at the Karamoja vicinity, the most version shape is under-nutrition, characterized by wasting, stunting, underweight, and so on. But the Hospital Nutrition unit mostly manages the wasting, stunting is a protracted-time period presentation of malnutrition, it interprets this after a failure to control the wasting, and it’s in no way reversible as soon as it has happened. “Stunting severely influences the child’s mind improvement and development which later attributes to such a lot of complications inside the body of the child.

What are the facts that aid his assertions?

The trend demonstrates that the hospital unit gets a full-size wide variety of instances from diverse catchment areas together with the OPD, pediatric ward, and TB ward, with the pediatric ward receiving the general public of instances. “On common, we get 5 sufferers each day in the unit, except on Sunday because it is a relaxation day, so we get these individuals who come presenting with SAM with edema and SAM without edema, however a few with other clinical troubles like ophthalmia, and what we do is stabilize them.” So, in terms of admissions, the health center has received this range of cases, each inpatient and outpatient, since the start of this financial year, FY 2021/2022

                        Monthly Admissions

What’s the cure rate in keeping with Mr. Samuel?

                          INPATIENT overall performance

OUTPATIENT overall performance

Source: Integrated Nutrition register (INR) and Unit monthly reports FY 2021/2022                     

The best information, in step with sphere standards, the cure rate is supposed to be 75%, which we had been capable of exhibiting. The Nutrition unit’s crew is ecstatic to look at kids reap their theoretical ability for us. The power you acquire from it clears our brains of any doubts. Since July of the last year 2021, our therapy charge has been higher than expected, thanks to the clinic and UNICEF, which must provide therapeutic feeds like F-75, F-100, ReSoMal, and other Ready to use Therapeutic feeds (RUTF) used in feeding the children, but this does not rule out different food lack of confidence demanding situations that contribute to child malnutrition.

Poverty: the terrifying stage of absolute poverty in Karamoja has been an international’s attraction for a long time now, with many people unable to shop for food and different needs required for their own family’s successful operation, mainly among those dwelling in severe poverty. In step with the intern student, kids are the maximum prone, as most families only consume one meal consistent with day with few or no vitamins, that’s unhealthy.

Animal rustling has become an epidemic of lack of confidence. The devilish practice is plunging the vicinity into extreme peril, leaving us with nothing to eat; you can see what has occurred in the previous couple of months; cattle rustling has misplaced many cows and destroyed properties; people’s granaries looted from the villages; so, anticipate a shortage of nutritional diets among families and in the long run, kids will be the first victims of severe hunger, so we are anticipating an increase in the variety of malnourished kids.

In this local community, three-quarters of the population live in abject poverty. This is major because of seasonal crop failure leading to food shortage, House Hold low incomes that reduce the affordability of a variety of foods in the market among others. Therefore, it is important to note that Malnutrition is not desirable in the Karimojong Communities, but it is rather unavoidable when the factors highlighted and others come to play. 

If you wish to be part of the agents of change who are sacrificing to turn around the malnutrition statistics in Karamoja, kindly partner with St. Kizito Hospital Matany, a Center of Health excellence in Karamoja, and other regions.

”We Dress The Wound, God Heals It” 

A One on One with Mark, the Witness of the Rare Miracles (by Post. Andrew Kaggwa)

Dear esteemed readers, meet a reality about the mysterious recovery of a young man, Lobuli Mark which has left the doctors, nurses and attendants in awe and wonder. Such situations should not be ignored but should rather be closely and keenly meditated upon to realize the wonders of the Lord unto different persons.

Lobuli Mark is a young man of 26 years, born in 1996 in Napak district, Lotome Parish. He is from a family of three boys. Of the three, Mark is the first born and is a bachelor. His father was killed by the warriors while burning charcoal and the mother died of the variant Hepatitis E.  

