Mama Jude: An Australian Nurse’s Extraordinary Other Life In Africa
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We then started having a serious problem with storage. Initially people from the church were collecting and storing donations at their homes, but reports were coming back that their sheds and even bedrooms were bulging. We went looking for a larger place to store the equipment while we waited for the container to be shipped. It so happened that our local Mitcham City Council was in temporary premises while undergoing rebuilding and had a huge warehouse attached that they didn’t need. They gave it to us for as long as we needed at no cost. We finished up with hospital, medical, nursing, dental and educational equipment valued at around $350,000 – enough to fully equip Edward’s thirty-bed hospital.
Unbeknown to me, Gillies contacted ABC TV’s 7.30 Report and suggested it might make an interesting story. Soon they were around at our house. They used some of the footage of life in Kampala that Michele Heyward shot before I left and interviewed Anthony Radford, who ran the international health and medicine course, Richard Hearn from Resthaven, and me. I showed a harrowing photo of a boy I had met on the last visit named Ronald who, along with his mother, was dying of AIDS and TB. I said that I didn’t expect either of them to be alive when I returned. The TV crew then filmed the warehouse full of equipment and outlined in the story that we were still trying to raise the $7000 needed to ship the container to Africa. The story went to air nationally two days after Christmas, and the response was stunning.
Gillies offered to take any phone calls from viewers that were passed on by the ABC. The first person who rang was from interstate and wanted to know more about the project. Gillies started excitedly talking from a faith perspective but she cut him short, saying she was an atheist. She then said she believed in people working together for good and wanted to send $7000. The next call was from a couple who were Buddhists. They also donated $7000. One woman specifically donated money for education, and later her money was used to complete a school building in a district near the hospital. A businessman from Victoria offered $10,000 to pay for generators; he said he gave the money because he knew every cent would go to Africa. A couple from Queensland offered a donation and two weeks later sent the same amount again. They would continue this fortnightly donation for four years.
In all, Gillies took hundreds of phone calls, more than 150 emails and donations ranging from $10 to $10,000. One particular caller stood out because of his heavy accent: his name was Luigi Quarisa and he rang from his home near Griffith in the New South Wales Riverina asking to talk to me. Gillies explained that he could speak to him about the project, but Luigi insisted on speaking to me. Eventually he revealed that he wanted to give some money but not before meeting me. He was so insistent that Gillies arranged it. A few days later I went to church with Gillies and there we met Luigi, his wife, Mary, and daughter, Lizabeth, who had driven more than 800 kilometres to see me.
We quickly found much in common, despite coming from vastly different backgrounds. Luigi was born in a small village in northern Italy called Castelcucco and migrated to Australia in 1950 as a twenty-year-old. On the voyage he befriended a priest who was returning to missionary work in India. When the boat docked in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Luigi was one of a handful of passengers who went ashore. This brief encounter had a profound impact on him. He realised that although he was poor in Italy (his reason for migrating), he had so much in comparison to the poor of southern Asia. He took a photo of the priest surrounded by local children and carried that picture in his wallet for the rest of his life. When he arrived in Australia, Luigi had a 500-pound debt but that didn’t stop him sending his first pay packet to the priest. That was the beginning of a lifelong habit of helping those less fortunate than himself. The Quarisas were big supporters of Mother Theresa’s Sisters of Charity and in 1993 travelled to India to witness their work firsthand.
After seeing the story on the 7.30 Report, Luigi was frustrated that the ABC didn’t indicate how donations could be made, and so his daughter, Lizabeth, eventually tracked Gillies down and helped arrange the meeting. Although they were open to giving, Luigi and Mary were wary of charities retaining large portions of donations for administration. After talking for forty minutes about Uganda, Luigi and Mary made a very generous donation. Lizabeth declared she wouldn’t miss out and dashed to the car, returning with her own cheque. As they left, Luigi and Mary insisted I promise that when Allan and I were next caravanning we would stop in Griffith for a cuppa. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
In the space of a few days we had ten times the amount of money needed to ship the container, and so the scale of plans changed dramatically. Instead of just basically equipping Edward’s hospital we could now complete it by paying for mosquito screens, electricity, plumbing and doors.
A week after the story went to air, I was at home with Allan when The 7.30 Report rang again. Because of the overwhelming response from viewers they wanted to do another interview, only this time it would be live to air with the fill-in host, George Negus. I hurriedly agreed and within a short time a van pulled into our driveway and technicians began converting Allan’s library into a mini studio. Gillies soon arrived to lend support. It was a different experience from the first time around because now I had to look straight at the camera lens and listen to George via a tiny earpiece while surrounded by lights and cables running everywhere. In my ear I could hear the introduction as they replayed part of the story of Ronald and how I had needed to find the money to ship the container. Given the speed with which events had moved since then, it seemed so long ago. Then the interview began.
