By Tom Neill | Operations Director
Greetings from GECC! During this time of seasonal change in North America, we would like to take this opportunity to thank YOU! Without you - our partners and donors - GECC and the Emergency Care Practitioner program would not exist. We are grateful for your generosity, belief, and for your support as we expand access to emergency care services in Uganda and beyond. In addition, I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication that the Emergency Care Practitioners (ECPs) bring to their jobs every day - providing life saving emergency care to thousands of Ugandans.
This report serves to update you on the progress of GECC's microproject to Train 5 Emergency Care Practitioners for One Year of which you were one of the 42 donors. This project was active to receive donations for three months and ended on September 18, 2014. Over that time, we raised $ 4,049 that will go directly to train our next class of ECPs in 2015. Although we fell short of our goal of $7,500, your funds provide us with the opportunity to train at least three ECPs next year. We will continue to raise funds throughout 2014, including a big end of the year campaign, to reach our goal to train five ECPs in 2015.
To explain how important the ECPs are to their hospital, the surrounding community, and region, I want to share a story with you. An 11 month old boy was seen in the Emergency Department with bloody diarrhea. One of the ECPs recognized that the child could have an emergency condition called "intussusception" which is a telescoping of the bowel. She did a bedside ultrasound and confirmed the diagnosis and got the child to surgery.
One of the Ugandan doctors wrote us to explain, "What I find interesting is that this ECP recognized the need for an abdominal ultrasound despite the absence of abdominal pain or distention. Without the bedside ultrasound this boy could have been treated as a case of dysentery and would most likely have deteriorated."
Without the ECPs, this child would be another statistic, another one of the six million children who needlessly died last year. But thanks to the ECPs, thanks to GECC, and THANKS TO YOU, his life was saved. Thank you again for being part of the solution, and please consider your continued support of GECC. Please help us spread the word about our work to continue helping those who need it most!
Warm regards,
Tom Neill, MPH, MBA
Operation Director
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