TWO TAMPLINS IN AFRICA

April/May, 2009 Issue 4 PO Box 705, Mbale, UGANDA www.tamplins.blogspot.com

Email: Natasha– nltamplin@gmail.com Ian– istamplin@gmail.com
Support us at: www.tear.org.au/projects/field-workers/ian-and-natasha-tamplin

We‘ll start off an apology—for those who received our Newsletter last February (Issue 3), it was
supposed to be dated 2009, not 2008. Oops! We guess that‘s what happens when life is keep-
ing you busy — you miss the small details. Things here in Uganda have really been turned up-
side down in the past few months: evil witchcraft practices of child kidnappings and behead-
ings; random cutting-up of motorbike riders at night; genital removal of kidnapped people; ac-
cidental setting off of a grenade killing 4 children and injuring 20 others; children dying daily
from lack of adequate malaria drugs/treatment; and a CHOLERA outbreak! No missing the
details with this one! But on a happier note, the rains have finally come—the delay of which
got people seriously worried as most family‘ food supply had finished.

AT THE OFFICE

Tash Committees. They were greatly impressed, and the

DirectHealth Officer exclaimed that “LAMPS needs to be
For those interested in the progress of LAMPS Project, expanded to all 553 villages of Mbale District”.
here are the most recent highlights since February:  A Joint UWCM/District Planning Workshop for
 By the end of May, 44 Fight Malaria Committees (out LAMPS Scale-Up, and the 8th LAMPS Project
of project Stakeholder Meeting were conducted in May. Despite
target of 56) initial challenges and setbacks, the workshop outcomes
will be trained are promising. Our external evaluation consultant gave
and active an upbeat assessment of the early LAMPS Project
 Over 3000 outcomes, and all stakeholder agreed that the LAMPS
long-lasting strategy should be scaled-up and integrated with the
treated District‘s proposed roll-out of a Primary Health Care
mosquito nets programme. This will require serious fund-raising and
have been careful planning.
distributed to every household in 23 villages (after FMC
records a household census of the whole village)
 Consultations continue with the Ministry of Health Ian
discussing a proposed trial production and testing of a  Ian continues to be constantly busy dealing with various
natural repellant smear/lotion (with essential oils) that IT and computer problems at UWCM and various other
is affordable and appropriate for the local communities Christian organizations. This has turned out to be a full-
 On 13th of February the project was officially launched
time job (and even after-hours work at times). In the
at the sub-country past few months, he has re-established office network
headquarters. The big systems; fixed internet phones, inverters, generators and
event with a march UPSs; recovered lost data on other missionary‘s com-
from the UWCM puters; and daily deals with the constant reoccurrence of
offices led by the Mbale viruses that attack all computers he is responsible for.
Youth Brass Band, and Because a majority of people here can‘t afford the Inter-
included speeches, net, their antivirus programmes don‘t get their periodic
football match, musical updates. This means that each time anyone uses their
performances and a USB flash drive at an Internet café, they re-infect their
friendly competition in computer with more viruses. Mr. Robby Keen, the Di-
malaria songs and poems between the 4 LAMPS Pilot rector of Jenga, writes:
villages. The function was successful with a large crowd
and invited guests from the District. “Ian has been giving us ongoing invaluable support here at
 On April 22nd, Mr. Jamie Edgerton, our technical JENGA (Christian charity) with our IT set up and systems.
These IT problems were really impacting the work we do in the com-
adviser from Australia, arrived to facilitate the munities and driving us crazy. Thanks to Ian, we have now pur-
preparation of a strategy with District officials to scale-up chased and installed a brand new top-of-the-range inverter (power
the LAMPS Pilot Project to the whole District. The back up system) and batteries to solve the constant power supply
District Health Officer and three other District officials problems. Ian has also set up a PC on every desk of the team and
networked them all! I am now happy to report that we have 18 com-
joined Jamie and senior UWCM staff in a field visit to puters up and running. With these changes, we are now freed up to
witness two concurrent trainings of Fight Malaria crack on with both the development work and ministry/ spiritual
“IAN” continued on page two
 REALITY BITES Ian
She was only 6 years old when malaria killed her. Little Deborah outreach which is far more exciting and
impacting then screaming at a dead com-
was the key support for elderly HIV+ father and disabled aunties
as she collected the daily water and made sure they ate full meals. puter!”
She was the type of little girl who made sure all her classmates at  Ian has also spent many hours assist-
Kindergarten said their prayers before eating. Such a sweet little
thing — and all it took was one mosquito bite infecting her blood ing at JOY Hospice and CURE
