John Kalule came to visit!

John Kalule, co-founder of the health clinic in Uganda, came to visit Emma Willard last week along with Theresa Weinman (whose interview you can find in an earlier blog) and had the opportunity to both tour our campus, and speak to several girls and faculty members who were interested enough to come! (see pictures below)

John first presented a video he made about the clinic, projects they've been working on, and the new maternity ward. You can watch it here:
https://video214.com/play/z0skpQ4VmOiU8eQQOAQyyA/s/dark

And here is a video about the Maternity ward specifically:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa40gs0dPoY

After watching the video, John shared a bit about his life and the need he saw in his community for a health clinic. Interestingly enough, John did not realize this until he went to university. As a child, John would walk to school for about 4 miles with bare feet. If you were sick, there was no health care. If a woman was giving birth, she would get advice from a friend whose own personal delivery experience would be her only qualification to help. John, a very progressive man in Uganda, saw the need for more in Ddegeya, once he had left to go study. He is working to provide easily accessible and affordable health care to all, and to increase the number of girls who attend school.

In Uganda, in areas where people are fortunate enough to have health care, it works in a very different way. People basically diagnose themselves based on their symptoms, and they are handed whatever drug they ask for. There is no evaluation from certified personnel. John, along with co-founder Stephanie Van Dyke wanted this to be different in Ddegeya where there was previously no care. That is how the Health Clinic was first started and is the reason behind much of the work that has been done since. John also told the group about the reusable pad project and many other  that I will be working with him on, come March 10th.

After John and Theresa left, I received several texts from girls who had been in the room saying how honored they were to have met John and how interested they were in being involved further. The messages nearly brought me to tears because it was the exact impact I had hoped for. It made me really hopeful that my project may catch on and inspire Emma girls to be engaged further and even visit in the years to come.

John, like Emma Willard herself, saw a vision of how something should be, and he made it happen. Here is a picture of me and John Kalule on Emma Willard campus and another picture of him talking to some students:

Future steps and hopes

What I hope to have happen when I come back from Uganda would be to make this a sustainable and continuing connection between Emma Willard and the clinic/schools in Ddegeya and the surrounding areas of Uganda. I know that I will continue to visit for the rest of my life and I hope by the time I come back and present my experience to the community, others will feel moved to contribute as well.

My goal would be to have girls come visit the clinic with me at some point or have it be made into a regular spring break trip every year. I would love to continue to go every year as an Emma alum with girls who share my passion. It's an incredible that I have been lucky to be a part of and I want others to have the same chance.

Timeline of goals:
February: Have John Kalule come to Emma and speak to the community
March: Will be visiting the clinic during the first week and a half of spring break
End of March: Will talk about my experience during morning reports
April: Meet with administration at Emma to figure out how to keep the program running. Will probably do a couple fundraisers as well if possible.
May: Will present my signature project to the entire school

Interview with Theresa Weinman

I chose to interview a close family friend who has been involved with Engeye from the beginning and who keeps me motivated and interested in going back. Here are a few of the questions so that you all can get to know her yourself: 

1. What is your connection to Albany Med?

I have been employed by Albany Medical College for 26 years. I have worked in the same department, the Department of Family & Community Medicine the entire time. I am currently the Academic Coordinator for many of the community service and service learning programs. While I work in many areas of the medical school curriculum, the role I enjoy most is when I work with medical students, encouraging them to work with at risk or underserved populations.

2. How did you first become involved with Engeye?

Stephanie Van Dyke, a second year medical student at the time, came to me and told me her dream of building a health clinic in Uganda. She had met John Kalule during a trip there and he had told her about his village. I was able to connect her to Dr. Bob Paeglow and he helped her work toward her dream of building the clinic. Dr. Bob, Stephanie and a group of students and volunteers traveled to officially open the clinic doors in 2006. During this trip, family members brought in a young girl named Susan Nabukenya who had been burned over 80% of her body. Dr. Bob did not have any of the resources he needed to help Susan. When he returned to the United States he could not shake the memory of her and felt he was called to help her. I got involved with that mission and we became “Team Susan.” This group of volunteers applied to many hospitals until we found one who would accept her. John Kalule became her legal guardian and they came to the US for her treatment in 2007. It was when she was preparing to return to Uganda that John and I spoke of creating an organization (which would later become Engeye Scholars) to help sponsor Susan and other students to attend school.