In the year 2022, Mark suffered uneasiness in some of his body parts but could not tell what the problem was. He started feeling a reduction in his movements whereby he could not walk or run as he used to in the previous days. He reached an extent that he took a while putting on shoes. Continuously, the pain went on further to the right leg. Mark had no idea anyway, however, the pain and uneasiness spread faster to the waist, and gradually went to the upper limbs. Fortunately, it did not affect his upper part of the body; the neck and the head, he remained conscious. Briefly, Mark had paralysis in the rest of the body parts; he was self-helpless and unable to sit.

With help from the relatives and his young brother, he was rushed to Lotome Health Centre III where he was given some treatment. However, the relatives thought it wise and took him to Matany Hospital in Matany, Karamoja on 20^th March, 2022. It is explained that paralysis is one of the rare cases received in hospitals, and its patients rarely survive. Filled with a bunch of pessimism and exasperation, having spent a few days, the relatives and the young brother of Mark left him in the hospital lonely. It was very absurd! This incidence left Mark in a battle of ideas debating in his mind. He developed self-hatred, became pessimistic and it was too hard for him sincerely thinking that he was also in the evenings of his life.

Despite the absence of his relatives and the various hallucinations, Mark put his trust and help in name of the Lord who made heaven and earth to heal him. Hillary, of the nurses, rated Mark as a jolly and friendly person. His witness was depicted by the relationships Mark made in the hospital while on his sick bed. He was such a person that would bring smiles on the patients’ faces with jokes and jokes. Thus, he became friends with all the people to the extent that he did not lack a person to clean him, dress him, and tide his laundry and many more. Surprisingly, these all were done by the attendants of other patients, and each day, a different person helped Mark with zeal and generosity of heart. I would say, Mark earned the fruits of his humility and down to earth character.

He was such a person who greeted the health workers doctors at any time of the day or night, and would further remind them to greet the patients. As a quality of a good health worker, Mark always reminded them of their values. With such love from the surrounding serene environment, Mark was more pleased and became more optimistic. Through the love of God, Mark was able to sit, swing the arms and legs. This was the most amazing and surprising miracle that Matany doctors and health workers have produced. On meeting Mark, he was enthusiastic, elated and ecstatic of his healing situation. Remarkably, all the hospital attendants enjoyed his company as a patient to the extent that they enjoyed treating him and giving him attention.

‘The stone that was rejected by the builders, became a cornerstone’, on 22^nd May, 2022, Mark was discharged from Matany hospital and transported to his home accompanied by Hillary and the driver. His arrival at home surprised the whole family, however, they shied off and received with joy. Mark stayed happy and thankful to the Matany hospital administration and all who assisted him. “Never lose hope, trust in the Lord” was Mark’s motivational statement.

From the doctor’s desk; “Mark has been the best friend of all and is social person, we love him.”

In Karamoja, insecurity has become a perpetual and infinite race. The old insecurity curse continues to pass down from generation to generation, destroying any previously established stability. For the region sitting at the top end of Northeastern Uganda, hope has turned to despair, and love has turned to hatred, all because of the need for cows, and the will to survive. Animal thefts are frequently recorded, usually in conjunction with animal and human deaths.

 The administration has moved quickly to combat a common vice that is causing hardship for the people of Karamoja by resuming the disarmament exercise that helped to eliminate illicit gun possession in the region before. However, the community is not simply watching the government try to attain the aim on its own. Youthful people have been walking to remote locations to raise awareness about the value of peace. Thankfully, we hosted teenagers at several Karamoja locations in Matany on Saturday last week. They had walked all across the region, passing through the districts of Kotido, Moroto, and Napak. Everybody welcomed them and talked about a variety of things, including the current state of instability and its negative consequences for the region. We also have a difficult time discussing the importance of living in peace in depth. We chatted pleasantries and wished them well on their way back home as the day drew to a close and it became dark and late for them.

 Before we can see peace flourish in our society or communicate the concept of peace to others, we must first find peace inside ourselves. It is not anyone’s concern, but everyone’s responsibility, to keep the peace.

