Southern Ethiopia - Gwent Health Link

Present: Pam Powell (minutes), Peter Sampson (Chair), Melrose East, Biku Ghosh, Robyn Phillips, Brydon Williams, Cath Price, Peter Dale, Ruth Hanks, Hannah Murch, Dave Williams

Apologies: Peter Smith, Jill Curtis, Jane Hervé, Iestyn Harrigan, Henrietta Blackmore, Cath Butterfield, Jill Summors, Sally Venn

Minutes of last meeting: The minutes of the last meeting were agreed as an accurate record. 

Matters arising

Finance/Fund transfer: There are still some outstanding matters but they are being addressed slowly. The pay-as you-earn income is still not being paid into the new account. Also, charity giving and gift aid issues have not been settled and this amounts to approximately £12,000 which is still outstanding. The new account is now being used for all new expenditure and income.

Community link: There was poor attendance at the last meeting and another one is planned for May 19th to discuss the future of this link.

Fundraising: There is still some money outstanding from the sale of the calendars and Christmas cards. Peter will email those persons to remind them.

Motorbike ambulances: These are still in excellent condition. The new one at Shone has been used 90 times to date for bringing mothers to the health centre and taking them back home after delivery. There have been problem with getting spare parts. Biku has spoken to the company and found that some of the parts are the same as those used by Honda and another Chinese motorbike which is used in Ethiopia, so this problem has now been rectified. In total the four motorbike ambulances have been used 350 to 400 times. It is planned to donate two more motorbike ambulances on the next visit, one will be in the Gedeo zone and the location of the second is yet to be decided by the region. These have been funded by the MUSTSE charity.

University students: Biku gave a talk to students at Swansea University. 3 students from St. Bartholomew’s hospital have arrived in Hawassa, two students from Liverpool and two more students from Cardiff will also visit their in the next few months. They will spend few weeks in the Hawassa hospital and 1 week at the Wondogenet health centres.

Wales for Africa Health Links report: The report produced by Biku and Robyn is at the printers and will be presented at the Wales for Africa Health Links Conference on July 8TH.

International Day of the Midwife: This takes place on May 5th at the University of Glamorgan and the theme this year is obstetric fistula. Biku and Melrose have arranged for Professor Gordon Williams, Medical director of the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa to attend, and he will be the Keynote Speaker. Ann Bennett, the Principal of the Midwifery college in Ethiopia will also be attending.

Wales for Africa Health Links Conference 2010: The date and venue for this meeting has been changed. This will now take place on 8th July at the Swalec Stadium, Cardiff. CF11 9XR. The topic will be ‘Changing Lives for Good’. Registration is now open. Click here to download the forms. Thanks to sponsorship from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Wales for Africa Programme this conference is free.

Melrose: She has been involved in the planning of two 20 credit modules in ‘International Women and Child Health’ for midwives and nurses. One will be an introductory foundation course and the other a more advanced course for people who are actually going out to a developing country. This will be going to validation in July. These courses should then be available from September.