with malaria and no access to correct treatment. I watched in Children‘s Hospital with their com-
dismay as her father grievde while lowering his daughter’s coffin. puter systems.
Sadly, this is a regular occurrence here in Uganda, as the malaria
crisis is worsening. There is almost no supply of first-line malaria  He has submitted first module for
drugs (Coartem) and the treated mosquito net provisions are dimin- his Diploma in Alternative Energy
ishing. Despite the availability of Global Fund money, the much-
needed drugs, nets and microscopes are nowhere to be seen. Hun-  He is enjoying improved health and
dreds of children die daily as a result, many with over-doses of the energy, but still suffers daily from
2nd-line treatment of Quinine, or simply no treatment at all chronic back pain.
Little Geoffrey was about 9 years old, but in a 6 year-old body CHALLENGES and Prayer
with a 4 year-old personality. He was consisting disturbing our  We strongly rely on your monthly con-
training of FMCs by running through the benches, playing in tributions and sadly have to say that is
the dirt naked, and making queer noises (he couldn’t talk). As
cute as he was, there was no mistake that he was a victim of still is too low. Please, if you are able to
malaria — his brain permanently damaged by inadequate treat- do without a few coffees a month and
ment as a child. He is now left with no hope for the future, la- instead contribute to our costs, it won‘t
belled as a nuisance and useless, and treated as an outcast go unnoticed. You can support us di-
rectly contact TEAR Australia, or via
Child kidnapping / sacrifice / Genital mutilation is on the our blog. All donations are tax de-
increase here in Uganda. For obscure reasons ,it seems that ductible.
heads of children (and even some adults) are worth millions of
shillings for witchdoctors. For example, little George Mukisa [3  National shortages of Coartem (the
years old], was a lucky one to survive — his father went looking for him after he went missing, only government-funded drug to treat ma-
to find him abandoned in a banana plantation, lying in a pool of blood. The witchdoctor had held laria) is causing hundreds of children to
him down with the help of two men and cut off his private parts using a razor blade. The genitals unnecessarily die each month. Please
were found in the neighbor's shrine. pray for the release of this drug nation-
ally.
BETHEL CHURCH
 The LAMPS Pilot Project ends in De-
cember this year. However, there is
This past quarter has been challenging for members of Bethel Church — some need for a continuation to sustain the
experiencing serious ‗physical attacks/spiritual warfare‘. However, the congrega- hardworking FMCs as well as to main-
tion is expanding monthly and in particular with Muslim converts. tain the LAMPS team, as efforts are
being made to integrate the LAMPS
 In the beginning of May, 18 new believers were baptized. We could not use the
project into the existing government
waterfall/river near the church in Mooni because of the cholera outbreak. 17 health systems. Please pray for guidance
of the 18 had been Muslims. This included the group of 7 men who were and direction, as well as success in
saved together in April. Others included family members led to Christ by a funding raising for next year.
young girl. She had been persecuted in the home by her Muslim father and  Pray for the Muslim converts at Bethel
brother, but now the whole family worships with us at Bethel. Praise God! church who still face persecution by
 Bethel has committed as a church to support the education of 10 orphans/ families and friends.
children. Some of them were sent away from home because families are still  As our placement in Uganda with
Muslims; others are simply orphans who have no support. The church has TEAR comes to an end in the New
taken them in for education, as we know they are capable of doing so well and Year, the need here continues. We ask
for prayers as we consider our future, be
have shown commitment to the church. The church members themselves who
it in Uganda or Australia.
contribute cash, but this is a time of scarcity so people are struggling to afford
contributions. Four children so far have got fund- CONTACT TEAR
ing from oversees, but the rest still struggle.
 Lately the practice of cutting people‘s heads for
Phone: 03 9264 7000 or 1800244986(Free call)
witchcraft has grown. People are living in fear. Pas- Web: www.tear.org.au
tor Vinnie and Grace still thank God that their Email: info@tear.org.au
son David survived the day he went missing and TARGET MAGAZINE
was found at the home of his ‗friend‘, whose fa-
ther has been noted many times as one who is an For an―in-depth, eyewitness accounts‖ of
the work of TEAR‘s Australian and Inter-
agent in child kidnapping for witchcraft. Some national partners, you can read their free
people are saying that this surge in witchcraft has quarterly magazine called TARGET at
been caused by the hard times here in Uganda. http://www.tear.org.au/target (or you
can contact TEAR to be sent a free copy).