Photos

This lady is called Maria, she works as an anaesthetic nurse in Mengo hospital in Kampala.
In many countries around the world anaesthetics are given not by doctors but by specially trained nurses, sometimes called anaesthetic officers.
Maria is a lovely lady who shows great compassion towards her patients and has many years experience at giving anaesthetics.
There are countless thousands of these people who are paid very little for what they do but none the less take their training and work very seriously.
They often have to work with sub standard equipment and with anaesthetic agents that we in the developed world stopped using years ago. Lack of money to fund equipment and to fund the the maintenance of equipment is a big problem.
There are many charities both religious and non religious who do stirling work trying to improve matters.
There are also many people who come from developing countries to work, often under difficult circumstances and poorly paid, in these hospitals. They sometimes have to work in war conditions risking their lives.
The situation is not helped by corruption.
Meanwhile Maria works on day after day in her own cheerful and caring way.