To see all that was happening at Suubi during July - Oct check out the 2013 trip blog.
Volunteers from Australia, Spain and Uganda all had many wonderful experience during this time.
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Suubi Centre Update Blog
25-6-2013, Team:MED's Final Days At Suubi.
The last few days of the Team:MED visit to Suubi certainly provided a variety of activities for the six Australian medical students. Following on from the outreach sessions they had carried out on Thursday, they returned to Suubi Clinic for a further two full days of medical testing on Friday and Saturday. With word of mouth having spread about the free testing, the students and the Suubi medical team were certainly kept busy during this time.
Patients waited under the shade out the front of Suubi Clinic for their turn to be tested.
Suubi laboratory technician, Elias, explained to Team:MED members, Shivani and Saada, what he was seeing under the microscope.
Naomi and Grace joined Elias in the Suubi Clinic lab to carry out further tests.
On Sunday, the medical team were thrilled to be able to attend the finals of the annual Suubi Butonde Bwansi Sports Tournament. Football and netball round robin rounds had been held over the previous month and spectators and fans from right across the district had made there way to Lubanda village to see the culmination of this event.
The day started with a bicycle race through many of the villages in the area which concluded at Suubi Clinic, where a large crowd gathered to cheer the competitors home. The Suubi medical team took this opportunity to launch the arrival of new medical equipment the Australian team had bought with them.
Team:MED members (L-R) Grace, Adele, Shivani, Grace, Naveen and Saada, were happy to help launch two centrifuges and a blood rotator that they had supplied for Suubi Clinic.
The action then moved to the local school playground where thrilling finals in football and netball were held. The lighter side of the day even saw some of the Team:MED crew take part in the rope pulling competition! You can check out photos and results of all the events here.
Monday saw the medical teams back at work as the free testing moved to Nnanywa Health Centre. This proved to be highly successful, with an even wider group of communities able to access the free testing that was on offer.
The visit to Nnanywa Clinic took the free testing even further afield.
Elias explained to people who had gathered about the test that were to be carried out.
Suubi clinical officer, Kaweesa Robert, assisted patients to fill out their details before being tested.
Also while in this area, Team:Med took the opportunity to visit Sharon Primary School, whose students had been part of their welcoming at Suubi Centre on the night of the arrival. The children were very excited to show them around their school. This certainly highlighted to the team that education facilities in Uganda are also in much need of assistance. They soon realised that the basic conditions certainly do not dampen the enthusiasm of the students though and every child makes the most of their opportunity for a good education.
Sharon PS teachers and students were happy to showTeam:MED one of their new classrooms.
They were thrilled to have Team:MED visit their school.
By the end of Monday the Team:MED members had completed the work they had come to do. They took the opportunity to relax at the end of the day and learn some basket making from some of the local ladies, before a special get together in the evening to say goodbye to Suubi staff and the friends they had made during their stay in the village.
Team:MED members learnt basket making from some of the local ladies.
They were sad to be saying goodbye but also headed off for their safari in Murchison Falls National Park knowing that the testing they had helped to carry out had truly made a difference. The number of people who had tested positive for HIV, malaria, TB, typhoid, brucella and syphilis were receiving treatment, which otherwise may not have been the case. In addition to this the profile of Suubi Clinic and the services they are able to offer had been communicated to many more people across the district. This will surely see the number of patients accessing the clinic increase, which will ultimately help to save even more lives in the future!
A huge thank you goes to Team:Med for the fundraising they did to help make this all possible, and also to the amazing Suubi staff who did an incredible job of organising and coordinating everything during this visit. Having been such a success, we are sure this has been the first of many visits to Suubi Clinic by Team:MED in the future!
23-6-2013, Butonde Bwansi Sports Tournament Finals
Sunday June 23rd saw another exciting day unfold as the finals of Suubi's annual Butonde Bwansi Sports Tournament were held. A number of new teams had entered this year, as word of mouth had spread the news of how successful the tournaments had been over the previous four years. Football and netball teams from across the entire Kisekka sub-county had come from far and wide to be part of the month long tournament. Kikenene had two teams competing while Kankamba, Kyembazi, Kiswere, Busubi, Kinoni and Ngereko had all entered a team each with the hope of making the finals.
