Batwa Outreach
Sustain for Life supports a health outreach service to 24 Batwa communities in the Kisoro district of Southwest Uganda operated by St Francis Mutolere Hospital to provide healthcare, preventative medicine and education to some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Healthcare for the Batwa
The Batwa have limited access to healthcare due primarily to the costs involved. In addition, many Batwa in the Kisoro district live in hard to reach isolated areas and are unable to walk to the hospital when ill. They rely completely on the outpatient services offered by St Francis Hospital. Sustain for Life is committed to supporting the Batwa Outreach Programme and hopes to make a big difference to the lives of those vulnerable individuals it reaches.
How You Can Help
Your funding of the Batwa Outreach Programme will make a powerful difference to the lives of the Batwa in Southwest Uganda.
The objectives of the Batwa Outreach Programme include reduction of mortality, improved environmental sanitation and hygiene practices, better housing conditions, increased usage of health services, and increased participation in school attendance. Through this vital initiative, the Batwa receive the following services:
- Ante and post-natal care, family planning, support groups to encourage delivery at health facilities, and the encouragement of male involvement in reproductive health activities.
- Voluntary testing and counselling for HIV/AIDS among Batwa communities, using support groups to identify cases of tuberculosis and linking them to treatment centres, introducing home based management of fever to fight malaria, and the purchase of mosquito nets for all Batwa households.
- Health education, social mobilisation and the empowerment of peers to identify and refer patients for treatment at the hospital and nearby medical care centres.
- Food and nutrition programme to identify and manage severely malnourished Batwa children and to conduct nutrition education and demonstrations.
- Immunisation of all eligible children
- Batwa treatment and welfare during hospital visits, including food and other essential supplies
About St Francis Hospital Mutolere
St Francis Hospital was founded in 1956 by the Franciscan Sisters of Breda (The Netherlands) in the Kisoro District located in the extreme Southwestern part of Uganda. The district borders Rwanda to the south and Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. The hospital serves people from these three countries.
The mission of the hospital is to provide health care to the needy and to fight disease and poverty by providing health care to the weakest social groups such as the Batwa, women, children and other people devastated by poverty and chronic diseases.
The hospital has a staff of 140 and has an average of 210 inpatients on any one day. Approximately 50 Batwa are treated by the hospital each month. Since 1986, the hospital has operated a public health programme with the objectives of improving immunisation coverage, reducing infant and child mortality rates, and reducing the rates of HIV/AIDS infection.
