I am preparing to leave this morning for Uganda with Medical Teams International. We will be working in a "clinic" in the Nakivale Resettlement Area in southwestern Uganda, where the Congolese refugees are living. We will be working in Juru B refugee camp, established by the UNHCR. I am told that approximately 40,000 people are living in this zone.
The people we will be serving have fled their home country of the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to the war. They have left with few belongings, walking sometimes for weeks to reach the Ugandan border. They were transported to the refugee camp in the back of cattle trucks. After registering with the UNHCR, each family is given a 25 meter plot of land, a hoe, seeds, a small cooking pot, a jerry can for water, and a plastic tarp for shelter. Food and drinking water have been in short supply, and malaria is a significant health problem.
Medical Teams International sent a team to this area, after I returned from Congo last December. They have since received a grant to provide primary health care to this area for one year. Every 4 weeks a team of 3-4 volunteers will be sent by MTI to work with their Ugandan health staff.
How did I come to be going to Africa again so soon? A month ago, my nurse friend and fellow team member in 2006, Janey Pineo, called with an urgent plea. She needed someone to go in her place, due to a family health crisis. Having faced similar situation upon my return last December, when my mother fell, broke her femur, and was hospitalized for a month, my heart felt her pain. Add my love of the African people, the sense that work was left "undone", and the heart of my husband, in a few hours I will board a plane to Uganda. Really....it truly is a God thing.
I truly appreciate all the support and prayers from my family, friends & coworkers at Ste. Genevieve Co. Memorial Hospital, The Bridge Community Church, and Medical Teams International. I hope to have an opportunity to keep you posted. Of course internet access is always a challenge. Mungu akubariki!
