What a beautiful gesture of embracing our project  - as the current nursing students tidy up our hospital compound during their 3 weeks practical training at Katate. This is exactly the spirit we want to spread and in which we want to serve each other: all together for each other - helping each other to make things a little better each day, step by step.

November 2023 saw our 5th surgical camp with over 45 patients being worked on during 9 days in our operation theater. But not only this, thanks to German surgeon Dr. J. Wegener we could successfully execute our first dental camp at Katate ever! Over 240 patients literally flooded our small dentistry in the two weeks of the camp and it was challenging to coordinate the patient flow. The need was very obvious. Dr. J. Wegener brought a lot of experience in dental surgery and dental treatment which was, of course, different to the Ugandan "way to do things". Despite some challenges in the beginning we really appreciated the teaching and training of our dental team which leads to increased quality in dental services. 

As always the visit was an intense and fulfilling time for our team. The moment of "first love" has gone by and we enter into a long-lasting relationship with our Katate Health Centre. It is growing steadily and thrives continuously to offer good health care services to the people of Kanungu. We appreciate this constant growth and loving care in our every-day life despite all challenges. We have served over 1100 mothers and their children with c-section. We have about 80 normal deliveries/month, about 200 mothers in antenatal care/month, on average 1200-1300 out patients treated every month. Your help and your financial support is making all this possible. We say "thank you, thank you, thank you" - a 1000 times! 

At the end of our camp we had the renovated lab building and our new HIV clinic officially opened by District Chair Person Sam Kajojo, a good leader for his people who cares about the well-being of Kanungu. We appreciate the cooperation and are happily looking into the future of what is still to come.

In September we successfully finished the extension of our HIV clinic and the renovation of our laboratory building. You can see by the smiling faces of our staff how much this important step in our project has led to improved working conditions: we treat and counsel about 700 female, 400 male and about 150 children per year in our HIV clinic which is supported by USAID. Another reason to be thankful and proud of are our nursing and midwive students who are coming to us on a regular base: they are trained and tought by our doctors and the incharge of our operation theatre, Mr Honesmas Twengyeirwe. The positive development of the hospital project bears good fruit and reaches the community in many ways. That´s what we are working for. 

Finally we were able to perform our 4th surgical camp during July 2023. We look back unto disturbance and trouble due to political rivalery around our Katate Health Center Project which we never had in mind. But Uganda has become a country of false prophets, corrupt politicians and untrustworthy clergys in church which made this precious project suffer a lot. But we have overcome and together we go forward - "mukama assimwe" - Glory be to God. 

Therefor we enjoyed even more the fact that we could return to what was and is and will be our main goal - to perform good medicine and to do basic life-saving surgery for the Kanungu people. This time our surgical camp was overwelmed by patient numbers. Two weeks with each 4 working days in theatre allowed us to operate on 54 patients. More than 100 had made an appointment after we went to the radio to announce our 4th surgical camp. We celebrated the 1st anniversery of our non-for-profit organisation "Chaperone International", held meetings with the local government which is very much in favor for our project and enjoyed working along side with old and new friends to our project. At the same time the extension of our HIV clinic is ongoing as is the renovation of the lab building.  We will hire new staff to deal with the growing number of patients. Our newly put up dentistry with Tadeo Ahimbibisibwe is doing fantastic - fillings, root channel treatment and teeth preserving procedures are performed well and in relevant numbers. We are grateful for what has been accomplished by the grace of God and we´re looking hopefully into a bright future which is about to come - thank you for all your support: it is most precious and our patients need it.

Our new dental unit is making very good progress. The team around our dental officer Tadeo Ahimbisibwe is doing a great job. Even the highest government official of our district came to visit us: District Chair Person (DCP) Sam Kajojo. We started outreach programs to visit schools in the nearby areas to educate school children about dental hygiene and to make our service known: now people of Kanungu District can receive first class dental services at our Health Center. Our gratitude again is to Dr. Hofamann/Rotary Club Memmingen/Germany who made this wonderful project possible. Thank you very much!

During the celebration in Kanungu for the "Int. Women´s Day" we presented all our staff from Chaperone International and the Katate Health Center Project we have been doing for the last three years in Kanungu. Especially for women our health services are especially precious because we take care of pregnant women, we do antenatal care, we offer a full-functional operation theatre for life-saving emergency c-sections. Our Katate Health Center Project is a role model of how the Ugandan health care system could be changed nationwide in a sustainable way for the majority of the average people.

