THE HEALING HAND/ The Newsletter of EMMS International
Health for Today, Hope for Tomorrow
Every girl matters
SUMMER 2018
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CYCLE ZAMBIA 12-21 July 2019
Cycle in breath-taking scenery and passing through rural Zambian villages. Finish at the spectacular Victoria Falls. Visit a healthcare project and see our work in action.
To register or find out more contact us or visit:
www.emms.org/cyclezambia 0131 313 3828 | events@emms.org
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CONTENTS 4 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 23
Rabekah’s Life Matters
Every Life Matters Update
Kalpana’s Life Matters Pull-out poster
Every Girl Matters Sanja’s Life Matters
Student Perspective
Health & Hope Burns Dinner
Dates for Your Diary Giving Page
MALAWI
RABEKAH’S LIFE MATTERS Vicky Allan Sunday Herald
own a dirt-track road from the Livingstonia plateau lives a D family whose lives tell a wider story of life in rural Malawi. Their small but proudly kept dwelling is home to 74-year-old
Loveness with her 85-year-old husband Jackson, and her 19-year-old grand-daughter Rabekah, a recent divorcee, who fled domestic abuse, along with her son. All are surviving off the meagre sales they make from farming bananas at a subsistence level.
Loveness, however, has cervical cancer and is now experiencing frequent pains and dizzy spells. Currently she has no drugs for her pain. Last week, her codeine ran out, and she can afford no more. “We are subsistence farmers of bananas. We sell our bananas along the road, and whatever money we get we buy some drugs. With the money I have I can’t afford my full prescription, so I just get as many tablets as my money will pay for. Then I have to come back home, get the bananas, sell them and hope to get enough money to finish the prescription. Because of the weakness, though, I am no longer strong enough to go and sell the bananas. “
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The family, here, are struggling in so many ways. Rabekah and her son arrived at her grandparents’ door when she was fleeing domestic violence. “The third month after I gave birth to our son,” says Rabekah, who, pinkhaired and beautiful, looks far too young to have gone through all she has experienced, “he started beating me. One day he tied me with a rope on the neck and he said he wanted to kill me. I was admitted to the hospital because of my injuries.” Like many young women in Malawi, where child marriage is common but illegal, she married early, and was a teenager when she had her first child. Her grandfather Jackson, at 85 years old, also has health problems, though he still talks with a vibrant smile. He can no longer really eat, he says. “They cook me food but I
sometimes vomit. So they make me porridge. I drink that. I don’t know why I vomit.” He still, he says, makes the walk down the escarpment road, which stretches from the plateau to the distant lakeside, to sell bananas or get what they need. • Rabekah has found safety and security once again in the home of her grandparents, and with the care of EMMS-supported David Gordon Memorial Hospital. However, as the grand-daughter it now falls to her to care for her sick and elderly family, alongside raising her own young son. Life has been very difficult for one so young, and is not set to get easier. However, with the support of DGMH that your gifts provide, the burden is lifted. Giving Rabekah the hope of a better life for herself and her family.
Vicky Allan’s full article was published in the Sunday Herald on 17 December 2017 and is available to read at www.heraldscotland.com. Pictures: Rabekah and her family. Visit from Chawanangwa, a clinical officer from DGMH. (Chris Hoskins)
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Thank you for showing every life matters
In the three months from 3rd November 2017 you stepped up individually and as families, groups and congregations to help us exceed the target for the Every Life Matters campaign. Inspired by the stories of Jeremiah, Natasha and Gresham, you gave over ÂŁ840,000 to stop pain and hunger from blighting the lives of those with incurable diseases like cancer. It was wonderful to have Nurse
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Mwandida Nkhoma visit us from Malawi and share first-hand how your support can make a difference. In the coming weeks we’ll be able to announce the final total, including the match funding from the UK government, that your support has helped to raise. We want to say a huge thank you. Your gifts are life-changing for patients and their families. You may remember Jeremiah, a young boy from near Blantyre, Malawi. His cancer causes great pain and this is only compounded by a lack of food. He spent his days lying outside on a thin mat, causing terrible sores. Your support means our partners in Malawi have been able to provide him with pain relief and food to eat. They have also provided a new mattress and a wheelchair he can operate by hand. Your gifts mean Jeremiah can not only live without pain and hunger, but also that he can be more independent and play with his friends again. Thank you for showing that Jeremiah’s life matters, that every life matters.