3. When did you first meet John Kalule?

I first met John in 2007 when he came to the US with Susan Nabukenya.

4.When did you first visit Ddegeya and what experience did you have?

I first visited Ddegeya village in 2009. I was 44 years old and had never traveled out of the country. I got my first passport because I was determined to see Susan again and see Engeye with my own eyes. The experience was life changing and I have worked for/with Engeye every since. I co-founded the Engeye Scholars education program and have served on and off the Board of Directors throughout the years. I also help coordinate and plan all of the visiting medical mission teams to Engeye (approximately three per year).  

 

5. Have you been back since then? What have you done there?

I have returned five times but most of my work on behalf of Engeye have been here in the US, helping to recruit board members, raise funds for ongoing projects, coordinate medical mission trips, work on developing several microfinance programs for women in the community and try to strengthen and grow partnerships both in Uganda and the US for Engeye.

6. Can you describe briefly some of the projects you have worked on?

So many wonderful projects. Growing and transforming the Scholars Program is my first love. We had spent several years partnering with a small local school and that was our focus for several years.  The Engeye Teen Connection was a passionate group of teens who helped us raise funds through several programs and events. They helped raise $10,000 to bring solar power and textbooks to the school. We worked to bring training programs for the teachers and many other programs of support. Sadly, with a change in leadership, we needed to end our partnership with this particular school last year. We have begun the Engeye Artisans Program where we invest in local community members and help them begin small businesses. This has been an area of great reward for me personally. With the Engeye Board of Directors, we have spent the last two years researching the need for maternity services in the community. We have spent the last 12 months raising funds to build the Engeye Maternity Center. We hope to break ground in 2017. Engeye also has clean water initiatives and many other public health projects that I have been able to work on.  The needs feel endless but I am very proud of the accomplishments that the Engeye team members have been able to tackle in just a few years.

7. Why do you keep going back?

I keep going back because the people of Engeye have stolen my heart. The work there is hard and heartbreaking and rewarding. I think I will be going back until they ask me to stop.

8. What would you like to see happen in the future?

I have many dreams for the Engeye community. I hope that the health clinic will be able to continue to provide quality, compassionate healthcare to this wonderful community.  I hope they will be able to continue to recruit and keep the wonderful staff they have today. I hope that our Engeye Scholars will be able to continue their education and go on to University. I hope that we will break ground on the maternity center and within the next year, we will be able to offer mothers a safe delivery and prevent unnecessary death and heartache. I hope that physicians, teachers and young people will continue to come to Engeye and be inspired. In return, I hope they will continue to share their time, talent and knowledge with this special community. 

I hope you all enjoyed hearing from Theresa. I am so incredibly lucky to be involved with people like her with huge hearts, who are doing such incredible work. I am honored to be a part of it all. 

I am officially going back to visit!

Hello everyone!

I apologize for how long it has been since I last wrote. There has been so much changing on this end! I have officially gotten plane tickets to return to Dgeye, Uganda this spring! I leave on March 10th and can hardly contain my excitement.

What am I going to be doing there? Well, a couple new sustainable ideas and projects have surfaced that seemed to catch on incredibly well. I will be helping to continue them when I go over. The main two things that I will be working on are:

1.The pad project: 
One of the biggest concerns with women's education and health in Uganda is their lack of sanitary products when on their period. Often times, women and girls will use resources such as corn cob husks or newspapers, which leads to horrible infections. For girls in school, they miss a week of classes a month because they have to stay home with no way to prevent the bleeding. This means that very often, the boys succeed in school and can pass exams, while the girls are unable to perform as well, and more often than not drop out. I will be bringing over materials that can be used to sew reusable pads. There is an area for the inserts that then attach to a belt that goes around the waste. This means girls who don't have underwear can still use the pads. And the inserts themselves can be rinsed and re-used for up to 5 years, making it incredibly sustainable!