Yet and very sadly the corruption of Ugandan government, envy of corrupt politicians, corruption and the selfish interest´s of local leaders are threatening precious projects like ours. But in the face of all threats and challenges our faith is growing. We are willing to continue our good faithlful work even more because we know in whom we believe - in Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven who is love, truth and who has good thoughts about us people: thoughts of life, hope and a good future and not of destruction and not of death. Thank you for all your support, your prayers, your faithfulness.

Early November our dental unit has arrived. Our long-desired dentistry is now in place and our dental officers already started to treat our first patients. We still are waiting for some furniture and some more instruments to be delivered. But the need for these services is there in the community. Our dentistry is located in our operation theatre complex. This all was possible thanks to the generous support of the Rotary Club Memmingen (Dr. Hofmann). We are very grateful! For our next surgical camp we have invited a German dentist to come along with us to teach our dental officers on the ground. 

Another good news is the finalization of the renovation of our patient´s kitchen. It was in a really delapidated condition. Now it looks brand new with new stoves inside. But see for yourself. Thanks for all the support. 

                                                                                             your Katate Health Center Teamm - Chaperone International 

Our 3rd surgical camp was a beautiful experience of how much our hospital project has grown and even during the two challenging last years manages to bear good fruits. Again we could serve a lot of patients with surgical services while the number of emergency c-sections these last months has doubled. Together with friends from the UK partner in school and education programms (Kirima Ltd.) we could have a big "Friendship Day" during our visit with all our school projects and the Grate Lakes Regional University to celebrate the succesfull progress of all of our primary and secondary schools. Another big step forward was the signing of our new MOU ("Memorandum of Understanding") with local government which secures our legal cooperations for another 10 years. Our next steps are to open up our pharmacy where patients will be able to buy medication for littel money when government stocks have run out - which they always do. With the help of our Rotary friends Memmingen (Dr. Hofmann) we will put our new dentistry up in our operation theater block. And last but not least we will have an anesthesia machine which will allow us more advanced surgical interventions in the future which will be a big step up. We are very grateful for what the Lord has done and we are looking into the future with expectations, hope and a thankful heart! 

During our visit we could visit churches, did some tree planting as a sign of hope and future for this district and on radio talk shows and with preaching in the protestant church of Kanungu we could give a testemony of our faith - why we´re doing what we do. Because we belive there is a God of which the bible tells us and HE loves people. And we try to be a littel reflection of this Love ...

Thanks to the financial support of a German charity foundation spezialised on desaster and emergency relief aid we have started to repair the storm damages done to our hospital a few weeks ago. The roofs of two buildings have been damaged, rain water entered and the ceilings got damaged. The heavy winds tore metal sheets from roofed walk ways apart and many other things need repair. But we are confident to have the damages fixed completely and in time.

In April we where honored to host a class of 30 nursing and midwife students form a neighbouringh nursing school at Katate. Again we could offer practical experience to these young men and women on their way to become nurses and midwifes. Our center is one of the last remaining functional hospitals with the most modern operation theatre in the District. The last two years of corona pandemic has struck poor countries like Uganda very badly and corruption is out of control. Two government health centers in our district are non-functional and patients are flooding our Katate Health Center. But government doesn´t help us, yet we have to fight hindering bureaucracy and corruption while we continue with our live saving mission. But we do it for the people and we do it out of love - as Christ Jesus teaches us to do. We try to be "imitators of God" in the best biblical way we can. 

On May 11th, 2022 a local zyklon/hailstorm devastated our beloved Katate Health Center and took the roof of our maternity ward away while women where inside even in the delivery room giving birth...! Metal sheets where thrown through the air damaging the walls of neighbouring buildings, windows where broken and rain storm entered the buildings. Thank God, noboday was killed. Right now where are looking for funds to rebuild and repair the damaged buildings on our hospital compound ... 

We are grateful and pleased to announce that our 2nd surgical camp has been succesfully completed. The need of the people in the Kanungu district is greater than ever as two neighbouring health facilities closed down due to poor government leadership and corruption. During our 8 days of surgery we had 14 emergency c-sections on top which brought our team around Dr. H. Listle at the edge of their capacity. Now 2 weeks after the camp our team on the ground has called every single patient to follow up on them - and all are well, grateful and without complaints. All in all we operated 45 patients, small and intermediate surgery like hernias, venous stripping, keloids and general surgery.  In the last few months there has been increasing distrurbance about our project so we had to go "live radio-broad cast" to inform the people of Kanungu about details of the Katate Health Center Project. It is saving lifes everyday and we can not allow political rivalry to hinder our efforts. Troubled times we have in many parts of this hurting world. But we don´t give in, we don´t give up - we have a living faith in a risen Lord and Saviour who is with us, who lives within us and his spirit and in his love we serve. It was an exciting time. The bigger the challenges the greater the victory. We are looking forward to see Katate to continue shining and giving hope to so many people. During the camp we had our 600th c-section since the beginning of our project. Thank you team! Mukama assimve - praise the Lord. 