Pictures: Jeremiah and family, with support of Medson from Palliative Care Support Trust. Nurse Mwandida with John Knox Church, NHS Fife Palliative Care Team and musician Emily Smith.
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Kalpana’s life matters Kalpana’s bright smile extols the love she has for her precious children. It hides the fact that, in giving birth to each of her seven children, she had to take her life in her hands. As we sit and talk on the veranda of her small stone house, her youngest child, and only son, 14 month old Aakash toddles around and clambers on her knee. “He’s very hard work, but easier than daughters”, she explains, grateful for the help of his older siblings in caring for him, particularly after a traumatic delivery. Kalpana’s husband, like many young men in rural Nepal, works in Saudi, sending money home to support his family. He was away with work during much of the pregnancy. It was a twohour walk for Kalpana to reach the clinic for antenatal check-ups. Labour started in the middle of night and Kalpana knew that something wasn’t right. She raised the alarm with her family, who arranged a stretcher
“I trust them with my family. I trust them with my life.”
and carried her through darkness, on rocky roads, throughout her contractions to get her to the small rural hospital. With their help, Aakash arrived safely into the world. Had the delay been greater, or the complications more severe, she would have had to make a 6-hour journey by car to the next hospital. Assuming a vehicle was even available, Kalpana would have taken her life in her hands to make that journey. Your support means the little hill-top hospital is expanding and upgrading its facilities for mums like Kalpana; extending a lifeline to more women and their children that they might experience the care that brought Kalpana to say:
“I trust them with my family. I trust them with my life.”
Picture: Kalpana and her children. Manju at Kirkintilloch Baptist Church
NEPAL
A VISIT FROM NEPAL Nurse Manju, from Nepal, recently joined us in the UK as part of a visit to continue her training as Nepal’s first palliative care nurse specialist. She completed a secondment at St Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh, and attended a number of conferences. While here, she also joined the congregation of Kirkintilloch Baptist Church to share about her work and hopes for the future in Nepal. We’re very grateful to KBC for the invitation and the generous gift of £2,700. If you would like to book an EMMS International speaker, please contact erica.bankier@emms.org or call 0131 313 3828.
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She is clothed with and ; she can at the days to come.
strength dignity laugh Proverbs 31:25
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Picture: Village clinic, Mulanje (Kieran Dodds)
EVERY GIRL MATT
REDRESSING THE BALANCE IN HEAL
We live in a world where being born female is a health risk. At the extreme, girls in India are at risk even in the womb. The country has banned gender identification during ultrasounds to tackle the scourge of foeticide, yet still at birth and throughout their lives girls are often denied access to healthcare, putting their lives at risk as a result. Pregnancy and childbirth expose women to unnecessary risk when quality maternity care isn’t available. This is exacerbated when childmarriage leads to child-pregnancy and when there is no effective prevention for the spread of HIV. Perhaps it is not hard for us to understand these risks, however the injustice women and girls endure because of lack of healthcare goes further and can be much more insidious. If a family member becomes ill, it is most often a female relative who will take on the mantle of care and household responsibility. Being forced to leave work and education, their poverty becomes further entrenched and they are denied opportunities Picture: A member of a village health committee in Livingstonia stores surplus food. (Chris Hoskins)
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TERS
LTHCARE
care they require. They also go much to work toward a healthier and more further by helping girls get access to prosperous future. vocational training so that they can Tragically, despite having taken the lift themselves and their families out role of carer and head of household, of poverty. At the same time, they are women are all too often disinherited. protected from child marriage, learn While they grieve for their husbands about their individual rights and get and fathers, male members of the counselling on how to care extended family come and for themselves and access force them from their homes, We live health services should they claiming them for themselves. in a world need to. For these reasons and so many more, EMMS In all of our palliative where being International is committed born female care work, our partners are not only addressing to redressing the balance is a health the physical needs of by making the health and their patients but are also healthcare of women and girls risk. providing support and a priority across all of our work. advice to the wider family. Their care In Malawi, our partners are giving helps family members return to work women a voice to advocate for the and education because medical care is health services they need. Getting better managed. It ensures the whole together with others in their villages, family get the emotional and spiritual they are ensuring their communities care they need to better cope with get access to food and clean water, the burden and loss they experience. vaccinations for their children and It also includes legal advice to help protection from HIV. In India, Duncan Hospital is reaching protect women and girls’ inheritance. out to surrounding communities to Thank you for your support that make sure girls, who might otherwise is helping us show that every girl be denied access to healthcare, get the matters.
