A month in the life of a Ugandan
Date of volunteer placement: 1 November 2015 to 27 November 2015
Name of Volunteer: Jacqueline Madombwe, Physiotherapist at Tiffany's Shopping Center in Salt Rock
Name of Host Organisation: Hopeline
My trip to Uganda was an absolutely amazing and enriching experience. It
opened my eyes to challenges that our fellow Africans face that we cannot
even imagine. The most inspiring part was the stoic way in which the
Ugandans bear their challenges. This is not to say the Governments should
be allowed to neglect their obligations to their citizens, but Ugandans have not
allowed their hardships and their disappointment with their leaders to change
who they are. They remain good and honest people at heart with the most
beautiful African smiles to welcome all visitors. Truly inspiring!
I spent one month living with the community in the Northern Buikwe District, in
a little town called Lugazi. I was volunteering for an NGO called Hopeline,
which mostly works with women and orphans in the areas of healthcare,
education and empowerment.
Buyantete Women’s Group
During my stay, I met a women’s group in an area called Buyantete.
These women faced challenges that stemmed mostly from the
Ugandan society being polygamous and men having multiple wives
and ultimately neglecting these families. The women are left to source
money to care for the children. Clinics are few and far between and
there is no free healthcare. As you can imagine, they have serious
health challenges. They are not able to negotiate safe sex or
contraception and as a result they have on average 8 children each.
This just increases the burden of poverty and a lot of these children
actually don’t grow to adulthood as they succumb to various childhood
diseases. Disability is still highly stigmatised so disabled children will
often be hidden away until they succumb to various medical conditions.
Most of the villagers are living well below the breadline and survive on
one meal a day. Children are constantly turned away from school due
to failure to pay fees so the education that they receive is rather
sketchy.
Based on their needs I gave health education talks. I taught the ladies
how to make oral re-hydration solution, discussed importance of
immunisation and how to keep their babies alive and healthy. We also
discussed various contraceptive methods although obtaining funds to
buy the contraceptives remained a challenge.
Education was given on conditions such as cerebral palsy. This
encompassed the importance of attending antenatal clinic and the
importance of early intervention if a child does have developmental
delay or cerebral palsy.
Physiotherapy is a service that is not accessed by the masses at all.
Only an elite few are able to access physiotherapy as it is only found in
the private sector in the bigger cities.
Mayindo Women’s Group
I also met a group of women in Mayindo village. They had similar
challenges to the Buyantete women. I spent most of my time with the
Mayindo women and during these visits I would give health education
talks. I taught the ladies how to make oral re-hydration solution, taught
them about malaria and typhoid, discussed importance of food and
hand hygiene, discussed hand washing. We also discussed income
generating projects. I felt that the ladies were operating very much on a
subsistence level and relying too much on volunteer donations. I
encouraged them to start thinking bigger and use the donations they
received as a base and make efforts to grow their projects into viable
businesses. I assisted with the start-up for a project where the women
will keep chickens and sell the eggs. Hopefully, they will grow this and
be able to sustain themselves and help other women in need in their
community from the profits from this project.
Hopeline also supports a local school called Nkoko Bright.
I was given the P6 (grade 6) class to mentor and among other things we talked
about self esteem and values. We discussed HIV and abuse. I
identified a boy in the P6 class who is 17 years old. He lives alone and
does odd jobs in the community to raise money for school fees, rent
and food. His parents are alive but they abandoned him some years
ago. His determination really touched me and before I left I paid his
school fees and exam fees for P7 and I also paid for his uniforms as he
had no uniform and the shoes he was wearing were so torn they were
barely covering his feet. This is just one boy who I was able to assist
yet his story is so common in Uganda, it’s heartbreaking. What is even
more heartbreaking is to find such a boy is not too proud to be in a
class of 11 year olds when he is almost an adult. Rather than turning to
the streets, he is so determined to keep trying to get an education as
he sees education as his only hope for a better life. This is the same
determination that I saw in most Ugandans that I really admired.
Hopeline started another school in a village called Kkoba, which is
where the founder of Hopeline, Tony Wonyoike, is from. This remote
village has absolutely nothing, except this school which provides free
education to orphans.
I also visited a Medical Centre a couple of times.
I assisted in the laboratory with taking bloods for malaria and HIV tests. I also did health
education with the patients in the waiting room. I talked specifically
about malaria and typhoid and de-hydration. The patients received it
very well and they were involved and asked lots of questions. I feel it
was very fruitful and I hope that the nurses at the Medical Centre will
take more time to do health education. I also sat in during patient
consultations and gave advice with regards to exercise where ever it
was appropriate. The staff and patients both welcomed this as they had
never had any exposure to physiotherapy or exercise principles.
The time that I spent in Uganda was not just about me teaching them,
but I had many new experiences and learned a few things from the
community as well. For instance I learned how to ride on the Boda
Boda, which is the main form of public transport. There were many
laughs on our boda boda trips to the villages.
The ladies taught me how to weave and make the various craft items which
they sold in an effort to earn an income. I also went along to the fields and
helped with the agricultural side of things. It was very different from what I was
used to but a very humbling and educational experience.
And there was time for fun too. We took trips to Jinja which is a tourist resort
30 minutes drive from Lugazi. Uganda is the most beautiful country I have
been to in Africa. I was able to take a boat ride on the Nile and see the source
of the river Nile, which is in Jinja.
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will
not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” Henry
David Thoreau.
My experiences in Uganda made me think a lot about poverty. In the face of
true adversity and poverty, I began to see a lot of our complaints as petty.
“These days there is a lot of poverty in the world, and that's a scandal when
we have so many riches and resources to give to everyone. We all have to
think about how we can become a little poorer.” Pope Francis
I was shaken completely out of my comfort zone. A physio going to volunteer
in a country where the majority of the population have never heard of a
physio, much less seen one.