Thanks to the German foundation "Solidarity & Justice" (Dr. Thewalt) our Ultrasound project has taken up speed. With the new machine the quality of scans have improved tremendously. The renovation has created new facilities to host our new ultrasound center and people are using it a lot! The numbers have increased a lot and finally we can offer high quality ultrasound scan services for the patients of our hospital. And by the way - the 34 nursing students enjoy watching it a lot, too. Please see the report of our manager Martin Atukwase in which he has described every detail of the ultrasound project and why it is so important. Enjoy reading ...

During this month our first surgical camp without external help from overseas took place. Dr. Denis has led a very succesful two weeks of operations together with Dr. Mercy and it all went really well. This is a major step in the development of our young Ugandan doctors and we are very proud of them!

While covid-numbers are going down and the general situation in Kanungu is fortunately becoming better, we are proud and grateful to announce the start of our ultrasound project: with help from the German Foundation for Justice and Solidarity we were able to aquire a modern ultrasound machine which lifts the quality of our diagnostic scans to a totally new level. Precise and accurate diagnostic measurements are essential for high quality health care services in our Katate Health Care Center. As the news of our ultrasound project is spreading, numbers of patients who are coming to receive this new service are rising and the community of Kanungu is grateful for this new achievment. 

The 2nd wave of covid-19 infection has arrived in Uganda and more causulties are to be mourned than before. Among them is our former DHO - district health officer. The pictures of the burial seem strange to us as the usual ceremony would have attracted at least 300 people. The numbers are rising in Uganda rapidly. As there are no treatment options for patients with severe covid related symptoms patients and caretakers are desperately looking for help. People are litteraly selling their organs for money for their family members. The president has announced 2nd lock-down and people are running away from the capital into the countryside where they can find food during the lock-down much easier than in the big city.  Positive test results are rising even in our Katate health Center and even among our staff and among our doctors. They got vaccinated first in March and then 2 weeks before the 2nd wave hit but appearently the cooling of the vaccication has not been managed properly by government authorities so the vaccination seems to have no effect! Luckily no severe courses have occured among our staff so far - thank God.

At the same time our project is progressing well against all odds. We have enlarged the old storage building, completed the renovation of the OPD, created the new ultrasound room and added a little pharmacy for our clients where they can provide drugs when government supplies have run out (which always happens). Soon we will have a new, modern ultrasound machine and a new radiographer thanks to the help of foundation for solidarity and justice /Germany. We are very grateful for their help!

Even in Uganda the pandemic causes more victims during the 2nd wave this time. If not due to the newly announced lock-down the burial ceremony would have attracted at least 300 visitors as it´s our DHO who has passed away.

In April 2021 we could conduct our first surgical camp under the leadership of Dr. Listle, our medical director of the Katate Health Center Project. We focused on hernia operations which we performed according to German standard with mesh implantation in adults offering a very unique opportunity to Kanungu people. In total 29 operations were performed in which our Ugandan doctors always took part. Their education was one of our main purposes during the surgical camp. One patient presented with a giant lipoma of his left flank which had grown to enormous size over the last 20 years. Many of these patients suffer from the stigma the community has put on them as "cursed" people. After the succesful removal of the 2.5kg heavy lipoma the patient was very lucky and could be discharged home after 3 days. Our operation theater team needs special recognition for their good work. Since Christmas we had no wound infections. For the same time no severe Covid-19 infection has been reported in our remote district of Kanungu. Our medical staff is vaccinated since March 2021. Our newly hired nurses have brought excellent team spirit and motivation which positively affects the government staff to the benefit of our patients. 

At the same time the completion of staff houses construction and the renovation of our out patient department has now finally made our dreams of a "new Katate" come true. People who still now the old Katate can hardly believe that it´s the same place ... "look, the old has vanished - all things have been made new."

