MCC--Mengo AIDS Clinic

Every time we goto Kampala (the capital city of Uganda), we always visit Dr. Edith at the Mengo Aids Clinic (supported by MCC-Mennonite Central Committee).

She is a truly amazing woman, full of insight, wisdom, and vision. 

One of her many projects is designing & producing reusable/washable sanitary napkins so that girls don't have to miss school for a week every month when they are on their periods (banana leaves just don't do the trick). 

She shared her secret invention for the inside lining....she cuts up raincoats to create a waterproof barrier and for the absorbent layer she cuts up old electric blankets that the USA ships over because they don't work (factory malfunction)!! She said she tested so many different materials until she found one that worked and discarded electric blankets are by far the best! What an innovative lady! 

The cloth pads are distributed to her patients in a pack of 9 with a bottle of acetametaphine (pain killers for cramps). What a blessing for these girls & women!

She also makes cloth diapers for her patients:

One of our good friend's sister had served here as a doctor with MCC for many years and after she died of a brain tumor her family used her memorial fund to help renovate & expand the clinic. 

Because her family continues to give financial support, they were able to build another much-needed addition onto the clinic:

If there's 2 names the staff & patients alike know around this hospital it's: MCC & Landis! 

As Dr. Edith was giving us a tour and introducing us to people, the minute she said "friends of the Landis'" they would jump up enthusiastically shake our hands and thank us. Last time we were here 2 yrs ago it was at their once-a-month HIV support group (which unfortunately becuz of budget cuts had to get changed to quarterly and we aren't here at the right time), when she introduced us to the group as Mennonites, the whole crowd started cheering and shouting "webela nyo" (thank you very much). A true testimony of the impact MCC has on 3rd world communities. AND the impact one family can have to change lives! THANK YOU Landis family for your generous giving!!! Here are photos of the expansion you helped build:

There's a hallway connecting the old part with the new part:

The new treatment and surgical room (use for circumcisions on Fridays). She was very excited to point out it had its own bathroom (such a simple thing we take for granted in the US):

The new TB room. Again they were so thrilled it had its own bathroom.

Their very own lab! Before they used to have to share with the hospital's lab and run all their samples across campus. Now the AIDS clinic has its own!

They now have a staff kitchen:

Future goals when more funding comes in:

To build a storage room upstairs because the govt forced them to turn their counseling room into a storage room for their meds

So now they have to hold all their counseling sessions outside in the courtyard. They meet under this umbrella in case it rains but it's not private because the waiting room is right next to it and the kids play right there causing distruptions/distractions.

The waiting room (in the covered part of the courtyard):

This is the other reason they need the new storage room upstairs:

The govt requires them to keep paper records and they are spilling out of this room but there is nowhere else to go. She also wants to put a staff lounge upstairs (for eating meals and taking tea...right now they have to eat out in the courtyard among all the patients) and move her office up there as well which would open up another room downstairs to make another treatment room.

A SAD UPDATE:

Because Mengo Hospital is faith based and posted an anti-homosexual statement in November 2013, the US govt cut their funding to the clinic. So Dr Edith was forced to lay off 32 out of her 65 staff and 3 of them have sued her (when it wasn't even her fault). The cases are still on-going over a year later and she was just in court the day before we saw her. It's been a VERY stressful 1.5 years for her. But she said the bright spot for her was the dedication of the new addition in March 2014. Then the bishops of the hospital reworded the statement so that the US gave temporary funding back on a year by year basis. So the first year's cycle ends at the end of this month July 31, 2015 and she is praying the funding will get re-approved. Last July she was thankfully able to rehire the majority of her staff back.  But the saddest part is that it's the children that suffer. They contract HIV in utero from their mothers. The majority population that has HIV/AIDS in Uganda is not the homosexual population...it's women who acquire it through rape or an unfaithful husband and give it to their unborn babies. So the majority of their patients are women and children. Please pray for Dr. Edith, her staff and all the patients!