GEORGE NEGUS: Judy, it’s nice to meet you, at least down the line. Apparently since that 7.30 Report went to air, things have looked up for you, there are a few generous souls up there.
JUDY: Oh, yes. We’ve been overwhelmed at the generosity of people all around Australia.
GEORGE NEGUS: How much money has been flooding into Adelaide since that report appeared?
JUDY: There has been many thousands that have been promised and just today we received quite a large cheque, and there are many more that are coming. They’re coming from people I would never have expected had money to give.
GEORGE NEGUS: How much money were you after initially?
JUDY: Seven thousand dollars.
GEORGE NEGUS: Do you think you’ve exceeded that?
JUDY: Well and truly.
GEORGE NEGUS: That must make you very happy. I guess that means your plans have now expanded themselves. There are other things that you can do when you get back to Uganda.
JUDY: All I wanted to do was to get the container to Kampala. But now it looks as though we can put on electricity in the hospital. One of the big things you need in Uganda is a safety fence, and that means a very high fence with razor wire around it. I can go ahead now when I get to Uganda and have that put around the whole hospital and what is going to be my clinic, and then from there it means that we will have security inside and I can get my friends out there. They will assist me to plant some crops, we can have some goats and be self-sufficient within the clinic. So I guess our counselling service for people dying of AIDS, education for the mothers and children is going to go ahead. This was my vision and I thought it would take about five years, and it’s going to happen a lot sooner.
GEORGE NEGUS: I looked at that original story today and you said at the time that if you could hold one Ugandan baby you felt as though this might make a difference. This is going to make a much bigger difference than that. JUDY: We can save a lot of Ugandan babies now.
GEORGE NEGUS: I imagine that your friend Edward would be rather pleased to hear this news. Does he know about it?
JUDY: No. He knows the container is coming but I haven’t actually said to him that we had been on television. I just felt that I would like to wait a couple of days to see if the money started to come in. So tonight we get on the email and I will be writing to him and I will be telling him what we can do. And in true fashion, Edward will write to me back a letter and he will
say, as he starts every letter with, ‘I am praising Jesus because of the Australian people and their generosity.’
GEORGE NEGUS: When are you heading off? Have you got that far down the track with your plans? JUDY: Yes. I am hoping to leave Australia in the first week of April, and I will be gone for three months.
GEORGE NEGUS: All the best, Judy. It’s wonderful to talk to you and actually meet you in this strange television way, but all the best to you and your project and your friends in Uganda. We know you are going to make a difference and thanks to all those people out there with big hearts who sent that money.
The response from enthusiastic supporters across the country transformed the scale of the mission. We didn’t even have a name so people just started calling it ‘The Uganda Project’. Up until now the administrative work had all been carried out in the church office, but rightly our church council thought it essential to segregate the project’s finances from that of the church. More than $70,000 had been sent to us and we needed to show all that money was going to Africa. A committee was formed in both Adelaide and Kampala so this rapidly expanding project was run in a consultative and accountable manner. Gillies agreed to chair the Adelaide end and was joined by Allan, Anthony Radford and two church members, Ian Attenborough and Fred Wilson.
Fred helped collect the equipment from Resthaven and confessed to finding the work ‘contagiously exciting’. His enthusiasm continued when Gillies asked him to dust off his accounting skills and write receipts for the donations. He soon became a lynch pin in his role as committee treasurer, while his wife, Ailee, became an incredible support and wonderful friend.
Gillies asked Fred to help because he was finding it difficult keeping up with his pastoral work and administer this fast-growing project. He was also dealing with his own personal tragedy as his only son, Nigel, was killed in a car accident outside Brisbane on 10 February, the same day hundreds of supporters gathered for a barbecue celebration at the warehouse. At the memorial service, Gillies asked that donations be made to help Edward’s hospital in lieu of flowers, and $3500 was collected and saved for a special purpose.
With the warehouse groaning under twenty-six tonnes of equipment and supplies, we paid professionals to pack the container. They completed in three hours what would have taken us a week, and I’m sure we wouldn’t have squeezed everything in. It was packed to within two cardboard thicknesses of the door and I ceremonially placed the last item in – a two-dollar broom.
