THE KNIGHTS OF JERUSALEM
A TALK BY ANGUS HAY
1715HRS WEDNESDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2011
THE PARISH CENTRE, ST.COLUMBA’S CHURCH, 5 HIGH STREET, BANCHORY
BY KIND PERMISSION OF CANON ANDREW MANN.
The story of the Knights of Malta
1715hrs Drinks/Tea/Coffee 1745hrs Talk starts 1900 talk ends
1930hrs Mass at St. Columba’s for those who wish to attend.
Cost: £5.00 per person. Payment at Entrance.
Presentations to the Foundation of Hope
The Foundation of Hope is a wonderful Kibera charity founded by one of our young grads, David Dinda. It promotes decency, tolerance and health awareness through sport and performing arts and operates from the upper classrooms in the former St Aloysius Gonzaga High School buildings near Roundabout 42. After they had performed for us, we gave them presents - a camcorder, presented by Lucia, and two sets of football strips, presented by Michael.
Lamu Laboratory
An essential part of any hospital, especially in Africa where TB, HIV and malaria are so prevalent, is the laboratory. Lamu has a highly-skilled lab staff but they have to improvise with very poor equipment.
Here is the staff:
Here are cultures being grown in a tattered old case with an ordinary striplight:
And here are slides with blood being tested for malaria being dried out using a rusty old fan:
Not strictly part of the lab, but here is the blood bank. All blood has to come through the testing centre at Mombasa and kept at a temperature of around 7 degrees. In Lamu it is stored in a domestic fridge and the door opened from time to time to stop the blood from getting too cold.
Here is the staff:
Here are cultures being grown in a tattered old case with an ordinary striplight:
And here are slides with blood being tested for malaria being dried out using a rusty old fan:
Not strictly part of the lab, but here is the blood bank. All blood has to come through the testing centre at Mombasa and kept at a temperature of around 7 degrees. In Lamu it is stored in a domestic fridge and the door opened from time to time to stop the blood from getting too cold.
Babies
In case we forget the focus of this part of our activity - healthy mothers and healthy babies - here are two babies delivered by C section performed by Dr Nurein while we were there.
Lamu Operating Theatre
Although we have narrowed our involvement to the maternity pavillion, it is important to realise that despite Lamu's having no roads and very basic medical facilities, Dr Nurein has to carry out all the functions, medical and surgical, of a large hospital. Just to show that Africa has its fair share of sweaty nightcaps, here is one of Dr Nurein's operations which hit the headlines:
Lamu Hospital - gifts already given
Thanks to the organisational skills of Alice in Nairobi, the Companions and other friends have now given several items of important equipment to Dr Nurein and his team but there is a long way to go. All of the donated equipment is clearly marked as Order of Malta property.
The first picture shows the operating theatre with the old lights, which barely function. Alice has now ordered a new set of lights, whcih arrived while we were there, but which have still to be installed.
This is a good quality domestic fridge, but as well as keeping normal things chilled, it also has to double as the blood bank (see the next entry) which is not desirable as the door has to opened frequently to stop the blood from getting too cold - a rather Heath Robinson solution.
Here is the equipment steriliser:
and finally the two delivery beds in the maternity unit.
The first picture shows the operating theatre with the old lights, which barely function. Alice has now ordered a new set of lights, whcih arrived while we were there, but which have still to be installed.
This is a good quality domestic fridge, but as well as keeping normal things chilled, it also has to double as the blood bank (see the next entry) which is not desirable as the door has to opened frequently to stop the blood from getting too cold - a rather Heath Robinson solution.
Here is the equipment steriliser:
and finally the two delivery beds in the maternity unit.
King Fahd Hospital Lamu
The King Fahd Hospital, Lamu, is one of the projects adopted by the Companions of the Order of Malta. One of our Companions, Suzanna, is a teacher at a prep school in Cambridge which she is hoping will join us in supporting Dr Mohidin Nurein, the superintendent of the hospital so we made this little film for him to speak to the children of the school directly.
Companions working in Kibera, Nairobi
Nine Companions are now working in Nairobi and have spent two days painting Laini Saba Primary School.
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