03 - 2021 VACCINATION CAMPAIGN AGAINST COVID-19 AT KATATE

On 16th of March 2021 we received a surprising good news from our Katate Health Center: the vaccination against Covid-19 of our medical staff has started! The campaign will be coordinated by our Dr. Mercy. The Kanungu District received 4,300 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. Health workers will be the first to receive the vaccination followed by willing individuals of the public at highest risk. We are proud that local government has chosen the Katate Health Center to launch the vaccination campaign against Covid-19.

After our first medical camp in November 2021 the development of the Katate Health Center continues - currently the "out patient department" (OPD) is under construction and renovation. Besides the patients in the wards our team of nurses and doctors sees about 50 patients with minor health issues in the OPD every day. That´s about 1400 patients in the OPD every month! Thanks to Dr. Hofmann and the Rotary Club Memmingen we are able to extend and renovate this very important building. Therewith we will have the renovation of ALL patient buildings completed. 

At the same time we are constructing and renovating staff housing units which we urgently need to accommodate the increasing number of medical personel in our Katate Health Center.  In April we have planned our next medical/surgical camp at Katate. At the same time we continue to receive memorable cases among our patients. Lately our whole team stood together to fight for the live of a mother and her newborn child during a difficult pregnancy with rupturing of the tissue, massive bleeding which even led to resuscitation of the mother. The team was fighting for hours, several units of blood needed to be transfused and the patient needed emergency surgery. Both mother and child are stabelizing and survived the incidence. Directly after (around 10:30 pm) a 5-year old boy was rushed in who needed emergency surgery after he fell over and hurt himself. Our manager Martin contested to this stressful and exciting day with the words "All in all, it was amazing to see everyone value life and everyone rushing to do something to help the situation. Without this project, this woman would definitely had died. Without your help, the days after would be burials ... Everyone in the hospital was concerned. Such moments of panic bring out the best values of what life should be - living for others because others have lived for us."

Despite the Corona pandemic Dr. Listle was able to travel to Uganda for two and a half weeks to perform the 1st medical camp at our Katate Health Center. Services such as ultrasound scan, eye screening, testing for cervical cancer and free doctors´ consultation were offered. The number of patients was very high and our medical team together with Dr. Listle saw 150 - 200 people every day. Some came for operations and our team performed the first inguinal hernia repair with Lichtenstein technique, venous stripping, hernias of the abdominal wall, hemorroidectomies accompanied with the "usual" emergency c-sections. The camp brought the team and the hospital ressources to their limit but it demonstrated the enormous growth of our project during the last months. How much in need the people of the Kanungu District are! One 40-year old man came at night after a 1,5 hour ride on a boda-boda (little moped) with bowel obstruction and vomiting due to a very large stuck inguinal hernia. He had to be operated immediately to safe is life. He recovered quickly and could be discharged after 5 days without any complaints. "Mukama assimwe - Praise the Lord" as our beloved brethren use to say in these situations. 

Most of the people presented with chronic conditions due to their rough living and working conditions (digging in the fields), unclean water, chronic infections, parasites. "It is a hurting community" our manager Martin Atukwase often said but this camp showed that we are willing to take the challenge to show people that we care. Because God cares. Because God is Love and we have to act accordingly as good as we can. The whole team of Katate and Dr. Listle like to say "Webale mnonga - thank you very much" to all our friends and donors for all your loving support which enables us to make a difference and care for those in need. Be blessed and we wish everybody a blessed Advent season 2020!

We have seen good progress during the last two months: the construction of the roofed walkways have been finished. Due to a generous offering we could afford two more oxygen concentrators for our patient wards which were urgently needed for critical ill patients in serious conditions or premature born babies. 

We could start the renovation of the 3rd building after which we will even have a small pediatric ward! We are so happy to continue with the transformation of our little hospital. Also there was the first death due to Covid in the district the general situation in Uganda is stable. The international airport is supposed to re-open on 15th of October. God willingly we may to see our colleges and friends in Kanungu again this year ... 

Another highlight was the first emergency laparotomy which was performed by our Dr. Denis in an 18 year old nursing student who was suffering from an extra unterin pregnancy with severe bleeding in the abdomen. She was quickly diagnosed with our ultra-sound scan and emediatly operated and received blood transfusion. She recovered well and has been discharged home. We are grateful for this beautiful example that our project is growing well to achieve excactly what we were hoping for right from the start - to safe the lifes of th local people, to give them a 2nd chance, to treat them well when they are in need. Thank God!

The fruits of our efforts - the young couple is grateful for the delivery of their newborn baby by cesarean section. Before our project people had to travel long hours and pay too much money for these basic live-saving services.  Many of them couldn´t afford to travel and couldn´t afford the costs for medical services. Little stories like the young couple come to us every week, every month and that´s why we are doing this project. 

