Get the teenagers talking !

LETS GET THE TEENAGERS TALKING:  Impact Through Peers   

'More than 85% of adolescents in Mbarara municipality (Uganda) get their health related information from peers'. (MUST pediatrician, D. Nansera (BMJ 2007 )
A community based organization, HEADA Uganda, has been voluntarily giving health talks  to  adolescents in four secondary schools in Mbarara Municipality.  The enthusiastic response from students and teachers to these talks, coupled with recent events in Mbarara resulting from bullying, lead to design of the Impact Through Peers project. 


 This project will work with 6 secondary schools and train 6 Peer Group Trainers to work with the students. The students will be supported as they work with their peers and discuss different topics every month.  Topics will include: Life Skills I & II, Reproductive health I,II & III, Sexuality, Career Planning I & II, Gender, Leadership skills, Environmental Issues and Stigma/Bullying

At the end of  the twelve sessions, an exhibition will be organized with presentations from students to spread information on peer groups and engage the  whole school population. 

The Hillman Medical Education Fund of Rose Charities has provided the funding  funding for  "IMPACT THROUGH PEERS "  Project in Uganda 

Sopheaps new leg !

Sopheap is a 44 year old grandmother living in a very basic house with just one room, and two outside walls. The other two walls are tarps. The wind and rain belted down for about 20 minutes while we were visiting, which was an experience in itself. Such limited shelter in those conditions. She has diabetes, a common condition in Cambodia, and as a result had her leg amputated last year. By the time Sopheap was referred to us, she was very weak and did not have enough strength to move around, or stand on one leg. She was not suitable to be fitted with a prosthesis until she had enough strength.

Sokny worked with Sopheap and she practiced her exercises regularly at home, developing her strength. This month, we took her to Veteran’s International (VI) who assessed her and cast her for a prosthesis. Last week she was fitted with it. We followed her up at home yesterday to assess her progress and work on gait re-training. She has only had one fitting, and will need some adaptions made at her next VI appointment, but she is already doing extremely well!! She is very happy, saying she is now able to move around the village and visit her friends. She is looking forward to learning how to walk without the crutches. Great work Sopheap!!                              Joanna Thomson. Rose Cambodia Rehab Centre.

Haiti team gears up for new teaching initiative

Prof Karen Schafer teaching

The third Rose Charities Haiti  course in neonatal care is now on track to depart November 7th 2011.  Nursing Professor Karen Schafer from Vancouver and Dr's Campbell (Toronto) and Piuze (Quebec) have invited nurses and doctors from s hospitals in Port au Prince to attend .

Scenes from the August 2011 Rose Charities New Zealand / Nellie Tier Auckland Fundraiser

Chairperson Trish Gribben introduces Rose Charities NZ Trustees (left to right) Mike Webber, Pip Neville-Barton, Jane Midgley and John Veale

Sparkling rose wine and a picture of patients waiting at Lumbini Eye Institute, Nepal, set the scene for the fundraiser held in Auckland on August 14.

Rose Charities NZ chairperson Trish Gribben with Patron Lady June Hillary and volunteer Rosemary Hassan at the fund-raising screening  of the documentary, "Out of the Darkness" , about a remote surgical eye camp in Nepal