Azur Health Centre IV is a non-governmental, not-for-profit hospital in Hoima town, which we have had a working relationship with since 2009. There is now a formal memorandum of understanding between our two organisations, and they are our downstream implementing partner for both our Runga and Kyarushesha clinics. Through Azur, we are able to employ Ugandan staff and enlist Ugandan contractors and suppliers to resource our projects, ensuring that all MAMA funds serve a dual purpose – both enhancing safe maternity care and supporting the local economy.

Help Hoima built the maternity unit at Azur Health Centre, which opened in July 2007, and kitted out the theatre in 2011, allowing the Caesarean sections to take place. Help Hoima support education, healthcare and agriculture in Hoima. Before registering MAMA as a charity, we carried out fundraising to support Azur Health Centre under the umbrella of Help Hoima.

It was with HHH that Rhi and Harriet first travelled to Hoima, and we maintain links to this UK-registered charity. In particular, their focus on paediatric health is complementary to our work in maternity, and they have run projects both at Azur and at our Runga clinic.

The UK Aid Direct SCCF provides grants of up to £50,000 to UK-registered charities with an annual income of £250,000 or less. The SCCF was launched in July 2017 as part of UK Aid Direct and was designed to strengthen small UK based charities working towards achieving the Global Goals. SCCF was the first DFID (now FCDO) fund designed specifically with small UK-based charities in mind, and feedback from these organisations informed its design. 

Succeeding in our application to the SCCF in 2019 permitted us to open the Kyarushesha MAMA Grace Clinic in March 2020, a project we are all extremely proud of.

The Kitchen Table Charities Trust was founded by the newscaster John Humphrys and works to support the smallest charities working in low-income countries. In his own words “We are not interested in charity as a big business. We believe that charity is about individuals helping other individuals with the minimum of bureaucracy and needless expense. That is why we exist.”

All of us at MAMA are delighted to have received a grant from the Kitchen Table Charities Trust towards the new clinic building in Kyarushesha, in particular to fund construction of the pit latrines, including disabled access; the kitchen and the waste disposal infrastructure. We truly do run the charity from our kitchen tables, so the relationship with this Trust seems especially fitting, and a huge thanks to them and all their supporters.

The Northwood Charitable Trust’s core purpose is to make communities better and more supportive places for people to live, work and prosper. The Trust provides financial support to help enhance people’s lives through a wide range of charitable organisations. Its main funding themes are addressing deprivation, poverty and inequality, advancing educational attainment, progressing physical and mental health and wellbeing and supporting community, heritage and cultural enrichment.

The Northwood Trust have very kindly donated towards the new clinic building being constructed in Kyarushesha. As the first charitable trust to agree to support this project they were invaluable in making us believe it was possible.

Thanks to David Holliday and his team at the Hart Street Tavern for their incredible generosity and enthusiasm in hosting a fundraising dinner for us in February 2020. We wish them all the best during these challenging times for the hospitality industry, and hope to see them on the other side of lockdown.

Thank you to the team at Spratley and Partners for the help with plans for our building projects and grant applications. Pit latrines are a little outside their usual remit, but demonstrated their adaptability!

Thank you to Rosie for taking such good care of the MAMA website from its inception to 2021.

Special thanks to Mike Boyd for organising a successful fundraising event for MAMA.

With thanks to Matt Aslett for providing the signs for the much-loved and much-relied upon MAMA vehicle. As Barongo tells us, the poor car thought it was coming to Uganda to retire.