Our second project was the designing of a medical centre specialising in maternity cases. We went for an initial site-visit to get our bearings at the plot of land already purchased, and began to realise the scale of our task. The site was in a beautiful, undeveloped area outside Kampala but with no access to utilities like water or electricity and in need of purchasing some of the neighbouring pieces of land. As none of the group had any experience of the needs of a maternity unit, this limb of our trip necessitated lots of research.
We began our investigation with a trip to a local medical centre called St. Monica. This austere place was very tranquil but, when we entered the maternity unit, we began to realise the problems affecting pregnant women. They are expected to bring with them essential supplies like cotton wool and latex gloves. Then, in basic conditions, they are expected to haul themselves between tables even in the middle of labour. The sterilising took place in a toilet and consisted of boiling the implements - and there were still blood-covered wellies and aprons, like in an abattoir. We were also introduced to the chronic underfunding of Ugandan healthcare, where somewhere like St. Monica's, which has 2 wards aside from the 7-beds maternity unit, gets very little financial support from the government. This doesn't even pay for a doctor for a few months so St. Monica's relies on giving from the local Catholic Church and from overseas donations.
The fact also remains that places like St. Monica's can only cope with natural deliveries; any caesarean sections meant that the woman would have to be rushed to a general hospital or somewhere better equipped in order to be operated on.
Having started small we looked at the best that Uganda had to offer with the International Hospital in Kampala. It is the place you go when you have money, it provides an arena for Ugandan doctors to perform operations and treatments that otherwise wouldn't be available in Uganda, but only to a very small number of people who are able to pay. We soon saw the appeal of its architecture, which allowed for the building to be opened up to the outside, providing ventilation but little light. We also thought that the artwork interspersed throughout the hospital was something we would want to imitate.
After quickly looking around a half-built medical centre in Ntinda we went to see the general hospital in Mulago.
The hospital at Mulago is not somewhere you would go unless your life depended upon it. Whilst the experience was necessary, none of the team ever wants to go there again. People were crammed into wards and were on the floor until a bed became free. People spilled out into the halls and there was dirt and standing water everywhere. Dead people were left next to living people and families were left to push their sick relatives around the hospital.
One of the saddest sights was when we were leaving the hospital -we came upon an elderly woman lying prone outside the hospital with a broken leg. We went up to give her some money for food, but when she refused notes and would only accept coins, we realised she was mentally ill. A woman came up saying she was a police officer, and took the money we had given to the old lady, and said she would put the old woman in a taxi to get her home. John, who lives in Uganda, explained that the woman needed care, not a taxi, but got nowhere, so we had to leave, unsure as to whether the woman was going to get the care and food she needed.
Deeply upset by these experiences we then went to view some posh flats on the way home and were again amazed by the two worlds that co-exist in Kampala and never mix. Rich people can afford the care and education necessary, and so live in a world that bears no resemblance to the lives of the majority of Kampala's inhabitants.
Our remaining time
The rest of our time was spent doing building work at the maternity-centre site, removing some of the trees in time for the soil to settle in advance of the construction work. We were also trying to finalise the details of our product, and who can make the constituent parts. It was in the back of our minds just how little time we had to sort out as much as possible whilst we are out in Uganda before our normal lives engulfed us again.
If any one is interested in finding more information about how you can help or you are interested in going out to Uganda, please get in contact with me at cavbayliss@live.co.uk
I thank you for reading my article and also to those who supported me through prayer.
Caroline B