Revisiting the Jappineh Health Centre

African Oyster Trust director Dee Bixley shares some reflections on her recent visit to the African Oyster Trust projects. This is the first of four updates, the rest of which will follow over the coming days...

Kira, Kemo, Fanding and I head up country to the Jarra Region, where the Trust supports the Jappineh Health Centre, a psychiatric service, and a school.  

The many boxes of medication with us must be kept cool, so we’re in a hire car with air-conditioned luxury.  
Kira’s own car has no air-con.  As she says, it’s reliable and very economical to run, so why change?  And she is not impressed with charities who waste money on costly cars for their staff.                     
         
During a community meeting in the Centre’s grounds, Kira and the team report on a very busy 2018.  The need for a further nurse is underlined, to help with the increasing flow of patients.  This is being addressed by Officer in Charge, Ansu Manjang.   

It’s a lively meeting with many points of view, proving the community’s passion for its clinic.  The Bank Book is passed around, and there are updates on significant progress towards long-term sustainability.     

Another development is that under the auspices of The Global Fund - an organisation designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - Gambia’s Ministry of Health & Social Welfare has built a brand-new laboratory alongside the Centre.  Kira has since been advised by the Ministry that they will donate a fair few items for the lab.

The Trust continues to fundraise for more equipment, and to maintain supplies of all the consumable items needed to run a laboratory successfully.

There is 1 doctor for every 15,000 patients in Gambia.  If that isn’t a statistic that underlines the importance of the Jappineh Health Centre, I don’t know what is.  Our experienced nurses and technicians serve a catchment area of 30,000, with up to 1,000 patients a month.