Medicines to Clinic in Zambia

Medicines Leave for Zambia

Giving Children Hope has sent out another medicine package to treat patients in Zambia. According to the Bright Hope International web site, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has left more than 15% of the population in Zambia infected with AIDS and more than one million orphans. These medicines go to support their Home Based Care Program that supports AIDS orphans.

2010.06.23 by Harmony Trevino

Medicines Save Lives in Zambia

Below is a report from our partners, Bright Hope International, regarding a shipment of medicines Giving Children Hope shipped to them in March:

“A shipment of basic drugs was received at the District Pharmacy in Samfya on April 26 after the District Health Management Team cleared them through customs in Lusaka and transported them 700 km to Samfya. This the second consignment of drugs to reach Samfya through the kind donation of Giving Children Hope and Bright Hope working with their local partner Samfya Community of Care Providers. This shipment supplements the monthly consignment of drugs that are received monthly from the Government’s Central Medical Stores in Lusaka for the 32 government clinics in Samfya District. Health care and prescribed drugs are free in Zambia, but there never seems to be enough medicine available in Samfya. The private pharmacies do not store drugs appropriately and many people cannot afford to buy them anyway.

We visited Rodney Kalaba, the District Pharmacist, to see what impact the donated drugs are having. He said the drugs have been a great benefit to the community and ease some of the tension as clinicians often prescribe drugs that are out of stock. The clinicians are grateful for the topical creams that they don’t normally have access to and antibiotics that normally run out very quickly. They have a broader spectrum of drugs to utilize for treating specific ailments when the donated drugs are available. The children’s suspensions and dissolvable tablets make it so much easier to administer drugs to children who have had to take portions of adult doses in the past and many mothers give up administering the medicine because it is too difficult to get their children to take it because it tastes bad or is difficult to swallow. Rodney said there are very few medicines locally available that are easy for children to take.

There was an unusually high incidence of malaria in Luapula and Eastern Province during April and May. Many cases that were difficult to treat and many patients hospitalized as a result. The donated quinine saved many lives during this period.”

2010.06.04 by Harmony Trevino

Pharmaceuticals Shipped to Zambia

GCHope shipped a package of pharmaceuticals to Zambia on March 27, 2010.

2010.06.04 by GCHope

Updates from Samfya

Here is an update from our partners in the field that have received the pharmaceuticals:

Samfya District Health Management Team Update for Essential Drug Needs and Uses through on-going partnership between Giving Children Hope, Willow Creek Community Church and Bright Hope International

A visit to the Samfya Stage II Clinic found the District pharmacists busy dividing up the 25 clinic packs they receive from the government monthly to send out to 32 rural clinics. The pallet of donated essential drugs received in March 2009 are “long gone, yet much appreciated” according to Mr Zulu, acting Director of Health for Samfya District. The 32 rural clinics which were given the drugs to use for their patients used most of them within 2 months. The donated drugs filled the gap left by the government shipment that the clinics normally receive monthly, but often only last for only two weeks at the rural health clinics.

July 2009 promoted “Child Health Week” for children under 5 years old. The health department vehicle sent a reminder message to all mobile phones through the mobile phone network that parents and guardians to should bring their children for vitamins and de-worming tablets. The District health department vehicle traveled around to designated sites to examine, weigh and provide the medicines and supplements to all children under 5 years of age. The donated de-worming drugs were especially appreciated because they were fruit-flavored and the children were left with a “good taste in their mouth”.

At the clinic, patients receive drugs from the clinic pharmacist through a small barred window designated for this purpose. The pharmacist provides instructions on how and when to take the drugs. Patients are examined and drugs are provided free of charge at government health facilities, however, when they run out of medicine at the clinic, the patients are not always able to find them elsewhere and if they do, they cannot always afford to purchase them.

When someone is sick and admitted to the clinic in-patient ward, a family member has to come and take care of the basic needs and feeding of the patient. Even bed linens are brought from home. There are not enough nurses to manage the needs of all the patients and the clinics do not have the resources to provide food. A patient too weak to sit up is nursed by his wife. Their baby plays on the hospital floor. Seeing their family picture on the camera screen brings a bit of cheer to the otherwise dire situation. Clearly, the rural clinics do not have the financial resources to provide anything more than basic services. Donated drugs take some of the pressure off the clinics when they have to decide what services they will be able to afford on a monthly basis. The generosity of those who have made the donation possible is not taken for granted by Samfya community and health workers.

2010.01.20 by GCHope

Pharmaceuticals Arrive Safely in Samfya

Here is an update from our partners in the field that have received the pharmaceuticals:

Essential Drug Assistance to Samfya District Health Management Board through kind donation of Bright Hope International, Willow Creek Community Church and Giving Children Hope

In March 2009. a shipment of essential drugs arrived at the Samfya Health District in Zambia. The 32 rural health centers, District Stage II Clinic and two mission hospitals which serve a population of more than 200,000 receive monthly drug disbursements from the Samfya District Pharmacy, but the pharmacy is rarely able to meet the drug needs of patients in the District. The drugs donated to the District are a much appreciated supplement to the standard package of drugs provided by the Ministry of Health. Normally, when the District runs out of drugs, which are given free of charge, patients have to purchase the drugs from a private pharmacy, if they can find them, and there is no guarantee of their viability.

The Director of Health, Mr Zulu, expressed his sincere thanks not only to the donors who provided the drugs, but also to those who facilitated the logistics of getting them all the way to Lusaka. Sometimes, the equipment and supplies available for developing countries are not practical for donation due to the cost of getting them from Europe or North America to Zambia.

The Director of Health and District Pharmacists commented on the usefulness of all the drugs in the shipment. Due to high demand, some will not last more than one or two months, but they expect that for most of the drugs received, they will provide an adequate supply for patients in Samfya for most of this year.

Fansidar is a drug given to pregnant women as preventative treatment for malaria throughout their pregnancy, but the District doesn’t receive it with their regular drug consignment and have to buy it when they have funds available. The 5000 tablets received will assist 1600 women in the District to have a pregnancy without complications due to malaria.

Child Health Week is coming up in June. Children under 5 years of age are usually given mebendazole for routine deworming. This time, the District will be able to offer flavored tablets to these children from the shipment received.

Thank you for partnering with Bright Hope, Samfya Community of Care Providers and the other stakeholders working to improve health care in Samfya.

2009.03.18 by Harmony Trevino

Medicines Shipped

Pharmaceuticals have been shipped to the clinic in Zambia, which will help serve thousands.

2009.02.14 by Harmony Trevino