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Sanja’s life matters
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anja Devi was engaged to be married at just 15 years old. Like countless girls in Bihar, she faced a life marred by poverty and devoid of prospects. It was then that she heard about the work of the Duncan Hospital in her community. Not only were they providing life-saving healthcare, but also lifetransforming vocational training. Determined to live a life that mattered, she signed up for a tailoring course so she could provide for herself and her family. Her family helped her buy a sewing machine and her determination saw her complete the course in record time.
Pictures: Sanja (right, bottom picture) and her students.
INDIA
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A LASTING LEGACY
When her father-in-law had an accident she was forced to sell her sewing machine to pay hospital bills. Undeterred, Sanja saved what little she could and sold her jewellery to buy another sewing machine. Duncan Hospital are helping girls like Sanja escape the cycle of sickness and poverty by providing essential, life-saving healthcare and helping them access vocational training. Five years on, Sanja and her family have a reliable income that is helping lift them and their communities out of poverty. She now works as a teacher on the Duncan Hospital Youth for GIRLS project. She is the perfect role model for her eight protégées, showing what can be achieved when you put your mind to it. She hopes to see all the girls become confident business women like her, making a difference in their families and villages.
The lives of people like Rabekah, Kalpana and Sanja are transformed by generous gifts, including people choosing to remember the work of EMMS International in their Will. Gifts like these leave a lasting legacy that brings health and hope to generations.
Will Relief Scotland raises £37,719! Thanks to everyone who took part in Will Relief last September and helped raise this fantastic sum for EMMS International and our three partner charities, MAF, Blythswood Care and Signpost International. Each year in September, Will Relief Scotland offers you the chance to have your Will drawn up by a participating Scottish solicitor who has generously agreed to provide their time and expertise free of charge in return for a donation to Will Relief Scotland, a group of four Scottish charities working with some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. To take part this September and to find out where participating solicitors are near you, please visit www.willreliefscotland.co.uk or phone 0131 313 3828.
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Student experience Emma Bean shares her experiences from her medical elective placement at Anandaban Leprosy Hospital, about an hour outside of Kathmandu, Nepal. Each day started with a devotion, allowing staff to come together for a time of prayer and worship before the day’s work began. I found this a charming addition to my usual day and a lovely way to start the day. I would then join ward rounds or visit outpatient clinics within the hospital. It was very interesting the way ward rounds worked. The dermatologist or surgeon, the nurse, all of the patients and me would sit on benches in a circle formation and each patient Pictures: Anandaban Leprosy Hospital; Leprosy care in Nepal and Emma Bean in Kathmandu.
would come up individually to speak to the doctor. These were excellent opportunities for learning as it was really interesting to see some of the different reactions to leprosy. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time in operating theatres within the hospital, witnessing surgery for ulcer treatment, and Orthopaedic and Reconstructive surgery for both leprosy and trauma cases. One day I was fortunate in being able to see the correction of two ‘claw hands’, a consequence of leprosy whereby patients’ fingers are permanently flexed inwards making it almost impossible to perform daily tasks such as dressing and cooking. It was
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really remarkable being able to see the fine details of the hand anatomy too, something I have only seen in textbooks before. It was very personally challenging for me spending time with the hospital counsellor. He introduced me to patients on the leprosy wards. I found it really hard to listen to the discrimination and hatred they have faced, as their own communities and families feared the disease, thinking it was highly infectious, a curse from the gods, or a result of sin. I met one lady who has had leprosy for four years and was currently being treated for a reaction. Three of her family members also have leprosy but when she was diagnosed her husband divorced her and left her and their children for fear it was infectious. It was shocking to see the extent of the stigma still surrounding leprosy and it’s a feeling that I won’t forget.
I spoke to the counsellor about how he cares for patients. He speaks to each patient individually and has a time of prayer. The majority of patients are Hindu, however they really appreciate time in prayer and talking about the Gospel as it brings further hope of a cure from a place they have not considered before. I have come to really appreciate how privileged we are in the UK to have a service such as the NHS, free to everyone who needs it. I have grown in my faith during my time here and come to further appreciate beliefs shared by other people and communities too. It has been a life-changing experience and I am incredibly grateful to everyone in Anandaban, The Leprosy Mission in Nepal and Scotland, St Lazarus Trust and EMMS International for their generosity and for making this trip possible. Find out more at www.emms.org/seb.