But the finals day was not just for football and netball enthusiasts. The first event started early, with the competitors in the bicycle racing hustling and bustling for their place on the starting line. Many spectator lined the road of the trading centre to cheer them on as they did three laps around Suubi Centre before taking off to ride a 40kms course through a number of different villages in the area.
Suubi Centre sports manager, Paul, directed entrants in the bicycle racing to the starting line.
There was much excitement an hour or so later as the riders approached the finish line at Suubi Centre and the large crowd cheered them all home. Suubi Centre staff made the most of having this many of the community around the clinic and took the opportunity to launch new medical equipment that had been donated and delivered to the clinic by Team:MED. They also introduced the team of six Australian medical students and explained about the free medical testing they had been carrying out during their stay at Suubi.
A large crowd gathered at Suubi Centre to see the finish of the bicycle racing. Many stayed on to see the new medical equipment launched.
Team:MED volunteers had bought centrifuges and a blood rotator that helped to enable the free medical testing to be carried at during their time at Suubi Clinic.
With the launch complete, everyone soon made their way to Lubanda playground where an even larger crowd was gathering to watch all the finals action. The guests of honour were introduced and the district football association presented brand new soccer balls to all of the teams that had participated throughout the tournament.
Suubi Centre director, Ssemwogerere David, spoke to the large crowd and introduced the guests of honour.
All teams that had entered the football tournament where presented with a soccer ball, by the district football association, before the final match kicked off.
With the official part of the day over, it was time for the actual finals matches to begin. Disan Football Club from Lubanda Village, who had participated in previous years, were faced with one of the brand new teams to the competition, Kinoni Football Club. This made for a tightly fought contest as the two teams tried to work out each others game plans. In fact, at full time they were still locked in a draw and a penalty shoot out was required to separate them. Disan Football Club were thrilled to take this out and be named the tournament winners on the day!
Both finals participants, Kinoni and Disan FC were presented to the guest of honour, District Police Commander Paul Wataka, before the start of play.
Kinoni FC made a number of shots on goal during the match but were unable to convert.
The netball finals also took place throughout the afternoon between two brand new teams in the tournament, Semakokero Netball club and St Mary Goreth Netball Club from Ngereko. This also proved to be a hard fought battle with St Mary's the eventual winners.
On a lighter side, the fun events of matooke peeling and both mens and women's rope pulling were also thoroughly enjoyed by the large crowd.
Team:MED volunteers Saada and Grace were part of the winning team who took out the ladies rope pulling competition.
A presentation ceremony was held at the end off all the events where all winners and runners up were presented with their prize.
The winner of the bicycle competition, Kikaaya, was thrilled to be presented with a brand new bicycle for his efforts.
St Mary's Goreth Netball club, from Ngereko, were the proud winners of a goat after entering the tournament for the first time.
Kinoni Football Football Club were also happy to take home a goat after being runners up in the football final.
The grand prize of a cow was present to Disan Football Club, from Lubanda Village, who were the winners of the football on finals day.
A huge thank you must go to the hard working Suubi sports organising committee for their commitment to run such a high standard tournament. Everyone agrees that the whole thing was another huge success. The event of finals days was even bigger and better than last year and we are sure it will continue to grow with even more teams keen to enter next year! Gebaleko era webale nnyo, nnyo, nnyo.
21-6-2013, Medical Testing In Full Swing
The focus of a 13 day stay in Uganda, by six medical students from Monash University Australia, is to work side by side with the Suubi medical staff to conduct free medical testing for the local communities in the area. Prior to leaving home the Team:MED students had worked tirelessly to fundraise to cover the cost of laboratory requirements to conduct this free testing.
Work began in ernest on Tuesday and Wednesday, at Suubi Clinic, with the supplies and equipment they had provided being unpacked and the team briefed on the procedures they would need to follow during the testing.
