Mountain village health clinics

This morning I went for a run and decided to veer off the road into the fields near my house. I followed small paths through fields of maize (similar to corn) and other various vegetation, getting stares and strange looks from all the people working in the fields. I’m sure they thought I was absolutely nuts. They’re probably right… I ended up on the bank of a small river/large stream ( I couldn’t decide which) that I hadn’t even known existed, almost in our backyard. It was absolutely beautiful. Mbale is so lush and green, it’s amazing. I’ve taken lots of pictures that I am looking forward to sharing with you all when I come home.
This afternoon Cindy, (dutch doctor I lived with for my first few weeks here), Aaron (Ugandan Jenga staff) and I drove up into the villages in the foothills of Mount Elgon, close to Mooni where we are planning on building the health clinic, to visit two government run health centres to learn about how the centres are run in the mountain villages, what services are needed, and what are provided. Again, I was absolutely amazed at how beautifully lush and green it is. The first health centre we visited was what they call a “Level Two Health Centre”, which means that it only does immunizations and very basic health care, such as prescribing malaria medication. The staff member there, who was a vaccinator, was thrilled to have us visit; they consider it a big honor to have Mzungu (non-African) visitors. All the children in the villages ran alongside the truck, laughing and shouting “Mzungu! Mzungu!” The primary function of this clinic is immunizations, because the staff are qualified a quite a low level.
The second health centre we visited was a Level 3 Health Centre, which had a delivery section for labour and delivery and was much better staffed, with a midwife, a diploma nurse, a clinical officer (similar to a doctor, but with less education—they are only in school for 3 years, compared to a Registered nurse, which is in school for 4 years. Often the Registered Nurses are better than the clinical officers.)

Both health clinics were very well organized in their documentation of patients’ conditions, I was impressed. There are only two health clinics serving about 15,000 people (at least), many of whom have to walk for hours to access a clinic. When talking with the midwife, we were told that they struggle with many of the same problems that we do with our healthcare system in Canada—understaffed and not enough money.

Mooni is on the other side of the mountain from these two clinics, and there are no clinics on this side of the mountain. The government has decided at this point to not build any new clinics until they are able to run their existing ones better, so there continues to be a great need.

The picture is of me, Jayne, the physiotherapist volunteering with Jenga, (one of the girls I live with), and Darlene, the daughter of Grace and Vinney, a Ugandan couple who work with Jenga and live in Mooni. Vinnie is a pastor and they are a big outtreach in Mooni as a christian family in a muslim area.