Success Stories
Sisters in Butaleja Deliver Healthcare with PEPFAR-funded Ambulance
Pregnant women about to deliver will no longer arrive at the Mulagi Health Center on a bicycle. Sick children will no longer suffer at home, hoping their family members can find transportation to the clinic. Sr. Josephine Boscato and Sr. Christine Akumu will no longer ride bicycles in the rain to immunize and treat the most rural and underserved in their district.
Last month, the Sisters got an ambulance. Funded by PEPFAR through the Small Grants department, the ambulance arrived in time to transport over 30 emergency cases in only its first four weeks of service. In between emergencies, the ambulance is a mobile outreach clinic.
The mobile clinic provides vital basic health services (immunizations, malaria and pneumonia treatment, care for infected wounds, monitoring of ART, health education about HIV/AIDS) for orphans and vulnerable children in Butaleja District. In an emergency, the ambulance transports the critically sick from the rural villages to Tororo and Mbale Regional Hospitals. The Sisters are the only aid organization in the area.
Previously, Sr. Josephine and her Sisters regularly commuted long distances on bicycles to provide their mobile outreach services, even in the rainy season. The new ambulance will make it possible for the mobile clinic to reach even more children, especially those far from the clinic who would otherwise go without care.
The Eucharistic Handmaids Sisters first came to Mulagi Mission in 1994 and found little more than uncleared land. In 1996, they set up Mulagi Mission and started to work with the local women; the result was the Health Awareness Program. In 2003, they built Mulagi Health Center III. The Center was built with an emphasis on maternity services and is registered by the Ministry of Health. The maternity center is open 24 hours a day with qualified midwives and nurses.
From Italy, Sr. Josephine is one of those energetic and meticulously organized nuns that does not back down when faced with mounting challenges or limited donors. For example, the year before the health center was finished she began raising money to educate disadvantaged girls. The result is Mulagi Vocational Training Center. The center offers professional training courses in tailoring, catering and hotel management, secretarial studies and information technology. An astounding 95% of the students find jobs after they graduate. To support the students, many of whom are OVCs, PEPFAR invested 66 million shillings for school fees and scholastic materials for the students.
Through the power of partnerships, the Sisters, Ugandans and Americans are proving that the seemingly impossible is possible.