Uganda 2018

Rakai is a small town located in the central part of Uganda. Thousands of people live here, yet there is only one ill-equipped hospital to take care of them. The majority of people in Rakai are living in extreme poverty, most live on less than $2 per day. To make things worse, Rakai is disease ridden. Aids, yellow fever, malaria take thousands of lives each year. For these reasons, Operation International established a long term base here. This is Operation Internationals 2nd base in east Africa and 4th base in all of Africa.

The hospital was in dire shape when we arrived. It was almost completely empty, making it look abandoned. There were no functioning lights, no gowns, no pillows, too few beds, only 2 oxygen tanks, and little surgical supplies. 3-4 patients slept to a bed due to the lack of beds. For these reasons, the health care system in Uganda petitioned and protested for the past year in hopes of receiving necessary equipment and medical supplies, but they were not given any. This made the Medical Superintendent at the hospital even more grateful for our donation.

The donation that we received from Operation International is like a full hospital.  

There are 5 orphanages in Rakai, each one lacking the resources to properly care for the children. 90% of the children never had shoes and many have only one piece of clothing. The children attend one of the 4 schools, but they lack basic school supplies such as writing utensils.

Our focus was on the orphanage located adjacent to the hospital. The orphanage lacked electricity, clean water, food supply, and basic hygiene. Team NY decided to commit future time, money, and energy into giving these kids a better life. Visit our Sponsor a Child page and Rakai Orphanage Project page to learn about the programs we established to help the kids.