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Ker & Downey President David Marek and his wife Gana are in Uganda this week handing out medications and insecticide-treated nets with the Nets for Africa Program. Check out his update below and continue to check back for updates throughout the week.

Today we completed our first two-day program at our first church just down from Sipi Falls. I don’t know if it’s rumor or fact that Sipi Falls got its name when Stanley and Livingstone were exploring the Nile and found the falls.  Stanley, finding the waters of the falls looking so enticing said to Livingstone, “I’ve just got to take a sipi of that water.”  The rest is history.

People

One lady came to us yesterday with a broken leg; the result of a child attacking the mother with a heavy garden hoe.  Our crew loaded her in the van and took her to the hospital in Mbale where we learned today that she now has a cast on her leg.  Total cost of this procedure was $100.

After the rains of yesterday the roads were very slick and our driver did a great job of keeping us on the red gumbo roads. One vehicle in front of us was stuck in the muddy road.

Karen (a woman in our group) and Gana did a masterful job of filling pill bags with precise quantities of various medications to treat malaria, worms, pains, heartburn, vitamin deficiencies and others. Michael (a man in our group) took over my self-proclaimed title of Net Fulfillment Coordinator so that Doug and I could spend the morning talking with the many people about various pains, wayward husbands, and people asking for financial help so they can send their children to school. There were also standard requests to drive away the demons that come to them in their sleep.

Today we distributed about 1,700 nets and handed out all the medications we purchased for today, which was about $2,000 worth of medications. Tomorrow we head to a new church and start the process over again. We know the drill, we’re prepared for the day, we have our nets and we have purchased more medicines. We know what faces us.

People

To learn more about Nets for Africa and to donate, visit our philanthropy page. To stay up to date on Ker & Downey’s work with Nets for Africa, be sure to follow us on Facebook.

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