Compassion in Uganda
Battling through heavy rain, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) pilot Laura Westley flew a team from the Mildmay Clinic to conduct a one-day clinic at Bobi — a camp for internally displaced people in northern Uganda.On arrival the team was greeted by rows of mothers, waiting patiently with their children to see the doctor.Laura writes, ‘Some are chatting happily. Others shuffle forward, an air of defeat hanging over them. One mother — skin stretched over jutting bones — clutches a small replica of herself, her eyes distant and far away’.The team set up reception under the shade of a large tree and used three small rooms in the main buildings for consultation, with another separate room as the dispensary.Laura weighed the children and took their temperatures. Many were anaemic, suffering from severe malnourishment. Others had rashes, fungal infections, coughs and runny noses.The team treated 300 children before they had to leave and fly home. Teams can fly in and out quickly with MAF, enabling them to conduct one-day clinics and offer help to mothers and children in extreme need.Laura concludes, ‘Each day we fly over these camps — which are bowls of misery and suffering, of abject poverty and despair, yet where dreams are dreamt and hopes determinedly bubble up. And each day, we … help bring reality to those dreams and fulfilment to the hopes’.