Centrifuges donated from Australia and an electric rotator purchased in Uganda by the group were tested before being put to use during blood collection.
Team:MED students were then briefed by the Suubi medical team about all the activities they would be involved in and the procedures they would need to follow.
Patients soon began arriving so it was all hands on deck. Commonly found diseases, in Uganda, such as malaria, HIV, brucella and typhoid were high on the list of tests carried out. A boarder range of medical conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, blood grouping, stool and urine analysis, and pregnancy tests will also be worked on during the teams stay.
Suubi staff, Eunice and Abdul worked with Naomi on one of the earlier patients to arrive.
Naveen, Naomi and Shivani met patients during consultations with Suubi's clinical officer, Kaweesa Robert.
Suubi's laboratory technician, Elias, guided Shivani and Saada and explained what they needed to be looking for under the microscope to detect various diseases.
On Thursday the testing moved out into the community with outreach sessions held in two different locations. The first was at a district event held at Nkpni playground to mark The Day Of The African Child. Many people attended this event so it not only gave the medical teams the opportunity to work with lots of patients but also saw Suubi Centre director, Ssemwogerere David addressed the crowd to speak on behalf of all NGO's (non government organisations) in the district.
Ssemwogerere David represented the district NGO's and took the opportunity to tell the crowd about all the services and projects operating at Suubi Centre.
The medical team set up to carry out testing at The Day Of The Africa Child event.
Grace chatted with the patients and took down their details as testing was carried out.
Adele and Saada worked together to take blood samples for testing.
The second outreach session took place at Kyasonko Village. This was part of the usual Suubi outreach sessions that has been happening every Thursday in various villages over the previous two months. The Suubi medical team usually takes the opportunity to talk to communities about a variety of health issues but the residents of Kyasonko were lucky enough to be included in the free testing.
Kawessa Robert spoke to members of Kyasonko community before testing got underway.
The testing has returned to Suubi Clinic for today and tomorrow before the finals of the annual Butonde Bwansi tournament are held this Sunday. Thousands of people normally attend this event so it will be a wonderful opportunity to promote all the services that are available at Suubi Clinic.
17-6-2013, Team:MED Arrives At Suubi Clinic
After months of preparation it was wonderful to see the six medical students from Monash University's Team:MED finally arrive in Uganda on June 15th.
The jet lagged team arrived at Entebbe airport before making their way to Kampala backpackers for a well earned rest.
The following day the medical students faced their first reality check when they toured Uganda's largest hospital, Mulago. The conditions here are certainly different from the hospitals they are currently training in, back home in Australia. At times the team saw things that were very confronting but all agreed that the experience was well worthwhile and will help to make them better doctors in the future.
Team:MED students (L-R) Naveen, Naomi, Kaweesa, (from Suubi Clinic) Shivani, Saada, Grace and Adele were given a tour of Mulago Hospital by Ogwal Francis.
After a further night in Kampala, this morning the team set off bright and early to make their way to Suubi Clinic in Lubanda Village. After stop overs at the equator, roadside markets and Masaka supermarket to buy supplies they were thrilled to finally arrive.
Fresh fruit and vegetables from the roadside markets were a hit with team.
They could barely believe their eyes as they puledl in to the clinic though, as many different groups from the community had gathered to welcome them.
The Suubi group, dressed in their matching traditional outfits, escorted them from the car to where they would be entertained.
Adele, Saada, Shivani and Grace were thrilled to be invited to join the traditional dancing.
Next, a group of students from Sharon Primary school won the hearts of the crowd as they performed especially for the medical teams.
Abdul and Kaweesa, from the Suubi medical team, were appreciative of their performance and were happy to join them for a dance.
Community leaders were also at Suubi to welcome the team and show their appreciation of medical students willingness to volunteer in the district. The evening was a huge success and was certainly a great way for the team to settle in before the real work begins tomorrow.
24-5-2013, Bakery Workshops Held At Suubi.
A week long series of bakery workshops were conducted between May 13th to 17th for the youth associated with Suubi Centre. This followed on from workshops in January by a group of Aussie volunteers that were visiting Suubi and had fundraised to purchase the bakery oven for the Centre.
