![\"Dr_Okwana250\"](\"http:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Dr_Okwana250.jpg\")
In the afternoon, I visit Beacon of Hope clinic, and talk with its director, Dr. Okwana, and his staff.\u00a0 We have high hopes this ten-bed clinic will evolve into a real hospital, and include a regional psychosocial trauma center covering northeastern Uganda and southern Sudan.\u00a0 Here they handle everything from infections to viruses, and undertake a lot of basic education in hygiene, pre- and post-natal care, and help families with the traumatic issues endemic to the rural poor.<\/p>\n
But the abiding enemy is malaria.<\/p>\n
Uganda is the world\u2019s youngest country and has the world\u2019s highest malaria transmission rate.\u00a0 The number of children under five who die every year is unthinkable.\u00a0 On any given day, a third of the population is sidelined from their daily work because of malaria.\u00a0 Symptoms include blinding headaches, depression, respiratory distress, exhaustion and worse.\u00a0 Medicines are sometimes hard to come by, and the villages are exploited by quacks who promise \u201ccures\u201d that sometimes do irreversible harm.<\/p>\n It\u00a0isn’t\u00a0until later, as\u00a0I’m\u00a0looking at their pictures, that I think to pray for these children, and their mothers.\u00a0 And as I do, along with their faces, I see the faces of some of the healthy kids I have gotten to know in our parishes back in Pittsburgh.\u00a0 I give thanks to God that they\u00a0don’t\u00a0have to go through anything like this, and I pray that one day children here in Teso will enjoy the same blessing of health.<\/p>\n In the afternoon, I visit Beacon of Hope clinic, and talk with its director, Dr. Okwana, and his staff.\u00a0 We have high hopes this ten-bed clinic will evolve into a real hospital, and include a regional psychosocial trauma center covering northeastern Uganda and southern Sudan.\u00a0 Here they handle everything from infections to viruses, and undertake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pilgrim-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3rrkF-malaria","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":959,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"motherchildmalaria250\"](\"http:\/\/www.episcopalpgh.org\/bishopsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/motherchildmalaria250.jpg\")
<\/a>Down the hall lying on a cot is a woman afflicted with cerebral malaria.\u00a0 She alternates between delirium and unconsciousness.\u00a0 As I stand by her bedside, I can see another malaria patient with an IV drip, and two mothers with sick children.\u00a0 I remember some of the facts.<\/p>\nFrom the clinic, we visit the pediatric ward of Soroti Hospital.\u00a0 Built by the British, the hospital is antiquated, overcrowded and under-resourced.\u00a0 Many of the staff are incredibly dedicated, hardworking and knowledgeable people, but they just\u00a0don’t\u00a0have enough to be able to make a lasting difference.\u00a0 Over half of the kids in the beds are there with malaria.\u00a0 Many are listless and malnourished.\u00a0 Their mother’s faces are racked with worry.<\/p>\nSister Margaret, the nurse who runs the ward, shows us around.\u00a0 I ask permission to take a few pictures, and I do.<\/p>\nPilgrim wants to eliminate malaria.\u00a0 We did so for 177,000 people through a comprehensive pilot protocol in the district of Katakwii, in 2008. \u00a0We’re\u00a0now planning with the Global Fund and the Ministry of Health to do the same across the northeast of Uganda.\u00a0 For more information on malaria and how Pilgrim is fighting it, go to our website, www.pilgrimafrica.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"