A NURSE who set up a life-saving medical clinic in Africa more than a decade ago has been thrilled to see its success and is now fundraising to set up another.
Back in 2007 Carole Byron, 59, set up a small clinic in Uganda after visiting the country on her daughter’s school trip.
Students at Kingstone school, now part of Horizon Community College, had been taken to the country to see how Ugandans live.
Whilst there Carole met with a resident of the village called Dr Berna Namala, who had visions to set up a small clinic for people where she lived.
Upon returning to the UK, Carole and Dr Berna kept in touch and a little while after Carole started fundraising to build the clinic.
She then returned to the country and alongside Dr Berna, together the pair found some premises to open up the clinic.
“I go back to the clinic once or twice a year,” explained Carole, a nurse at Huddersfield Road surgery.
“Because of the clinic, babies are now born safely and we have a baby immunisation programme that happens every Thursday.
“We also do general routine things like if people have an accident then we stitch them up, we test them for malaria, if kids or adults come and have a temperature then we have a finger prick test which can identify malaria and if they do have it then we have a few beds where they can stay overnight and we put them on drips.
“The nurses that work for the clinic live there because the wages are very small, but by living at the clinic they get food and shelter and a bed, so indirectly they get paid.
“We also have a pharmacy so if people need antibiotics we have a supply of them. It’s small but it’s great.
“Also we look after patients with diabetes and we sometimes do home visits for people who can’t make it into the clinic.
“I feel really passionately about the clinic, I think it might be the nurse in me.”
During her most recent trip to the country, Carole visited a very deprived village and helped residents by taking part in a feeding programme.
“We bought some maize, rice, soap and beans and took it to the village. There were some really, really poor people there so we got some small bags and shared out the food and soap and gave it to the people.
“I’ve seen poor people before but that place brought tears to my eyes and they were so grateful for what they had just got.
“When I next go back to the village I’m going to take clothes for elderly people because they really didn’t have anything.
“What I’m trying to do is go to charity shops and buy some clothes but if anyone wants to donate then I will gratefully receive them.”
Carole and Dr Berna, after the success of the first clinic, now hope to build a second one nearby in Kampala and are beginning the mammoth task of fundraising for it.
“We’ve bought the land for the new clinic but we just need bricks so we can build it,” said Carole.
“There isn’t a time scale yet on when the build will be complete because we still need to keep the other clinic going and in Uganda you don’t buy bricks, you have to make them yourselves. Unless we can get some funding and get a company to do it for us.”
Carole is currently looking for someone who could help set up a JustGiving page where people can donate and anyone wanting to help can do so by emailing megan.wallace@barnsley-chronicle.co.uk or ringing 734202.