International Nurses’ Day is a global event celebrated on May 12^th of every year to commemorate the work of Nurses in healthcare. The date was chosen as it is the Birth date of Florence Nightingale, a British social reformer and the founder of modern nursing. It is sponsored by the international council of Nurses (ICN). The theme of International Nurses’ Day 2022 is “Nurses: A voice to lead – Invest in Nursing and respect rights to secure global health.”

The biggest moments of the lives of many are spent with a nurse- from when we are born to when we pass away and the many health struggles in between. Nurses’ day and Nurses week provide the perfect opportunities to celebrate the nurses’ life and their sacrificial service to society. They have an important job to do and we must acknowledge that.

As the hospital of Matany, we took this opportunity to honor our Nurses on this day just to say thank you for their endless service to humanity, because they are the most vital link between a doctor and the patient. They put their lives at risk for others where many choose to run to safety. Without the Nursing staff, a medical facility can’t function even for a day. Therefore, the observation of International Nurses Day becomes even more significant, considering these facts.

Our Nurses Day Celebration in Matany Hospital started with a special Mass in our Parish Church. Thereafter there was marching by Nurses and other staff led by a band hired from Soroti that moved around Matany Town Council where many well wishers joined the procession that later entered the Hospital to warm up the patients, and marching ended up at the venue in our Teaching Centre were the main ceremony was held with speeches and a feast. In the evening there were matches between staff and students, followed by a continuation of merry making at the main event venue with a dance.

It was a Joyful day worth our Memories, Happy Nurses’ Day 2022

THE VHT – FAMILY LED MUAC TRAINING CONDUCTED IN MATANY HOSPITAL ON THE 2^ND APRIL, 2022

MUAC (Mid-upper arm circumference) is another anthropometric measure that requires minimal equipment and little training.

The objective of the training that was conducted in Matany was to train VHTs to be able to train household care givers (parents) on how to take the MUAC of their children at household level and then report to VHTs if the MUAC reading is either red or yellow.

The MoH report from the routine Health Management Information System indicates that the number of severe and acute malnutrition admission numbers doubled between January 2020 and October 2021.

Worse still, the recent national report shows that nearly 6.9% of the Ugandan population is food insecure, with infants and young children often bearing the brunt of nutrition deficiency.

Consequently, children’s brain and body development are being compromised negatively, impacting their cognitive potential irreversible. This is why there is need to make critical and immediate screening in households, thus justifying the training of household care givers.

The training was conducted and headed by the Nutrition Unit Staff of Matany Hospital, CN Lotukei Anna and volunteering Diploma student in Nutrition and Dietetics, Ngorok John. The training was supported by UNICEF, through Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.

The overseer of the exercise was Nangiro Ambrose, Health Inspector, Matany Town Council

It involved 37 VHTs, one per village identified.

The exercise was recommended to start immediately and report at the end of the month of April 2022, then follow up to be conducted immediately

HAPPY PALM SUNDAY CELEBRATION – 10^TH APRIL 2022

Christians’ Holy Week began on Happy Palm Sunday 2022, while Jesus Christ, as a guiding Angel & King, entered Jerusalem, the city of love or peace. This year, Palm Sunday was celebrated on April 10th, 2022, and will precede Easter Day on April 17th. The day is also known as ‘Passion Sunday’ because it is featured in all four canonical gospels, focusing on Christ’s life.

Palm Sunday 2022 is observed in various churches, with attendees seeking blessing and sharing palm branches, representing the branches laid in front of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem.

In the Nativity Catholic Parish Matany, the Palm Sunday procession started at the main Hospital Gate of St. Kizito Hospital- Matany, at 8:30 am with a big number of parishioners’ too seeking blessing and sharing palm branches, representing the branches laid in front of Jesus as he entered Jerusalem singing songs hailing the power of Jesus!

The mass was animated by the students of Nursing and Midwifery training school, Matany.

• Procession – Luke 19:28-40: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”
• First Reading – Isaiah 50:4-7: “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”
• Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
• Second Reading – Philippians 2:6-11: “Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
• Gospel – Luke 22:14—23:56: “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.”