Blogs from Uganda, Africa - page 9

We spent a total of three weeks in Rugazi with the Ugandan students. We were split into two groups as we were 9 Canadian students and 11 Ugandan students. We were paired up with two medical students from the University of Saskatchewan. In the mornings we spent our time working in the clinic and the afternoons we worked on our community projects. We chose health education of UTIs and menstrual health for our two projects. Our interventions for the UTI project included health talks in a school with about 150 students present, a health talk in the community and also in the outpatient department. During these talks, we covered common signs and symptoms, causes, prevention, and complications. Every audience was very receptive and were eager to participate and ask questions. The students were very engaged and ... read more

I have spent the past week reflecting on my time in Rugazi. We lived in Rugazi for a month and it was filled with many opportunities. There were many firsts for me: observing and providing health care in a third world country with limited supplies and lack of diagnostics, lack of running water and using pit latrines rather than toilets. But there were so many positives in Rugazi, I learned so many things, and gained so many new perspectives. In regards to the health center, I witnessed for the first time patients having to go without medications due to lack of resources. I saw newborns go without vitamin k injections due to lack of syringes. I observed midwives having to prioritize the care of newborns due to only one warmer and one oxygen machine. The laboring ... read more

Agandi! Where to start? So much has happened in so little time. We have finished our community placement and now we are off to Kampala for a couple days to make some "site visits". We're not entirely sure what that entails, but we are trusting that our supervisors will make it a meaningful and memorable time. :) Yesterday we returned to Mbarara to spend the night before continuing the journey to the capital. Saying good-bye to the Rugazi community was difficult to say the least. for once we actually left on (Canadian) time, which was unexpected and made the hugs and teary good byes feel all the more abrupt. Even in spite of language/cultural differences and the short amount of time we spent in Rugazi, the people and the circumstances they face have affected us deeply ... read more

Unfortunately, last week I was not feeling well. Both my Ugandan and Canadian friends were amazing at nursing me back to health from the lab, pharmacy, and nursing aspects. On Saturday, we went to King Fisher, which is a lodge nearby. We spent the day swimming and enjoying the sunshine. This pool overlooks Queen Elizabeth Park, which is a beautiful view. On Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon working in the clinic to make up for lost time. The clinic was very busy with many laboring women. I assisted in the delivery of a baby boy and spent the day assisting the midwives with various other tasks. It was great, I love working in the clinic. Today, I spent the morning doing rounds with the doctor then assisted in the theatre during a c-section. What ... read more

Agandi, and welcome back to the pearl of Uganda! Another couple of weeks down in Rugazi, and we've successfully hashed out our team community projects! The supervisor finally paid us a visit, and gave us the OK for our "plan A" topic on menstrual health. We bought and brought over 300 packages of Afripads (Ugandan-made reusable cloth pads) with us and are looking forward to distributing the pads in the coming weeks as we educate girls in primary 4 - 7 (approximately ages 10-16) about menstrual hygiene and how to make their own cloth pads from the resources available to them. By giving the girls the skills to make these pads for themselves, we hope that this project will be sustainable and have an impact that goes beyond just handing out donations. Thanks to Halimah, the ... read more