FOR $10 HELP HEALTH SYSTEMS RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE

Many people have been cut off from accessing conventional healthcare due to torrential rains cutting off roads and bridges. Kigezi Healthcare Foundation has adopted mobile clinics to reach out to the underserved communities. Many mothers deliver at home or with the help of traditional birth attendants that poses a vey high risk of maternal deaths. Children have no access to immunization that is critical to prevent childhood diseases.

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the most critical global health challenges of the 21st century across the world. In Uganda, the effects of climate change are being felt across various sectors, but the healthcare system has been particularly impacted. Kigezi Healthcare Foundation explores how climate change is affecting healthcare in Uganda, the challenges the country faces, and possible strategies to overcome these hurdles mainly using mobile clinics to help the rural communities to have access to the much needed Healthcare. Over 1200 people have been reached using this innovative approach and the effort is going on with support from friends with the help of GlobalGiving donation platform.

Uganda is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its reliance on rain-fed agriculture, limited adaptive capacity, and high poverty rates. Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall patterns, extreme weather events like floods and droughts, and the increased spread of diseases such as malaria are overwhelming an already strained healthcare system. As these climatic shifts intensify, Ugandans—particularly those in rural and impoverished communities—are disproportionately affected Much of the intervention has to target the rural communities severely affected by the changes. 

Kigezi Healthcare Foundation has initiated free monthly screening for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) mainly focusing on Hypertension, Diabetes, cervical cancer prostate cancer and breast cancer. Patients receive advice on risk factors, and diet. A total of 865 people were screened for various conditions. Out of this 507 were women and 358 men. Non communicable diseases are silent killers in low income countries because of limited access to healthcare and also limited information about screening. People often present with complications when it is too late to help them.

In Uganda, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent a significant health burden, accounting for approximately 33% of total deaths, with cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes being the primary contributors; the probability of dying prematurely from one of these four major NCDs is around 22% for every Ugandan citizen

We thank our friends and partners who help us by donating through the GlobalGiving platform. We are reaching out to more friends and partners with grants and donations so that we can reach out to the rural communities using mobile clinic approach.