Uganda

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By Allison Glennon and Jonathan White

The difference between humanitarian aid and international development can be ambiguous.  It is oftentimes hard to tell where the line is drawn between providing temporary aid to a people in need, versus truly helping them to rebuild and develop.

Real Medicine’s goal has always been to start with aid but move beyond that as soon as possible, and provide sustainable and truly internal development over the long term.  The old proverb of “Give a man a fish vs. teaching a man to fish” is very close to what RMF tries to achieve with many of our projects around the world.

Watching other aid groups leave only months after the 2005 tsunami in Sri Lanka, Real Medicine made a vow to stay and truly rebuild. Newly formed, at the time, RMF’s work at the time was considered disaster relief but before long it was clear that our scope was beyond that, and perhaps even beyond traditional humanitarian aid.

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After the clinic and our support of the Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools make up the next biggest component of our program in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement.  The students we support are mostly Kenyan refugees, but there is also a small group of Sudanese students and one Congolese that receive full support for school fees and supplies as well.

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by Jonathan White, RMF Director of International Relations

After the rousing and heart warming welcome I received on my first day’s visit to Kiryandongo, I spent the next two days immersed in our projects and meeting everyone I’d heard from in the community meetings one on one.  Partly to make personal connections with those who manage our projects, but also to gauge the effectiveness of our funding and prioritize the rest of our year.

The majority of our year’s funding was already committed to the operating costs of our primary clinic (staffing, medicine, and other supplies) and the school fees for the students we support, with a small amount left over for the many other needs of the community. I am learning quickly that this is, of course, the hardest part of the job: no matter how much funding you gather, there will always be something or someone you have to turn down.

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Meet Judah Yarberry: RMF Youth Team, Hawaii, Uganda, and Kenya

Judah is a 9 year old in Hilo, Hawaii. Since he was 6 years old he has been traveling with his mother to East Africa where she does relief work with RMF. Judah raises money for these trips by selling plants and greeting cards at his mother’s clinic, and doing yard service and other chores for friends, neighbors and supporters. He often collects and takes school supplies, toys, and other needed items to children in Uganda and Kenya. His favorite part about his travels is meeting and playing with other children, and being around all the animals of Africa (he wants to be a wildlife conservationist when he grows up). When in the US, he shares these trips through slide presentations for local schools.

Meet the rest of the Youth Team

Donate in their name

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As RMF’s Jonathan White travels through Africa, you can follow him in photos. Click here to see Jonathan’s complete collection of photos with short descriptions.

If you’d like to donate to this cause:
  • $50 covers 7 additional Nursery School students
  • $100 covers one Primary or Secondary student for one year
  • $200 can cover emergency malnutrition treatment for one child
  • $500 purchases two weeks of medicine for our clinic

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by Jonathan White, RMF Director of International Relations
Reporting from Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Uganda (May 2010)

What a day

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The RMF Proust Questionnaire (as in the ones in the back of Vanity Fair magazine)

Charles Naku, Country Coordinator, Uganda

What is your idea of perfect happiness?
All the necessities of life taken care of:  clean water, have a family, be able to sustain my family, be able to move if I want to and not be stuck in one place, healthy/body mind…I don’t need riches, just a simple house.  I always give away money if I have something extra, I’d rather give 10 and keep 10 then have 20 to myself.

What is your favorite activity outside of work?
Listening to music on computer, letter writing, reading novels

What is your favorite music?
Ugandan gospel, American gospel, Meditative Yoga music

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by Jonathan White, RMF Director of International Relations — Reporting from the Field (May 3rd 2010)

Road to Tororo

28 hours of travel, layovers and in-flight entertainment and I finally land in Entebbe, Kampala airport bright and early at 7:30 am local time.

This is a trip of firsts for me, first trip to Uganda, first to Africa for that matter, and the first time representing RMF in the field, so I’m a little excited and nervous upon arrival to say the least. Coming in on our approach to Entebbe airport I look out the airplane window to see a beautiful pastel orange and pink sky, lush green gently rolling landscape dotted with small farms and towns and the edges of the enormous (Great Lakes enormous) Lake Victoria complete with dozens of little fishing canoes paddling out for their morning catch.

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Update 2010

From RMF Team Uganda:

Aketch Tereza, a 16year old girl in senior four at Mama Kevina Comprehensive  School in Agururu Tororo, is one of the students traumatized by war and HIV/AIDS.

She is an orphan losing her father in war and losing her mother to HIV/AIDS.  She was raised by her grandparents enduring the hardship of the rural poor. School fees and daily meals were very difficult to attain.

Afflicted with nightmares of falling in a ditch and being chased by someone with ill intent Tereza took advantage of acupuncture treatments being offered at Mama Kevina.  Treatments reduced the stress of being an orphan and her nightmares disappeared

She also uses the treatment to help her concentrate during reading, previously when  she went for her private reading/revision, only bad memories would arise and her stress would increase.

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Dispute over results of the 2007 Kenyan presidential election resulted in widespread demonstrations and ethnic violence. Tragically, over 300,000 people were displaced and as many as 12,000 Kenyans made their way into neighboring Uganda to find shelter in refugee camps.

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One specific need among the refugee population was treatment for the psychological effects of trauma, and RMF was quick to get on the ground and assist, bringing acupuncture services to camps. Black Irish movie full

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Recent studies suggest that acupuncture may be as effective as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for psychological conditions. “Acupuncture is a proven, easily transportable, and cost-effective healthcare tool,” says Megan Yarberry, RMF’s Team Whole Health Project Coordinator “We’re hoping to provide support and healing to hundreds of people each day.”

This last December RMF visited the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement and found the acupuncture program thriving.

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