We run mobile clinics in rural areas of Central Uganda. The communities chosen are those most in need; they do not have easy access to any healthcare services. Free healthcare treatment is almost unheard of.
Our clinics are 100% run by Ugandan volunteers and aim to provide 4 different free services to each community:
Dental treatment: at least 2 professional dentists volunteer their time and skills at every clinic. This has been the most popular service at our clinics to date.
HIV testing and counselling: The testing is carried out by professional Ugandan laboratory technicians and Mwenya’s counsellors are very experienced.
Intestinal de-worming: Many people suffer from intestinal worms; something that can be easily treated by 2 tablets that do not even cost 1penny per dosage. However, so many people cannot afford or get their hands on these drugs. We offer them free to everyone that comes to the clinic.
Consultation service: with a professional doctor: This is a rare chance for members of the community to come and talk to a doctor, for free. They are then referred if they need further help or advice.
All these services are completely free for the patients. Every patient is given the name and number of the Mwenya Uganda doctor or dentist who treated them, so if they encounter other problems in the future they can contact a familiar, friendly and knowledgeable person directly. All our volunteering medical professionals are more than happy to provide help to patients after the clinic.
We have a network of Ugandan registered members who have signed up as volunteers to provide their skills, time and compassion to help vulnerable, rural
communities. It is these members who organise the clinics. They also recruit volunteers from the community to help with the practical running of the clinic,
on the day. For example, many pupils at Bussi Island school (the location of Mwenya Uganda’s first mobile clinic) offered to help, they helped with packing
antibiotics and painkillers for dental patients, recording the numbers of patients in each department, distributing condoms and many other crucial jobs.
This brings a huge sense of community empowerment to each clinic, so that the residents themselves are helping to provide services, not just receiving them.
There are always more communities to reach with our mobile clinic service. If you would like to support our work and help provide free treatment to those
who need it most, please click ‘donate’ for the different ways you can help.
Outreach
How often do you hear of organisations and charities aiming to help the elderly in Africa? These people are a forgotten sector of society.
At the beginning of our Non-Governmental Organisation registration, we had to prove to the Ugandan NGO authorities that we were acting out our aims and
objectives as an organisation. With little funds at that point, we unfortunately could not afford to run full-scale clinics. Therefore we decided to help
people on a very personal scale with our ‘Outreach’ projects. We discovered that this service was crucial, so we have continued to run this project.
‘Outreach’ is usually aimed at elderly women, as tragically many elderly women have lost many, if not all, of their children to HIV, they usually outlive
their husband, and their grandchildren are in the same cycle of poverty so cannot afford to help them. By talking to local communities, our volunteers are
able to find those who are usually cut off from society due to lack of physical mobility and health problems such as HIV.
Our outreach projects are totally dependent on the needs and wishes of each individual, but usually our team of volunteers will:
Educate each individual with basic healthcare guidelines and what they can do to reduce their chances of contracting disease.
Cut back bush areas from around the house in order to reduce the numbers of mosquitoes.
Make sure the house is watertight.
Dig a rubbish pit to avoid the spread of disease.
Dig a pit latrine to avoid the spread of disease.
Provide a 'washing room'.
Build a table from local materials to provide somewhere to keep plates clean.
Cook a healthy balanced meal for the individual.
Do all their laundry.
Most important of all: show them that they are not alone, that somebody cares and wants to help them.
This project has highlighted to our Ugandan team of volunteers that there are so many people hidden from day-to-day society in Uganda, who live in unbelievable conditions because they do not have anybody else. We aim to provide these individuals with love, care and basic services that help them immensely in their day to day living and reduce their chance of falling ill.
This costs next to nothing in Western terms, a one-day Outreach Project costs around £45 for Mwenya Uganda to run.
How about giving an elderly woman this personal loving help as a present for someone in your family or a friend for Christmas or their Birthday? Please click 'donate' now.
