Thames Valley Air Ambulance

Thames Valley Air Ambulance is a charity at the frontline of saving lives. We provide emergency medical care by air and land to patients in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Our critical care paramedics and doctors are highly trained and ready for any eventuality. We bring the hospital to the patient, giving you the best chance when the worst happens. Every day, somebody in our community could be in urgent need of our service. We rely solely on the generous support of the public. Your support allows us to deliver care to the most critically ill and injured people night and day, 365 days a year.

Thames Valley Air Ambulance is known for being at the frontline of saving lives, but the aftercare we offer is another vital service to help people come to terms with what was probably the most traumatic experience of their life. We were one of the first air ambulances in the country to introduce a Patient Liaison Manager to support patients and their loved ones on their recovery journey. Read more on our Spotlight page

For further information please contact tvairambulance.org.uk/

World Sight Foundation

July 2021 WSF Update

Just an update on what we have been doing during this extraordinary year ... We have not been able to make any teaching trips abroad this year and at the moment the prospects for travel remain very uncertain. We keep in regular touch with our partners in Africa, India and China as well as Brazil and the Philippines where we had planned new initiatives this year.
During the year we have concentrated our efforts on producing a manual for those engaged in ophthalmic primary care in different parts of the world. By using QR codes throughout the text we have connected the reader via smartphone to numerous illustrations on our website. This has made the manual affordable to even the most impoverished worker. The contents of the manual were approved and improved by a wide range of our ophthalmic connections in different parts of the world, to make sure that what was written was appropriate for those for whom it is intended. Many of these overseas friends also contributed illustrations of a wide range of ophthalmic conditions seen in their countries. The response to this work-published in March 2021 has, so far, been very encouraging. We are now engaging with the matter of translation into various languages in due course.

The other main activity of the charity during this year has been to engage in distance learning once again aimed at primary care workers. We have taken part in various zoom meetings but we are keen to develop our own style in this area of work to meet the needs of the audience we wish to target. The work will consist of teaching video presentations and specially adapted lecture style talks. This initiative will be developed during the current year and we will be able to link up with our partners abroad-most of whom are still under the Covid cosh and not able to do much at the moment.
We have over a number of years supported ophthalmic nurse education in Lesotho. This is to ensure that these nurses are able to provide ophthalmic care in the rural areas of the country. The training courses are starting again this year and WSF will be supporting the teaching of 10 nurses.
Anthony Chignell, Chairman, July 2021

Turquoise Mountain

The Kamuli Mission Hospital Uganda

This Mission hospital, north of Kampala, is run by local nuns. Doctors from the UK and Sweden travel to work there, for weeks at a time, in a voluntary capacity and stay in newly built, dedicated accommodation for their sole use, as shown below during construction, but close to completion.
The words below are from Eleanor, Ali and May’s daughter, who volunteered to work at the hospital. Above is a picture of her with some children from the local village, who found seeing themselves in a photo on her phone absolutely hilarious!!
'In November 2015 I was very fortunate to travel approximately 4,000 miles across the world to the small village of Kamuli which is about 4 hours outside of Entebbe, the capital of Uganda.
I will be honest and say that I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was nervous of being out of my comfort zone, witnessing death and disease, being away from my family and also not being a help to anyone as I am not a qualified nurse.
The accommodation for visitors was fantastic, which was sponsored by our Foundation. It has made a huge difference to the hospital and their staff as they can accommodate the doctors and volunteers now, which almost halves their work and honestly saves more lives.
The conditions in the hospital are better than they were, but still not great. Cleanliness is a problem as well as a lack of electricity. Apart from the mosquitos which spread Malaria, there are also dozens of bats which frequent the wards and they carry Ebola and HIV.
In 2 weeks I witnessed 4 still born births, which as you can imagine, is utterly heart breaking. It can be for many reasons and when I asked they said this is totally normal. That means that around a hundred new born babies die every year because of the poor quality of life and care that they receive. Money goes a long way in Africa but especially in Kamuli. The average person earns roughly £50 a year. From our perspective, that is very low and there is so much we can do to help them that could literally change their lives.'
In August 2017, due to the success of the Kamuli Friends Charity’s fundraising efforts a new surgical ward was commissioned, which incorporated a paediatric unit and these building works were completed in 2018 and now enable both staff and patients to enjoy the benefits of a modern and purpose-built hospital wing.

For further information or to support the hospital either financially or by offering your time and talents please contact www.friendsofkamulimissionhospital.org

Refugee Camp in Erbil, Iraq

Refugee Camp in Dibaga, Iraq