JBO Foundation director John Bosco Odongo has invited Wimmera residents to be a part of his campaign to build a new health centre in remote Uganda.
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Mr Odongo’s dream is to build a large medical centre in Uganda’s Kole District, where the lack of medical care is compounded by a lack of education.
The group has secured donations of medical equipment from hospitals in Horsham and Ballarat but needs help with a shipping container and freight costs.
Mr Odongo said he would like people from Horsham and the Wimmera to join his campaign to help build support.
“The campaign needs to be a part of the community so people can see where the money is going,” he said.
Mr Odongo has been in talks with church and school groups to help build up grassroots interest and is due to speak at Lions and Rotary club events next year.
Mr Odongo is the drug and alcohol program manager at Horsham Base Hospital and has a Master of Science degree and qualifications in mental health and public health and administration.
He has been working for years to help build a new health centre in the Kole region of Uganda.
Mr Odongo hopes to staff it with volunteer overseas doctors as a training hospital until it can become self-sufficient.
Kole has an estimated population of 232,000 but only a few basic medical centres.
Mr Odongo said Kole’s residents were turning to witch doctors because healthcare was not available.
“Before you can get them to accept modern medicine, there needs to be an alternative,” he said.
“They are turning to herbs and witch doctors because there is nothing else.
“You can’t blame them.”
Mr Odongo said people in the region were dying because they did not understand the symptoms of cholera or HIV, or were drinking water contaminated with animal or human faeces.
“I heard recently that a five-year-old child was buried in an anthill because they thought he had an evil spirit inside him,” Mr Odongo said.
“It turns out he had the symptoms of epilepsy.”
Mr Odongo hopes to create a model health centre that can be used to establish other centres across Uganda and Africa.
“It will also be a chance for doctors to learn about diseases they would not otherwise encounter,” he said.
“You could work your whole life as a doctor in Australia and maybe see only one case of cholera, malaria or TB.”
Mr Odongo said people could find more details available online at www.jbohealthfoundation.com
He said people interested in becoming involved with the campaign could call him on 0417 874 787.