One important corner stone of our project is the carefully provided teaching for nurses and students on a routine basis as we can see our Dr. Denis and the crowd of masked students. Teachings about major important topics on internal medicine, hygiene, gynocology, obstetrics and general medicine are brought to our staff several times every month.

Unbelievable but true - the old cantine looked like this (1st picture). The owner was living inside with her husband and two children. She was washing cloths, food and children all in one bucket. The slum-like old cantine was getting more and more a harassment for our staff and a hygienic issue. And it became a symbol for the dark past of our health center which otherwise has been blossoming so well during the last year due to all our united efforts.

So we finally could demolish the old cantine and build a new one. We found a new cantine operator how brought staff and equipment, a refrigerator for cold drinks and finally our staff can enjoy their well deserved meal in a decent place in hygenic conditions. Good work deserves good food. The number of apprentices  rose from 9 during April/May up to 23 (!) in June/July. The old cantine operator lives in the village now.

Despite the corona crisis our Katate Hospital Project in making good progress. Even with the (softened) lock-down we can continue with our construction work and organize many meetings with officials within the micro political system of Kanungu District to ensure a fruitful cooperation of our public private partnership. Trust and cooperation between the partners is most important these days. All efforts shall lead to one goal - to give future and hope to the people of Kanungu they can trust that their needs are seen and that they are met.

And are efforts bear fruit - just read the small update on our twins Kato and Katuro down below ..!

In the midst of the chaos, the anxiety and the insecurity among many of us because of the Corona pandemic especially in Uganda some good news have to be announced. We have our first premature babies born in the Katate Health Center: twins in 33. week of pregnancy. With our new ultrasound machine the need for an emergency C-section could be detected in the young woman and our Dr. Denis performed the operation delivering the two baby boys healthy and the mother is well, too. Birth weight 1.6 kg! Now two weeks after the operation the two boys - Katuru and Kato - are breast feeding and well of. Even though there is no intensive care back up their chances to make it are good. Live will always find a way. We hope and pray and will do our best to serve the people in Kanungu district especially during these challenging times. We could discharge Katuru and Kato with their parents on 14th April 2020 in good condition after they have gained some good weight. To all of us in these difficult times - never give up hope - because life will always find a way.

Two months later (right side) in June the young couple showed up again with their twins at our little hospital for a follow up - the two boys have developed really well in the meantime and made up for the difficult start they had in the beginning. They are healthy and doing really well. It is these good storys of people we can help which makes it all worth fighting for ...!

While the new corona virus COVID-19 is spreading all over the world and bad news with it all around we in Katate have some good news to share. So let´s do that: we proudly announce our new ultrasound machine which will increase quality of service for our patients a lot! One of our nurses served as role model - both baby and ultrasound machine are in very good condition ;) !

Since the opening of our operation theater last month we had more than 80 deliveries and 20 c-sections along with some minor surgical procedures. Our team is doing great and the population of Kanungu is drawn towards this place of new hope for (often poor) patients. 

Actually we did two just in the first days of February. But let me tell you from the beginning ... Among other minor procedures in our operation theater we had at the beginning of February one night with 4 deliveries in our hospital - one of them to be our first C-section on 05.02. in the morning! All mothers and babies are well. It is such a great joy to see the excellent motivation and enthusiasm of our team in Katate these days! The mood at our end of year staff party a few days before was full of excitement about what is happening right now in Katate and everybody wants to be part of it: from the new security guard who is bringing great change in terms of security, our new doctors doing ward rounds every day and our highly motivated team in the operation theater. And we have been officially accredited as a blood bank unit.  Now we have to implement high quality every day routine in all our services and procedures at Katate. And we shall progress steadily "empora empora" as the people of Kanungu say - slowly by slowly. We are excited to see more to come. Mukama assimwe - Praise the Lord for all the good progress we could make recently! I was just writing these words when the next emergency c-section has arrived. Our team is doing such great work. Now the name our first baby is "Kasiime Grace", 3200g healthy, happily breast feeding. "Kasiime" means "let´s be thankful". The full name of our first baby therefor is "let´s be thankful for the Grace of God". 

     Dr. Denis on ward round with clinical officer Alex and nurse Shallot                 our new operation theater team with Dr. Mercy and visitors from the UK

Many thanks to all donors and partners! We will keep you up to date about the progress of our project!

the Katate Health Center-Team