Education
Mwenya Uganda has links with many schools in Central Uganda. Our volunteers provide a free dental educational service to schools.
Many people in rural Uganda have been known to poor petrol in their mouths to numb the pain of dental problems.
Desperation and a lack of education mean that some people will try all sorts of things to try and stop pain.
Basic dental hygiene education reduces the amount of dental problems and reduces the amount of pain and suffering for individual. Knowing that brushing your teeth twice a day reduces the chance of dental problems may seem obvious to many people, but if you were never taught that, how would you know?
Every child that is taught by a professional dentist and is told to tell their family all about what they have learnt. That way our lessons spread faster and less people will have dental problems in the future.
These school visits are also a great opportunity to provide free equipment to the school children, whether that is donated toothbrushes and toothpaste, or donated pencils and shoes. We always welcome anything that you can donate and we know that the children will welcome it even more! Please email, Ruth Lambeth on ruth@mwenya-uganda.org if you think you might be able to help, in any way.
Research
All our work forms an ongoing research project that records the main needs and issues in each community. We aim to publish all our findings for many reasons:
There is a huge lack of medical research in Uganda, especially with regard to dental health.
It publicises the need for sustainable help in Uganda.
It highlights the areas of greatest need, so that we can tailor our work in the future to those that need us most.
It highlights the areas of greatest need to other organisations and individuals so together we can pool our knowledge and form a stronger team to help more people across Uganda.
As we compile our findings, we will be publishing them on this page. Please keep an eye out for this very soon.
Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
This project was established to help the children that do not have other people to help them. Originally established, so that gifts and equipment
donations from volunteers could be donated to those who need it most, this project has developed to help orphans and vulnerable children in numerous
ways.
Our Ugandan volunteers have a list of children in Mpigi town who are extremely vulnerable due to the death or sickness of carers or parents.
Our team of Ugandan volunteers have a huge range of skills and backgrounds. The OVC project works to transfer these valuable skills by running
workshops during the school holidays to teach these children practical skills such as
Furniture making
Computer skills
Hairdressing
English lessons
Songs about health issues so that they can also teach their friends and family ways to improve their health
Our volunteering professional doctors and dentists provide these children with free dental and healthcare services.
We also provide these children with love and support. As Mwenya Uganda’s volunteers are working and present throughout Mpigi town – they are linked
into the community and know that they have somebody looking out for them.
Project Director: Christine Nabaggala
Youth Development
Problem area: The young people in and around Mpigi do not have the opportunity to learn specific skills that can earn them a living due to the relatively high price of training. There are many unemployed young people in and around the Mpigi district. Unfortunately, many of these young people turn to drug abuse. Mwenya Uganda set up the Youth Development project in response to the NGO Authority’s specific request to help the young people of Mpigi.
How we are improving the situation:
Life skills classes
Drama productions to teach others hygiene issues
Computer skills classes
Casual football matches
This project aims to improve the skills and income of the young people in and around Mpigi town, while establishing a sustainable income for Mwenya Uganda's projects.
The main project focused on at the moment is:
Sustainable mushroom growing.
The young people are shown Mwenya Uganda’s mushroom garden. They are taught how to cultivate mushrooms so that they can earn a living themselves. Mwenya Uganda’s mushrooms are grown as an example to these young people so that they can replicate the process at their homes.
Mwenya Uganda’s mushrooms are sold at market so that the profits can be reinvested in the NGO’s projects.
This project is another example of how local people believe so strongly in the ideas behind Mwenya Uganda. One of our Ugandan members has donated a large plot of her land so that Mwenya Uganda can grow mushrooms on a larger scale. Young people are taught about the importance and the practicalities of sustainable farming methods by experienced farmers. They are then able to replicate the ideas at their homes and earn an income for themselves and their families, avoiding unemployment and drug abuse.
This brings a huge sense of community empowerment to each clinic, so that the residents themselves are helping to provide services, not just receiving them.
