JM runs a shelter for the LGBTQ+ community in relatively rural Uganda providing emergency housing, food, PrEP, and basic medical care for those who need it. Acts10 has paid his rent for the last couple of years at $200/month. We have also assisted with food, utilities, and caring for JM’s ailing father as JM would not be able to afford his medications. JM’s shelter used to receive government funding, largely sponsored by the US government for HIV prevention, but this has ceased in the last few years. Lately, his safety has been seriously threatened due to protests in Kenya that have spread to Uganda. Lurking in the shadows, people spy out his property at night presumably to plan attacks or to report homosexuals to the authorities. He has had security cameras, but vandals hit them. Attacks on shelters for the gay community occur regularly—either by civilians or law enforcement. Meanwhile, JM tries to care for others in the LGBTQ+ community and for sex workers who need PrEP. He regularly has 10-20 people coming to the shelter daily and some stay there.
Relatively recently, Acts10 helped a young woman by the name of Sylvia through JM and his shelter. Sylvia is a sex worker and finds herself pregnant. She had negligible prenatal care, but she did get to the hospital for a few visits. However, they did not do even rudimentary, routine screening tests on her. For example, STD testing, including syphilis. After she delivered at the hospital and returned to the shelter, she continued to bleed, to have pelvic pain, have an abnormal discharge, and developed a fever. She returned and received treatment for gonorrhea and chlamydia. The doctors STILL did not test for syphilis. About 10 days later, her newborn developed a fever and would not breastfeed well. Fortunately, JM texted me for advice. I asked if the boy had a fever, and when Sylvia reported that he did, I urged him to get Sylvia and the child to the hospital IMMEDIATELY! Do not wait until morning, do not wait for an hour. That child had neonatal sepsis until proven otherwise, and he could have meningitis, possibly from syphilis! The baby had had a fever for at least 24 hours before they even contacted me. I prayed for the best—hoping for a full recovery for what did, in fact, prove to be neonatal sepsis with meningitis from syphilis. At least at this point the numbskulls at the hospital treated both Mom and baby–Darryl. Acts10 paid for their treatment. Darryl has recovered, and time will tell if he sustained cognitive damage. So far, he seems to hear and see normally. Sylvia needed help to increase her milk supply after his nursing decreased and her supply diminished. I advised getting a good latch, adding fenugreek supplements to her diet, pumping with a quality hand pump, or expressing milk regularly if she could not get a good pump. I sent a copy of a breastfeeding book to JM for future reference as well, because he has no children and did not know anything about breastfeeding. Sylvia and Darryl continue to do well!
We also funded the treatment for a child of a shelter member who sustained a cut on his leg. They had no idea if he had received the appropriate vaccinations such as tetanus, and the child developed a fever after a couple of days when JM texted me. I provided funding for his antibiotics and a tetanus shot. He made a full recovery.
Acts10 provided $3000 in funding to try to get JM out safely. Meanwhile, another contact of ours, I’ll call him Bruce, who recently joined his LGBTQ+-ally organization to Acts10, has worked tirelessly over the last several weeks to find a program to get him out urgently with the Acts10 funding. Bruce has known and worked with JM for the last ten years or more. UNHCR takes too long to relocate refugees. Generally, it takes six to ten years and sometimes more. JM would not survive that long. Hopefully, he can get to Canada or possibly England in the near future. He will have to leave his father—who was hospitalized in July with acute coronary syndrome and actually received a cardiac catheterization with balloon angioplasty and a stent. He takes aspirin, carvedilol, clopidogrel, and a statin now. Hopefully, an ACE Inhibitor or an ARB as well. Apparently, he received MUCH better care than Sylvia did for her pregnancy, delivery, and complications thereafter. I can only suspect prejudice against women and especially against sex workers—if she informed anyone. Nobody else helped her to breastfeed or followed up with her at all. Nobody can afford formula on a regular basis there. Your baby breastfeeds or dies. Acts10 funded his hospitalization and funds his ongoing medications for the above as well as for an antidepressant medication. Perhaps, JM can arrange for his father’s care after he reaches safety in another country.
