Elizabeth Ward
Mildmay UK provides annual funding for Elizabeth Ward in the paediatric care centre of Mildmay Hospital, Kampala. This is the only facility in the region providing high-quality care to children with the most complex cases of HIV-associated health conditions.
Elizabeth Ward treats over 500 children a year from underprivileged families who require specialist care. Children are admitted to Elizabeth Ward with conditions such as HIV, tuberculosis, meningitis and malaria. Care for each child is highly personalised to meet their particular needs, and support is also provided for their families.
Children who come to Mildmay are very sick as a result of their HIV - especially children who have been recently diagnosed and are not on medication, or those with aggressive diseases or terminal illnesses. The services provided on Elizabeth Ward enable most of the babies and children to become well enough to take antiretroviral drugs to prolong their lives. With the right treatment, babies born with HIV can hope to have a normal life expectancy.
Once a child has been admitted to Elizabeth Ward they are able to access emergency food supplies and basic materials to ensure they are not repeatedly readmitted. Caregivers are trained to build and encourage support within the home and assess and ensure the child’s well-being, protection and education. They make sure the child attends vital clinic appointments and takes their HIV medication.
There are also around 1,500 indirect beneficiaries including family members, communities and partners, who are reached with HIV prevention and information which can then cascade down to the community as a whole.
Elizabeth Ward is entirely supported by charitable donations from the UK
It costs £10 per child per day, to provide the special care these children need. These services are FREE to the patient and their family.
Case studies
Sadly, children sometimes die on Elizabeth Ward. This is also part of the work of the team - to provide loving, calm and dignified deaths for children who are too sick to save. The atmosphere and services on Elizabeth Ward are geared towards children, with specially trained nurses who are able to comfort and care for each individual child.
Betty
Betty was just 16 years old when she died at Mildmay Uganda’s paediatric inpatient unit. The children who come to Elizabeth Ward are often perilously close to death – in Betty’s case it was pulmonary tuberculosis.
“They come when they are completely wasted and, of course, some don’t make it,” says Harriet Nakanja, a nurse at the unit.
Mildmay is able to offer acute paediatric palliative care to ease the suffering of its young patients. Many get better and return home; those, like Betty, who are too sick to save, receive the very best end of life care. It is care that is simply not available elsewhere in Uganda.
Cate
“Mildmay taught me that being born with HIV is not a death sentence. I want to show the world how to live positively with HIV,”
says Cate Nakidde.
Cate was operated on for abdominal TB, but after recovering in the Mildmay paediatric inpatient unit, she is once again a healthy, bubbly girl. Now 15 years old she is a leading light in Mildmay Uganda’s Noah’s Ark children’s choir.
Please support Elizabeth Ward by donating to our Uganda Fund
The services provided by Elizabeth Ward make a crucial difference to hundreds of very ill children every year. On top of this, the specialist training given to healthcare workers and the sharing of knowledge beyond Mildmay Uganda itself is helping to improve paediatric care in Uganda as a whole.
In 2021, thanks to your generosity, we were able to provide over £21,000 in funding to Mildmay Uganda.
Please help us give more this year to support this essential facility. Our annual target is £20,000.
You can donate online, or you can send us a cheque, specifying that you would like your donation to go to the Uganda Fund, and made payable to Mildmay Mission Hospital to:
The Charity Office
Mildmay
19 Tabernacle Gardens,
London E2 7DZ