World AIDS Day in Bumwalukani

On December 1, the REACH Beatrice Tierney Clinic in Bumwalukani in Bududa district in Uganda was the site of the official celebration of World AIDS Day. Senior government officials and community members gathered at the REACH school next door to celebrate the advances they have made in controlling AIDS and improving healthcare. They also celebrated the achievements of the clinic and the work of our partner, the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC), which manages and operates the clinic. FIMRC has done amazing work in Bumwalukani and the surrounding villages in Bududa district. They have developed a model community health education program by training, organizing and empowering locals to run it themselves. They have introduced health education in the villages and taught prevention behaviors that have reduced incidences of malaria, HIV transmission and diarrhea. The health clinic is rated the best-managed clinic in the district under FIMRC’s leadership.

New lab in Bupoto
New lab

Across the region from Bumwalukani, a new and improved way of diagnosing disease has just arrived at the REACH clinic in Bupoto village. The REACH clinic in this village has recently been expanded with the addition of a laboratory, courtesy of the same REACH donor who helped build it, Ms. Beatrice Tierney. The equipment in the laboratory was funded by a grant from the Rotary Club of Dunn Loring in Virginia. Until now, the only way of diagnosing malaria in the village was by feeling the forehead of the patient with the back of the hand, and if the temperature seemed higher than normal, a patient was determined to have malaria. Now, with the advent of a laboratory, the nurses will test patients to determine what illness they have.

We are so grateful to Beatrice’s leadership in healthcare, and we thank our friends at the Rotary Club of Dunn Loring for their generous donation. We continue to call on our friends to help improve the healthcare of people in Eastern Uganda. If health is your area of expertise and you’re willing to make a difference for children and people in rural Uganda, then consider volunteering with the health committee here in the U.S. or at the clinic in Bupoto village in Uganda. We need your continued support to help keep the clinic open.  Currently at the clinic, our biggest demands include health education for the community and support for its day-to-day operations. We also need funds for medical supplies and nurses’ salaries.

If you can help, please make a donation to REACH online or by mailing to REACH; PO box 7694; Arlington, VA 22207. Read more about the two community health centers.

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