The recent workshops were conducted by Mr Anest, a local home economics teacher from Bukulula Girls Secondary School in Kalungu District. He passed on a variety of skills which saw the Suubi youth producing delicious bread, cakes, biscuits and donuts.
Mr Anest checked how the cooking was progressing.
The youth watched on as the bread was removed from the oven.
They were very excited to see the bread they had made.
Participants were also given recipes to make delicious cakes, muffins and donuts.
Which turned out perfectly!
Since the completion of the work shop the Suubi youth launched their functional cakes during a recent health talk outreach. They will now be able to supply decorated cakes for birthdays, weddings, graduations and other significant events in the area. They are hoping as more and more local people become aware that they are able to make such scrumptious goodies, they will soon start to earn an income locally.
Decorated cakes for various events in the village will provide a good source of income.
The group of youth that participated in the week long bakery workshops.
And with many overseas volunteers set to visit Suubi Centre during the coming months they are certainly looking forward to tapping into to their love of bakery goods too!
15-5-2013, Emily's Visit To Suubi Will Have A Lasting Impact.
Melbourne school teacher Emily Banks has recently spent an amazing three and a half weeks at Suubi Centre in Lubanda Village. Her visit is sure to have a long term positive impact.
Not only did she leave behind wonderful new found friendships and memories, but after working tirelessly to raise funds before her trip, she was able install water tanks and distribute garden tools to two of Suubi's partner schools. Check out all the information and photos of them being installed on our School Organic Gardens page.
Emily visited the dirty pond where Hope Bulemere Primary School had previously drawn water from.
This made her even more thrilled to see the tanks installed at their school and Kawerimidde Primary School.
Both schools were thrilled to receive garden tools that will enable them to participate in the Suubi School Garden Project.
Emily also helped to pass on wonderful new skills to the community. Not only did she spend time in the classrooms at some of the schools but she also taught the Suubi Ladies how to make aprons which she has returned home with to sell.
The children were excited to have Emily spend time in their classroom teaching them.
Emily showed some of the Suubi ladies how to make aprons.
In addition to this, thanks again to the money she rasied, we were able to fund a week long session of locally run bakery workshops.
So as you can see, Emily's relatively brief stay at Suubi is going to have long term benefits for many, many people in Uganda. A huge thank you and HUGs to you Emily!
27-4-2013, Sad Farewell to One Of Our Suubi Family
It was with heavy heart that farewelled one of our original Suubi staff members and a much loved member of the Suubi family today. Although Topista had been unwell with HIV/AIDS for many years, her passing away came as a complete shock as she deteriorated very quickly in the end.
Anyone who has been lucky enough to visit Suubi Centre will remember Topista and her girls arriving at Suubi to do the cleaning each morning. Just as sure as the sun came up, her beautiful smiling face was the first thing to greet everyone as they set about starting their day.
Topista's beautiful smile is etched in our hearts forever.
Thankfully, in the true Ugandan way, the community and extended family are now caring for her three beautiful children, Musanje, Brenda and Noeline, who have been left orphans. Unfortunately they are not in a position to continue to cover their education expenses though so HUG is currently looking for ways to help. It is hoped that a small livestock project can be set up, which the children can help to maintain and will provide an ongoing income to support their future education expenses. If you would be interested in assisting to fund this project, or would like to know more details, please contact Helen at helen@hug.org.au
15-4-2013, First Coffee Seedlings Sold At Suubi Centre.
It was a little over 6 month ago that the Suubi Coffee Initiative got off the ground when a group of youth began a seedling nursery at the Centre. It was exciting to recently see the first crop start to be sold to farmers from Lubanda Village and surrounding neighbourhoods. This certainly is encouraging the youth involved in the project as they can now see all their hard work paying off.
Coffee farmers from the area are happy they are now able to purchase seedings from the village.
The youth participating in the Suubi coffee initiative were thrilled to make their first sales.
The buyers were keen to get their seedlings home so they could be planted during the rainy season.
