Four of us (Ewan Wilkinson, Jim Devaney, Katy Ayres and Tom Ingham) are going to cycle 330 miles in five days across rural Uganda to raise money and awareness for Kisiizi hospital's mental health service. All donations will go towards buying a vehicle for the hospital's mobile clinic service. This will enable greater reach into the local community and more effective after care for patients.
A third of the distance will be on dirt roads and we will stay in small local accommodation, as we will be well off the tourist routes. There will be no back up vehicle and limited space for spare parts. To make things that little bit more entertaining there are no detailed maps for much of our route so in some areas we don't know what to expect in terms of terrain climbs etc.
We are using smaller roads as the main roads are busy with trucks going down to Rwanda, and cyclists get no quarter from traffic, being expected to get off the tar road if there is other traffic around.
We are cycling from Kampala (1312m above sea level) to Kisiizi hospital (2000m). Cheshire and Wirral Partnership Mental Health trust have a link with the hospital and are helping them develop their mental health services.
We have set up a blog at http://bikeuganda.wordpress.com/ so you can hear about our adventures.
We are raising money to buy a vehicle to enable the mental health staff to increase the number of community clinics they run. This will cost £9000. At present there are only two outreach clinics, which makes it harder to ensure that former patients get their maintenance medication, as it is only available from the hospital.
The hospital is run by the church of Uganda and has to raise 80% of its budget, with just 20% coming from the government. All patients are expected to pay fees, but often those with mental illness have no money, as they may have spent all on traditional medicines before reaching the hospital.
So we are also raising money to pay for patients with mental illness who have no money. Just £10 will pay for someone to stay and be treated for 2 weeks.
For more information relating to Kisiizi Hospital's link to the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership please follow this link:
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