Potter's Village Administrator's Report

1 June 2020

Potter's Village Administrator's Report

POTTER’S VILLAGE MINISTRY

Greetings from all at Potters Village.

1. THE CRISIS CENTRE CHILDREN:

Barnabas:
He was a known asthmatic case while he was a resident child. He was resettled back to his family on 23rd March 2020.  Just after 3 days he got an attack and was delayed coming back for medical attention because there was no means of transport due to the Lock down. He finally reached the medical Centre on April 1st  in a critical condition. He was managed here and stabilized a bit but was not getting well.  He was then taken to Mutolere hospital for chest x-ray and peadiatric doctor’s review. The findings showed that he had congenital heart defects with mild pulmonary odema with cardiac failure.

He was discharged from medical Centre on 5th May with great improvement and we let him reside here again while we arranged to take him to Uganda Heart institute in Kampala. Unfortunately, he relapsed on 9th May and despite our best efforts he died on Monday 11th May.

Lucky Caleb:
This little boy is a known case of small multiple muscular VSDs and small secundum ASD. His review date at Uganda Heart Institute was in the first week April and this was the time we were in total lock down and so he did not go. We got the necessary travel permits and took him to Kampala on 21st May.  We thank God that the doctors report that his heart is healing.  Most of the holes have closed and soon all will be closed and the heart normal.  We thank God too for safe trouble-free travel.

The rest of the children in the Crisis Centre are all well. The total number of children is 16.

Community children support and visits:

Since the lock down started, community visits were stopped.

Funds for community support were not given out because it was not possible for them to come. Only 2 children whose families could not afford to get meals received the funds through mobile money.

However, the lockdown has been eased a bit and we have decided to give out the funds now. The parents will come in in shifts to pick the money beginning with Monday 11th May 2020 but since transport is not yet open, they will not be able to come with children. Therefore growth monitoring will not be done on community children until the lock down is over.

Festo and the community nurse will start visiting the psychiatric mothers on Wednesday 20th May. For the last 2 months they were not able to visit.

2. MEDICAL CENTRE:

The medical Centre was greatly affected in the month of April with reduced patient numbers and consequent loss of income.  However, we thank the Lord that the numbers of patients are steadily increasing and we hope that we shall soon get back to normal. The numbers of the patients attending so far during the six weeks of lockdown were as follows:

The nutrition and physiotherapy departments did not operate this season and are still closed. These will begin to operate when public transport opens.

Drugs and sundries:

Currently we have enough supplies in stock which we expect to last us for at least May and even June. We expect to pay for Glucose testing kits which were out of stock at the time of the last purchase. They will cost 390,000 shillings [£85].

3. STAFF

Both the Medical Centre and Crisis Centre staff are now working on their normal rotas.

During the first 35 days of lockdown that ended on 5th May 2020, it was recommended that staff stay at the workplace. Therefore, most of the staff resided here.  Now there has been some easing, so at the moment, only 13 staff, who come from very far away, are the ones still residing at the site.

The Medical Centre staff all agreed a 13% wage cut to cater for drop in income and the big deficit that the Medical Centre has.  We hope that Medical Centre staff will soon be able to return to normal wages, but there is lots of uncertainty about the ongoing effect of Coronavirus pandemic.

Staff in the Crisis Centre are funded differently from the Medical Centre and so were all entitled to full pay.  However, some of the Crisis Centre the staff were unable to attend work for 14 days because of the Lock down, and the staff who had been at work were not happy the absent ones should receive full pay in April.  Following negotiation, the absent ones were paid 75% of their wages while the rest received their full wages.

4. FINANCES:

Staff were able to purchase most of the items needed on normal prices in March before the lock down.  We spent an extra 906,000 shillings [£200] on the meals for staff who were residing.  The water bill increased from the average of 750,000 to 1,065,375 shillings [£160-£240].  We also expect an increment on electricity bills though we have not received the bill yet.

5. CONSTRUCTION:

Currently, there is no construction going on. However, the hardware shops and construction sites have now been allowed to operate.  Idah has talked to engineer Benon and he is ready to begin on the new incinerator as staff are still taking all waste to Kisoro hospital.

Thank you for your commitment to Potter’s Village and for all your prayers and donations.  They are all greatly appreciated.