CUES Year in Review

The 2021/22 year has been a very challenging but productive period. The global situation certainly made things interesting, but hard work and commitment by teams on both sides of the world has overcome most of these obstacles and made the program successful.

The beginning of 2021 was very difficult. Due to pandemic restrictions and some management issues Liberty Emergency Care Collaborative was not functioning at all, and we lost the lease on our original station. It was decided to shut down LECC and start again afresh. A new management team was formed, and they very quickly registered a new company. A new station was leased in a far superior location in the heart of Kawempe, the majority of assets were transferred, and all was ready when a CUES board member braved the global travel restrictions and arrived to assist in February. Tweyambe Emergency Services was officially launched on April 1, 2021.

Tweyambe means “We Help Each Other”. This team has been operating for well over a year now, doing between 60 and 75 calls each month providing no-cost service to the people of Kawempe. They have also been doing community outreach programs, offering wellness clinics and health education to citizens within the district.

The easing of pandemic restrictions by the end of 2021 allowed us to resume a slightly reduced education program for early 2022. Three CUES volunteers travelled to Kampala in February and presented an intensive 2-week Emergency Medical Responder course to 12 new students. These students will be now able to use their skills in the community, as volunteers or working for other ambulance services in Uganda. Upgrading for existing Tweyambe employees was also undertaken, with the new skills and tools provided expanding the services that can be offered during calls.

We are currently preparing for Phase 6 in February of 2023. In this phase we will be once again providing the 2-week course, and hope to have enough volunteers to also do some short CPR and AED training sessions for groups of local people in partnership with our Tweyambe team. We will once again be fund-raising and asking for donations from you, our much-appreciated supporters. Costs are rising dramatically, especially fuel and electricity costs, and we want to maintain or even expand our services to the people of Uganda.

If you want to know more about our programs, donate, or wish to volunteer to work with us either in Canada or in Uganda, please feel free to contact us. We can be reached at 780 512 9652 for calls and texts, or at hythemedic@hotmail.com