The year has been dominated by the COVID pandemic which has affected the Kumi Community Foundation activities but without detriment to its mission. The outcome has proved that the local team are able to continue without the Trustees’ physical presence but highlighted certain areas which needed addressing. Kumi Hospital requested its Partners for support in providing items such as oxygen concentrators, hand washing facilities as well as soap, liquid disinfectant, masks and gloves which KCF funded to protect staff and patients.
Our local team took COVID precautions seriously but still managed to keep a skeleton programme going. Schools and churches were closed for two years and our families in need of support were provided with food parcels and soap. The drought and pandemic caused crops to fail and prices to rise steeply. Transport was limited to reduce the spread of the disease leading to increased malnutrition and hunger. In this region, COVID did not reach excessive proportions as the rural people spend their days mainly outside and tend not to venture far from home. The World Health Organisation was of the opinion that the locally grown organic food was also a limiting factor.
KCF provided funds to provide the very needy with the basic foodstuffs such as salt, soap, sugar, posho, rice which were distributed by Harriet Aluka, our team leader, and Ruth Atim who is our CBR (Community Based Rehabilitation) worker.
The Soroti Care Centre is an offshoot of KCF and managed by Ruth Atim in Soroti Town and this could only provide limited support due to COVID restrictions but some home visits were managed by Ruth Atim and Antony Ongodia, the Kumi Hospital Physiotherapist, for those in the greatest need. The Foundation supplied two motorcycles to reduce the cost of fuel needed for a vehicle and this allowed Antony and Ruth to visit families further afield.
KCF has two volunteer mobilisers north and south of Kumi who cover an even larger area. They are in communication with the surrounding families through the Local Councillors, schools, the Church and Health Clinics and so are well informed about the families in need and the. In turn, they notify our team. They have been supplied with a push bike to ease their travelling issues. The word of the existence of KCF is spreading leading to the need for effective fund raising back home.
The usual fund raising activities were curtailed and so we needed to draw up new methods of raising support. The quarterly newsletter provided updates of the KCF activities and highlighted its achievements. We designed greetings cards to sell and the income from these would provide such commodities as chickens, goats, wheelchairs, prostheses and sanitary protection for the teenage girls. A virtual walk to Kumi was initiated with potential walkers being sponsored to record their miles and submit them weekly. Seven thousand miles would reach our target from Darlington to Kumi and the route was highlighted on a map as we progressed through Europe, northern Africa where the course of the River Nile was followed and south to Kumi, our destination. This caught the attention of many of our followers to the extent that we reached the target of fifteen thousand miles which provided enough for our return journey. We raised over £6,500.00 which provided funding for thirty five youngsters whose families were unable to provide funding for surgery for the debilitating condition of Gluteal Fibrosis.
The administration of the Foundation has been developing with improved systems and communication between Kumi and UK. The collaboration is successful as the local team and our Trustees gain confidence in each other. The Foundation funded two laptops and a printer to improve record keeping and this has led to progress with reports and data bases. The financial systems have improved with both parties working in unison.
In spite of the current situation with regard to the pandemic, I can say with confidence that the year has been successful and we look forward to less uncertainty with the return of the ability for the Trustees to visit Kumi and to work together as previously.
Elspeth Robinson Chairperson 19 April 2022
Comments