In January 2015 seven medical students from Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia will be travelling to Uganda to carry out health promotion work and medical testing in a small rural community. We are currently fundraising in order to purchase medical equipment and supplies. All our personal expenses (travel, accommodation etc) will be self-funded.
Our local partner is an Australian not-for-profit organisation 'HUG' - Help Us Grow (www.hug.org.au) who, since 2007, have been working to implement and support sustainable community projects in the rural villages of Uganda in east Africa.
Through ongoing partnerships with local communities they have established grassroots agricultural, educational and health based initiatives which continue to empower Ugandan people to make a sustainable difference in their own lives, including livelihood projects such as craft making and a piggery, a community library with computer classes, a vocational college and a medical clinic.
We will be involved with the Suubi Centre located in the Lubanda village in the Lwengo District of south-west Uganda. Since 2011 the Suubi Community Health Centre has helped to improve the lives of the local community through not only treatment but a range of preventative strategies targeting sanitation, reproductive health, mother and childhood development, nutrition, family planning, malaria and HIV.
Our work will focus on providing basic medical aid and testing for common, yet under-diagnosed and under-treated conditions, including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Brucellosis, typhoid, syphilis, hypertension and diabetes. Anyone that tests positive will be referred to the local health clinic for initial management and ongoing care. We also hope to be able to carry out some health promotion activities (for example on dental hygiene) with the local school and women’s group.
Considering the political turmoil and the national health data coming out of Uganda, our work has the potential to be of great benefit to the community. The life expectancy is currently just 57 years for both men & women and there is only one doctor per 36,000 people. Communicable, maternal, perinatal & nutritional conditions account for 60% of all deaths in Uganda and are largely preventable.
Our local partner is an Australian not-for-profit organisation 'HUG' - Help Us Grow (www.hug.org.au) who, since 2007, have been working to implement and support sustainable community projects in the rural villages of Uganda in east Africa.
Through ongoing partnerships with local communities they have established grassroots agricultural, educational and health based initiatives which continue to empower Ugandan people to make a sustainable difference in their own lives, including livelihood projects such as craft making and a piggery, a community library with computer classes, a vocational college and a medical clinic.
We will be involved with the Suubi Centre located in the Lubanda village in the Lwengo District of south-west Uganda. Since 2011 the Suubi Community Health Centre has helped to improve the lives of the local community through not only treatment but a range of preventative strategies targeting sanitation, reproductive health, mother and childhood development, nutrition, family planning, malaria and HIV.
Our work will focus on providing basic medical aid and testing for common, yet under-diagnosed and under-treated conditions, including malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, Brucellosis, typhoid, syphilis, hypertension and diabetes. Anyone that tests positive will be referred to the local health clinic for initial management and ongoing care. We also hope to be able to carry out some health promotion activities (for example on dental hygiene) with the local school and women’s group.
Considering the political turmoil and the national health data coming out of Uganda, our work has the potential to be of great benefit to the community. The life expectancy is currently just 57 years for both men & women and there is only one doctor per 36,000 people. Communicable, maternal, perinatal & nutritional conditions account for 60% of all deaths in Uganda and are largely preventable.