8-12-18 9:24 am
After spending several months in UG its time to post about things I saw while there. Regarding healthcare and extreme needs in rural Kamuli. One of the most poor and illiterate places in UG.
There is an increase in the Hep B disease but not enough vaccines to go around. Someone on the news said a health care worker told them if your already going to die, just die.
I have no idea why compassion , care & sympathy is so sorely lacking in Uganda especially among the health care workers. It's very tragic when families can't even afford as little as $5 to treat malaria ,
typhoid or anything else. Missionaries say they've witnessed nurses and docs laughing at and ridiculing patients who can't pay . Some even have little babies who die because no nurse will touch them until money is paid. We recently had a young girl wait 11 days for a simple hernia surgery. No explanation as to why other than they were "busy" and no one ever has the chance to see a surgeon to ask why the patient isn't being attended to. It was the first surgery we've helped with and likely the last for a long while as the logistics of these things are so difficult and frustrating , time and resource consuming.
We've seen an increase in people who come and ask for help as well. But with only 1 or 2 of us on ground at any given time working with over 150 kids its been very difficult to make sure all needs are met. This is why we are going to try our best and focus on areas nearby the town of Kamuli
and help the Mbiko kids all to graduate if possible (score wise) but we won't be adding any other mbiko kids since we'd love to run a school but not anywhere near mbiko. Mbiko is filled with various primary schools but only 2-3 highschools. We've also seen several mbiko teens get on a bad path of crime and gang related stuff and they had no interest in school and its not something we can force on them since we aren't their legal guardian. In Kamuli the poverty is worse. Even Mbiko kids studying in Kamuli talk about how different it is. Kamuli has nothing fun or cool to do. But Mbiko is only 15 mins from the 2nd largest city "Jinja" where there are tons of fun shops, restaurants, and nightlife.
Not that slum kids could afford these places but just walking around town can be an experience.
Kamuli lacks good schools and many homes are still made from mud and rent is $10 or so a month for 1 room. Some families lack garden space so they can't grow any food like their neighbors so they end up being very hungry and picking thru trash to find metal or plastic to sell. Many young kids
sell scrap items for recycling but its very dangerous and dirty job. Our 1 boy Shaggy was recently picking in a local trash heap in kamuli.
In our history we've seen only a few families who come asking for help and are not in great need. But we've had to add on other qualifications as well to our program because we can't everyone. We are limiting help to good scholars from poor homes, and average scholars from desperate conditions such as mud homes, no power, no garden areas etc .
We will continue to strive to help Uganda's Most Needy kids as our motto says. It hasn't been easy as there are families who are given an inch and take a mile and
put their kids in fancy schools without permissions. But thankfully not every family is like that.
After spending several months in UG its time to post about things I saw while there. Regarding healthcare and extreme needs in rural Kamuli. One of the most poor and illiterate places in UG.
There is an increase in the Hep B disease but not enough vaccines to go around. Someone on the news said a health care worker told them if your already going to die, just die.
I have no idea why compassion , care & sympathy is so sorely lacking in Uganda especially among the health care workers. It's very tragic when families can't even afford as little as $5 to treat malaria ,
typhoid or anything else. Missionaries say they've witnessed nurses and docs laughing at and ridiculing patients who can't pay . Some even have little babies who die because no nurse will touch them until money is paid. We recently had a young girl wait 11 days for a simple hernia surgery. No explanation as to why other than they were "busy" and no one ever has the chance to see a surgeon to ask why the patient isn't being attended to. It was the first surgery we've helped with and likely the last for a long while as the logistics of these things are so difficult and frustrating , time and resource consuming.
We've seen an increase in people who come and ask for help as well. But with only 1 or 2 of us on ground at any given time working with over 150 kids its been very difficult to make sure all needs are met. This is why we are going to try our best and focus on areas nearby the town of Kamuli
and help the Mbiko kids all to graduate if possible (score wise) but we won't be adding any other mbiko kids since we'd love to run a school but not anywhere near mbiko. Mbiko is filled with various primary schools but only 2-3 highschools. We've also seen several mbiko teens get on a bad path of crime and gang related stuff and they had no interest in school and its not something we can force on them since we aren't their legal guardian. In Kamuli the poverty is worse. Even Mbiko kids studying in Kamuli talk about how different it is. Kamuli has nothing fun or cool to do. But Mbiko is only 15 mins from the 2nd largest city "Jinja" where there are tons of fun shops, restaurants, and nightlife.
Not that slum kids could afford these places but just walking around town can be an experience.
Kamuli lacks good schools and many homes are still made from mud and rent is $10 or so a month for 1 room. Some families lack garden space so they can't grow any food like their neighbors so they end up being very hungry and picking thru trash to find metal or plastic to sell. Many young kids
sell scrap items for recycling but its very dangerous and dirty job. Our 1 boy Shaggy was recently picking in a local trash heap in kamuli.
In our history we've seen only a few families who come asking for help and are not in great need. But we've had to add on other qualifications as well to our program because we can't everyone. We are limiting help to good scholars from poor homes, and average scholars from desperate conditions such as mud homes, no power, no garden areas etc .
We will continue to strive to help Uganda's Most Needy kids as our motto says. It hasn't been easy as there are families who are given an inch and take a mile and
put their kids in fancy schools without permissions. But thankfully not every family is like that.
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