2. The Moringa Tree project:
The leaves of the Moringa tree have as much calcium and protein found in prenatal pills here in America. The trees grow incredibly well in Uganda, needing only to be watered for the first two weeks. After about 6 months, the tree has grown fully, but the leaves can still be used in the meantime. The leaves can be eaten directly off the tree, crumbled onto food, or can be dried out in the shade for 3 days, and crumbled to store in jars for later use or selling. This would be an incredible source for women while pregnant, children, or really anyone. I am going to be checking on a few trees that were already planted and hopefully will be planting some more!!

While there, I will also be visiting women in the village, interviewing those who work at the clinic, (hopefully) witnessing the start of the actual building of the maternity ward, and many other things. I can't wait!

A Small Hiccup

Something that is very important to be able to convey when asking people for money, is what their money would be impacting and actually going towards. I was expecting to be seeing the maternity ward in mid-build when I go to visit in the spring. However, the actual building of the ward is being postponed until a little bit later in the spring so in the meantime we had to come up with other ideas of how to support women and babies in childbirth until the clinic is up and running.

So although we are still fundraising for the clinic, we are now also thinking of raising money for mother-helper kits which is a little sanitary kit with gloves and sanitary wipes. One of the main causes of death among women in childbirth is that many births are done at home in unsanitary conditions. And even if the women are fortunate enough to make it to a clinic, if they do not bring their own gloves, the doctor will use their bare hands. This leads to a lot of disease and infection for the mothers.

So how could I be a part of this?
Well, when I go to visit in the spring, I would be traveling around with John Kahlule and be giving out/ meeting the women who will be receiving this help. There is also the need to train midwives in order to train the women and the doctors in the clinic, which I will be looking into!

I am so excited to see where these new ideas and progress take us!

Progress

My progress this semester has been slower than I had hoped. College applications are taking their toll! This past week however, I have really started to move things forward.

I had the idea of putting money jars at the check-in and check-out of several stores. A very close family friend of ours works at Capital Care Pediatrics and has gotten permission from her boss to help me place containers there! I will be making business cards with the link to my blog, a description of who it would help and how each dollar would be utilized, as well as the link to the Engeye clinic website: ( http://www.engeye.org/engeye-maternity-center/ )

She also helped me to brainstorm several other ideas about places that may be open and willing to help me fundraise, which includes several other maternal care offices, or stores that are typically geared towards supporting small villages elsewhere in the world. I will be working to solidify this over winter break by going into the stores physically and preaching my case. I am hoping to have good results!

However, these methods of fundraising are helpful but not completely effective when attempting to raise large amounts. I met with someone who works in the business office at my school named Joe Hefta, and he helped me gather ideas and potential sponsors. I am excited to work with him further in my endeavors to help raise money for the clinic!

The BIRTH of the maternity ward (get it?) and my plans for this year

This past year, two Minerva fellows from Union college went to stay at the clinic for a few months. One thing they realized was the need for a Maternity ward. 800 women die per day due to birth related complications and 3 million infants die per year in Uganda.

This year I am hoping to: 

1. develop a plan with sources of income through means of fundraising (by winter break)

2. raise awareness of childbirth complications 

3. put my fundraising plan into action (by March)

4. turn the blueprints into a real maternity ward (by the spring/summer)

What would the fundraised money go towards? 

1. training for midwives

2. employees salaries 

3. materials to build the maternity ward

I will be going back to Ddegeya village during this coming March, over spring break to see the maternity ward be built in action! I am so excited. This means that my plan is to hold several fundraisers inside and outside of the Emma Willard community and be prepared to go over to Uganda by March. I was also hoping to get others involved and hopefully some other girls from Emma Willard will be able to come with me. By April, I hope to bring my experience back home and spread awareness of the impact. I can't wait!!!