TeamMED a subcommittee of Monash University Medical Student Society is organizing this fundraiser.

Imagine living in a country where the life expectancy of you and all your family members is just 64 years old. Where the most cause of death is from a preventable parasite that feeds from your blood until all your blood cells burst (malaria). Where there is only one doctor per 36,000 people. This is the reality of life in Uganda for 48 million people, with nearly half of them being under 15 years old.

The biggest challenge for Uganda is inadequate health resources, and debilitating communicable diseases such as HIV, syphilis, typhoid fever, and H. pylori pose serious risks to both children and adults in these communities. We recognize this need is great and believe that nobody should be without healthcare. That is why this December, seven Monash medical students, will be hoping to travel to Lubanda Village, a small rural village in the Lwengo district in southwest Uganda, to supply them with medical and testing equipment and run health promotional programs.

As part of TeamMED, a Monash University subcommittee in Melbourne, we have an opportunity to come together with our passion for global health to improve healthcare outcomes of people in less developed countries.

While in Uganda, we aim to carry out testing for a range of under-diagnosed and under-treated communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as malaria, HIV, syphilis, typhoid fever, brucellosis, H. pylori, diabetes, and hypertension. Patients that test positive for any of these conditions will then be referred to the clinic for treatment. We will also be assisting the Suubi Community Health Centre staff throughout our stay.

Moreover, TeamMED will run community health promotion sessions for children and adults with a focus on oral health and hand hygiene.

Our initiatives are facilitated by the Ugandan community development initiative, the Suubi Community Health Clinic and we abide by the '10 Ethical Principals for Working Abroad', as published by the Australian Medical Association in conjunction with the Australian Medical Students' Association.

If you are in a position to contribute and you have the means to take action, we hope you will donate today. No dollar amount is too small.

100% of the donations we receive will go directly towards improving the health outcomes of people in the Lwengo District. This volunteer initiative is entirely self-funded; none of the money raised will be used for personal expenses (travel, accommodation etc).

$5 will buy a box of glass slides, used in testing for many medical conditions

$10 will buy a litre of special stains used to test people for malaria

$20 will help to buy materials used for HIV testing

$30 will buy one packet of glucose test strips used to screen people for diabetes

$50 will help screen people for Helicobacter pylori, causing stomach and intestinal ulcers

$70 will buy a packet of RPR strips used to test people for syphilis

$100 will provide everything we need to do all our Brucellosis screening

All teamMED members and the Lubanda Village community are incredibly grateful for your contribution.

For more information visit

http://www.teammed.org/

https://www.suubimedicalcentre.org/