As well as coordinating the equipment collection, Allan had meticulously noted it for customs purposes. The paperwork was tedious but he knew every screw and bolt in that container. Eventually his list for customs was for 582 items:
30 hospital beds
30 mattresses
31 pillows
30 bed overlays
15 bedside lockers
2 pillow risers
1 small chair overlay
2 bed overhead handgrips
1 cradle
1 nurse’s clinic desk and chair
1 bed screen
1 four-drawer steel record cabinet
1 two-drawer steel record cabinet
5 intravenous stands
13 hospital chairs
2 doctor’s examination stools
1 doctor’s travelling chest
1 doctor’s high stool
1 shower stool
1 small four-drawer nurse’s cupboard
1 small wooden nurse’s locker
6 commode chairs
3 cleaning trolleys
1 doctor’s desk and two chairs
1 desk light
2 pick-up sticks for disabled patients
91 walking sticks
27 walking frames
3 support handrails
14 three-wheel walking frames
26 pairs wooden crutches
8 pairs metal crutches
5 metal elbow crutches
8 single wooden crutches
13 wheelchairs
2 urinals
13 bedpans
1 toilet raiser seat
3 medical infra-red heat lamps
2 hot/cold water storage urns
1 hospital trolley/examination bed
19 storage boxes for surgical supplies
1 bed bolster
2 small boxes sun protection hats (for clinic use)
2 small boxes surgical and medical dressings
21 small boxes surgical supplies and dressings
1 small quantity dental instruments
1 small box speculums and syringes
1 woollen overlay for prevention of bed sores
1 piece vinyl & mat for nurse’s clinic floor
1 piece shadecloth for nurse’s clinic roof
2 padded waiting room seats
1 small whiteboard for medical notes
1 blackboard for medical/nursing training purposes
1 pack toilet paper for clinic use
1 small electric jug for clinic use
1 electric toaster for clinic use
1 hospital water jug
1 small clinic table
7 small boxes of medical/nursing/educational books
1 box of medical and surgical textbooks
1 small box baby clothes/soft toys for clinic
1 small box Bibles and soft toys for hospital children
5 litres therapeutic ultrasound conductor (gel)
1 ultrasound instrument
3 electric autoclave units
1 small folding instrument table
1 X-ray viewer
1 operating theatre table with equipment and steps
1 doctor’s examination table with steps
1 operating theatre instrument trolley
2 operating theatre stools
1 patient weighing chair
1 operating theatre anaesthetic machine
2 clinic ceiling ventilators
1 clinic broom
1 door frame and door for clinic
2 windows and frames for clinic
1 radio for clinic
1 clothes airer for clinic
1 fibre light projector
1 laparoscopic machine
2 weighing scales
1 box paint for clinic
1 can external heat reflective paint
hospital bed sheets, draw sheets, blankets, pillow cases,
towels and bedcovers
When I saw the final list of equipment I was suddenly overwhelmed at the generosity of so many people and organisations. This was really the moment that the Uganda Australia Christian Outreach (UACO) was born.
Our container was booked to sail eight days later, and Allan and I drove to Port Adelaide to see it go. When we got to the gate of the shipping area there was restricted access, but after Allan explained to the man in charge what we were doing he ordered us into his car and drove us to the dock. Our container had been painted white and was clearly visible on the ship. I had tears in my eyes as it eased into St Vincent Gulf on its way to Uganda. I was soon to follow.
Chapter Twelve
ON THE PLANE FROM London to Kampala, the stewardess asked if I would like a glass of champagne. I asked her for two. I didn’t need any Dutch courage but hoped soon to be celebrating. Tucking the two miniature bottles into my luggage, I settled down knowing that somewhere, thousands of metres below in the Indian Ocean, the shipping container was approaching Mombasa in southern Kenya. Edward had told me that my first two years in Uganda were an apprenticeship. Perhaps this time I would deliver more – starting with enough equipment to fill his hospital. And this time I had a real goal: to set up a clinic within the grounds of the hospital and educate the mamas so it would become a community health hub. Each walking clinic would be an opportunity to tell mums about the clinic and how different services would be provided on different days. And deep down I knew that getting the container to the hospital grounds, emptying it and converting it into a clinic would be as much as I could handle.
; I arrived in April 2001 at the start of the wet season. Edward, Rose and little Judy welcomed me at Entebbe airport. Judy had weighed less than two kilograms when she was born and still seemed to be catching up. She was now twelve months old and, having never seen a mzungu before, she was initially wary but slowly warmed up. That afternoon I showed a video to Edward and Rose of an open day we had at home before packing the container to give Edward an idea of what to expect when it arrived. They called me God’s angel and prayed I would have a long life and go straight to heaven when I die. I said I didn’t mind when I died but that I just wanted that container to arrive intact.
Within a few days we heard the container had already arrived at Mombasa and was on its way to Nairobi. From there it’s a day’s drive to the Ugandan border and then on to Kampala, all up an 1100-kilometre journey on the back of a truck. There were plenty of horror stories of shipments being held up for months on end, bribes having to be paid and even containers being looted. In Uganda, palms get greased at almost every official level; it is common for parents to pay teachers bribes to get their kids into university. So Edward called it a miracle from God that the container was moving so quickly. But, as I have learnt, few things are straightforward in Uganda.