STAMP OUT POVERTY Thank you to all our supporters who have donated stamps which we are able to sell to support our work. We are particularly looking for your donations of commemorative stamps, mint stamps or stamp collections, which can achieve a higher value at auction. Thank you.
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Health & Hope Burns Dinner It was only fitting, as Scotland’s oldest international healthcare charity, that we should mark the final weekend of our Every Life Matters Appeal with a time honoured Scottish tradition; a Burns Night Dinner in the historic venue of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh on 2nd February. Guests assembled in the magnificent Library for a drinks reception and some fine Scottish tunes. A traditional Burns supper, wine, games and speeches followed. Gordon Mackay drew on his family life giving a kind and personal reflection in his toast to the lassies. The men got off less easily in Elaine Motion’s reply which was feisty, witty and carefully crafted. The evening was a celebration of our work and of strong and enduring connections with the Duncan Hospital in Bihar, India’s poorest state, and with our partners in Malawi, where over 70% of the population live in extreme poverty (Unctad).
Pictures: Nurse Manju and Karen Watson, Prof Derek Bell OBE and guests seated in the beautiful grand hall of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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James Wells, CEO of EMMS International and Prof Derek Bell OBE, President of the RCPE spoke of the plight of girls in Bihar and the massive need for appropriate healthcare, not least for better palliative care in hardto-reach villages in Malawi. Dr Graham Watson shared the latest news of the Duncan community work following a recent visit with his wife Karen. Prospects for young girls are gradually improving thanks to the healthcare and social development work of Duncan Village Task Forces. Life skills training is now available for girls, equipping them to earn a living, saving them from forced early marriages and “helping girls to dream again”.
The Burns Night Dinner was a wonderful occasion to really make a difference and to show that every life matters. Spurred on, people placed high bids for the auction lots – all of which had been donated - bringing the total for the night to an incredible £61,000 with the generous matched giving by the Mackays for the work in the Duncan community. The UK government matched that total as part of the “Every Life Matters” appeal for palliative care work in Malawi. This means all donations will go even further, helping girls in Bihar and sick children suffering in pain and hunger in Malawi.
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY HEART & SOUL
20 May 2018 We’ll be in Princes Street Gardens at the Church of Scotland’s annual gathering ahead of the General Assembly. Do stop in and see us if you’re visiting.
TANDEM SKYDIVE
July 2018 Join us in St. Andrews for an exhilarating experience and an amazing opportunity to raise funds to improve health and healthcare.
5 FERRY CHALLENGE & GOATFELL CLIMB
1 & 2 September 2018 Back by popular demand. Climb aboard and cycle through some of Scotland’s most breath-taking scenery.
ULTIMATE FORTH RAIL BRIDGE ABSEIL 21 Octber 2018 Join us in a breath-taking challenge as you abseil off the iconic Forth Rail Bridge.
CYCLE NEPAL
16 - 25 November 2018 Cycle through the majestic foothills of the Himalayas, enjoying inspiring scenery and amazing friendship while raising money to improve vital healthcare services.
CYCLE ZAMBIA
12 - 21 July 2019 A brand new event for 2019, marking EMMS International’s expansion to work in Zambia. The cycle ends at the epic Victoria Falls.
More info on all of our events can be found at www.emms.org/events
GIVING PAGE
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Boost your donation by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 you donate. Gift Aid is reclaimed by the charity from the tax you pay for the current tax year. Your address is needed to identify you as a current UK tax payer. Yes, I want to Gift Aid my donation and any donations I make in the future or have made in the past 4 years to EMMS International.
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5 Fe Ferry Challenge & Goatfell Climb 1 & 2 September 2018
Tackle the bike ride, the climb or both in this popular new EMMS International event.
Find out more and sign-up online at emms.org/5ferry 7 Washington Lane Edinburgh EH11 2HA Tel: 0131 313 3828 Email: info@emms.org Twitter: @emmsintnl Facebook: EMMSInternational
EMMS International is a charity registered in Scotland No SC032327. A company limited by guarantee. Registered in Scotland No SC224402.