Today we’re arriving in a place we’ve never taken Changemakers 365 – Uganda’s Kyangwali refugee settlement. Located nearby the city of Hoima in western Uganda, it’s not far from the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. As such, more Congolese live in Kyangwali than any other group, but Rwandese and South Sudanese refugees also comprise the 45,000 people who live there.
For the next 30 days, we’ll be doing the doable in Kyangwali settlement. But on our first day, we’ll actually be busy outside the camp.
The relationship between host community (Ugandans in this case) and refugee settlement is very important and can be delicate. It’s critical that host communities feel they’re able to access the same level of services that residents of the refugee settlement enjoy.
Kyangwali is covered by ambulance services – in the event of an emergency and ambulance will bring camp residents to help at a hospital or health center. But in the villages surrounding Kyangwali, that’s not the case. When someone in the village needs urgent care, they must be carried to help.
We thought we could do a little something to make that easier. So, on Day 241 we delivered stretchers to three villages around Kyangwali. In the event of an emergency, they can strap the patient in and get them to medical attention. In an emergency when time is of the essence, making the process quicker and easier should make a difference.
“Our husbands will find it easy to help pregnant mothers or any person with an emergency to a point accessible by an ambulance,” said Joan Kwebiha, Area Councilor for the village of Ngurwe. “This stretcher is better than nothing and four people can carry a person quite easily.”
This change made possible by Atomic Data.
