Franciscan Free Health Care for the poor in Uganda
Beschermde donatie
If you had the chance to save dozens of lives a year would you do it? Your donation, big or small, will save lives and impact the health of the most vulnerable and most poor in Uganda. The Franciscan Health Centre in Kakooge, Uganda can do this work on behalf of us all for $6000 a year.
Just recently a poor rural family brought their nine-year-old son to the Franciscan Health Center. He had been sick for several weeks, but they didn’t have any money to pay for treatments so they did not take action. Finally, when the boy fell unconscious they brought him to the Franciscan Health center, pleading as any parents would, for help. The boy died, they had waited too long. This child’s death could have been avoided, and it is an example of why our free Outreach to the poor is so needed, especially in the rural areas.
Founded in 2008 by the Conventual Franciscan Friars the Franciscan Health Centre in Kakooge, Uganda is a not-for-profit Catholic private health network under the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau and is managed by the Little Sisters of St. Francis.
With a 21 member staff including a medical doctor, dentist, sonographer, registered nurses, lab technicians, and midwives. The Franciscan Health Centre is a rare gem in the region. Additionally, the Health Centre provides curative services as well as an In-Patient and Out-Patient departments including a maternity ward, female and male wards, plus a unique children’s ward.
Our supportive services include an operating theatre, dental services, laboratory with blood transfusion services, Scan/Ultra sound, and an HIV/AIDS clinic. We also provide a Community Health Based care series of services and outreaches to bring free health care to the poor villages in the area.
Preventative and Promotive services include: immunizations, ANC (Antenatal health care services), VCT/HIV/AIDs (screening and counseling services), Cervical Cancer screening and medical health education.
The Franciscan Health Centre offers the lowest prices in the area with a flat rate fee. A doctor’s office visit charge is 4,000 Uganda shillings, that would be only $1.00 U.S. dollar. Even with our tremendously low and greatly subsidized prices many of the poor in the area do not have money to pay for health care.
The families in the area are very poor, many live in small one room homes. More than 90% of homes have no electricity or access to drinking water. People walk a long distance to wells or streams to get water. Families are lined-up all day pumping water into large plastic jars that they then carry a great distance to their homes.
More than 90% of people have no jobs and their main survival is agriculture and livestock, they cultivate small plots of land near their homes to grow tiny amounts of food for their families. The families are blessed with many children, but in many cases the mothers are raising their children by themselves making it doubly hard to provide for the basic needs of their small households. Very often when people get a serious illness they have to surrender to death because they have no means to get medical treatment.
With our free outreach to the poor we provide the needed medical care and education to help the most vulnerable among us, something we are called to do by the gospels and just out of common decency.
Two times every month, our staff travel to the small poor villages and set-up a clinic in school class rooms or parish halls. They will treat up to 200 patients in a day and give educational talks on healthcare and the importance of early treatment.
The cost for our free outreach to the poor is high in part because we have such a very low flat rate fee for normal clinic visits. Every month we struggle to just cover the Health Centre’s operational expenses, expenses we need to pay to our Outreach Program so that the very poor might have a chance at very good health care.
We have started this fund to support our free Outreach Program which only needs $6,000 (U.S) to be fully funded for a year. Your donation can change the lives of hundreds of people and dozens of families so that so many fewer people have to experience the devastating tragedy of losing the ones they love simply because they don’t have access to the care they need.
Please consider donating whatever you can today.
Just recently a poor rural family brought their nine-year-old son to the Franciscan Health Center. He had been sick for several weeks, but they didn’t have any money to pay for treatments so they did not take action. Finally, when the boy fell unconscious they brought him to the Franciscan Health center, pleading as any parents would, for help. The boy died, they had waited too long. This child’s death could have been avoided, and it is an example of why our free Outreach to the poor is so needed, especially in the rural areas.
Founded in 2008 by the Conventual Franciscan Friars the Franciscan Health Centre in Kakooge, Uganda is a not-for-profit Catholic private health network under the Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau and is managed by the Little Sisters of St. Francis.
With a 21 member staff including a medical doctor, dentist, sonographer, registered nurses, lab technicians, and midwives. The Franciscan Health Centre is a rare gem in the region. Additionally, the Health Centre provides curative services as well as an In-Patient and Out-Patient departments including a maternity ward, female and male wards, plus a unique children’s ward.
Our supportive services include an operating theatre, dental services, laboratory with blood transfusion services, Scan/Ultra sound, and an HIV/AIDS clinic. We also provide a Community Health Based care series of services and outreaches to bring free health care to the poor villages in the area.
Preventative and Promotive services include: immunizations, ANC (Antenatal health care services), VCT/HIV/AIDs (screening and counseling services), Cervical Cancer screening and medical health education.
The Franciscan Health Centre offers the lowest prices in the area with a flat rate fee. A doctor’s office visit charge is 4,000 Uganda shillings, that would be only $1.00 U.S. dollar. Even with our tremendously low and greatly subsidized prices many of the poor in the area do not have money to pay for health care.
The families in the area are very poor, many live in small one room homes. More than 90% of homes have no electricity or access to drinking water. People walk a long distance to wells or streams to get water. Families are lined-up all day pumping water into large plastic jars that they then carry a great distance to their homes.
More than 90% of people have no jobs and their main survival is agriculture and livestock, they cultivate small plots of land near their homes to grow tiny amounts of food for their families. The families are blessed with many children, but in many cases the mothers are raising their children by themselves making it doubly hard to provide for the basic needs of their small households. Very often when people get a serious illness they have to surrender to death because they have no means to get medical treatment.
With our free outreach to the poor we provide the needed medical care and education to help the most vulnerable among us, something we are called to do by the gospels and just out of common decency.
Two times every month, our staff travel to the small poor villages and set-up a clinic in school class rooms or parish halls. They will treat up to 200 patients in a day and give educational talks on healthcare and the importance of early treatment.
The cost for our free outreach to the poor is high in part because we have such a very low flat rate fee for normal clinic visits. Every month we struggle to just cover the Health Centre’s operational expenses, expenses we need to pay to our Outreach Program so that the very poor might have a chance at very good health care.
We have started this fund to support our free Outreach Program which only needs $6,000 (U.S) to be fully funded for a year. Your donation can change the lives of hundreds of people and dozens of families so that so many fewer people have to experience the devastating tragedy of losing the ones they love simply because they don’t have access to the care they need.
Please consider donating whatever you can today.
Organisator
Friar Jerry Payne
Organisator
Clyde Park, MT