A long term strategy was also collectively agreed on by members of the group to keep the coffee project viable in the future. It was decided that each member would be given 50 seedlings to plant in their own garden. It is hoped this will encourage other youth in the community to want to participate in the Suubi Coffee Initiative too. Once these seedlings have grown they will then provide suckers that can be cut and potted to raise more seedlings in the future. In addition to this, every member will be expected to pay back 12kgs of dried coffee to be sold to provide the cash require for ongoing expenses.
The coffee group have also recently planted 500 seedling for Suubi Centre. Crops harvested from these trees will help the whole Suubi project be self sustainable in the future. It certainly is a win win situation for everyone involved!
The coffee group have also recently planted 500 seedling for Suubi Centre. Crops harvested from these trees will help the whole Suubi project be self sustainable in the future. It certainly is a win win situation for everyone involved!
5-4-2013, Finals Of The Inaugural Suubi School Sport Gala.
Friday April 5th saw the culmination of the recent round robin events, played between 16 participating primary schools, as part of inaugural Suubi School Sports Gala. Throughout the previous three weeks, four groups of four school had competed at four different playgrounds in the area in an effort to win through to the finals day on the 5th.
Thousands of school children, parents and teachers turned up on finals day to cheer on their teams as they made their way through semi final rounds to decide who would participate in the final of each event. Two new schools in Hope Buremere PS and Sseke PS, who had previously not been involved in Suubi events, were thrilled when their boys football teams made it through. St Joseph's PS and Kyembazzi PS eventually played off in the netball while Nakawanga PS and OMODING PS went head to head in the girls football final.
Hope Buremere PS (in purple) and Sseke PS (in stripes) listened to the directions of the referee as they prepared to play the football final.
Large crowds gathered to watch the netball final between Kyambazzi PS and St Josheph's PS.
Prizes of jazzys (sports uniforms) were presented to the winners and runners up at the end of the day and all 16 schools, who had participated throughout the gala, went home with a soccer and netball for their efforts. We were honoured to have the Lwengo District Police Commander, Mr. Watakha who is also a former footballer and right now a national level referee there to distribute the prizes.
District Police Commissioner, Mr Watakha, inspired the children with his speech and was happy to hand out the prizes.
He was really thrilled to see all that happened on this day and applauded Suubi Centre and its supporters for the great work done. He also gave an inspirational speech to the large crowd as he told of his life as a former footballer. He explained that he had received free education right up to the University because of his football talent. With this in mind, he advised parents to encourage their children to participate in sporting activities and develop their talents. He also mentioned to teachers the importance of schools giving the children an opportunity to participate in events such as this so they can try out their talents while they are still young.
OMODING director, Ssemanda Fred, was happy to be congratulated by Mr Watakha and the Suubi Centre organising team after his students were runner up in the girls football event.
Sseke PS proudly posed with Mr Watakha and the Suubi team in their new jazzys after taking out the boys football final.
The winners and runners up were all thrilled with the new jazzys they received - now they will no longer need to play matches in their school uniform!
All of the matches throughout the day were played in great spirit and although Sseke PS, Nakawanga PS and St Joseph's PS were the eventual winners on the day, everyone agreed that all those who had attended and participated had been part of a wonderful day and event. We look forward to even bigger and better things next year!
Recent Posts
- June 1st-4th, Suubi In Action At 2017 Uganda Marathon
- April 28th, Government Chief Administrative Team Visit Suubi Centre Complex
- 10th April, Record Number Of Schools Participate In Suubi's School Sports Gala
- Jan 15th, Annual TeamMED Collaboration Continues To Thrive
- 15-8-2016, Setem Volunteers Settle In At Suubi
- 17-7-2016, Suubi Sports Tournament Bigger Than Ever
- 10-6-2016, Art for Children with Special Needs Kicks Off
- 5-6-2016, Uganda Marathon - What An Event!
- 16-5-2106, Suubi Story Spreading Far And Wide
- 29-4-2016, Suubi Primary School Sports Tournament Wraps Up For Another Year
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