East Africa Site Visit—Uganda

Above. HaEun Lee, Impact Scholar with the Center, gets a tour of the simulation lab at the Virika School of Nursing and Midwifery in Fort Portal, Uganda.

Various affiliates of the Center, including staff and faculty members, are in East Africa this month to connect with community and research partners in Uganda and Kenya.

Traveling and meeting in person with our global partners is central to global health work because successful collaboration is highly dependent on developing trust and taking the time to deeply understand the day-to-day realities of our partners. Spending real-time on the ground is essential to achieving this understanding.

Most mothers-to-be, those without adequate financial security, must take motorcycles to the hospital to give birth or don’t go at all.

Our delegation began in Uganda, where COVID is playing out in ways rather different from what we’ve seen in the US. Most desire to be vaccinated, and the rates are steadily increasing. Most wear masks, and no one we’ve encountered doubts their importance.

Otherwise, life seems to me—as someone who has spent a lot of time in Uganda—to be relatively normal. COVID is certainly not a major topic of conversation. The pandemic is no longer disruptive to most areas of daily life, and from what I gather, this is because of broad adherence and commitment to public health guidelines.

That said, the pandemic has impacted certain aspects of life in rather dramatic ways, particularly for those pregnant and about to give birth. In Uganda, which is landlocked, gasoline comes from Tanzania, where ships can dock. For a variety of economic reasons, the cost of gas in Uganda has tripled.

So most mothers-to-be, those without adequate financial security, must take motorcycles to the hospital to give birth or don’t go at all, staying at home for this significant life and health event.

On this trip, we are paying close attention to maternal health in Uganda as well as in Kenya. Many of the women who give birth with delayed or absent medical care sustain injuries to the birth canal from prolonged labor. We recently participated in a camp that provided free surgical correction to women suffering from fistulas to restore their ability to control bowel and bladder function. We served as assistants for two days to help determine future needs and opportunities where we can be helpful. It was remarkable to see how these successful postpartum procedures restored dignity to these women.

We were also honored to meet with staff in the Prime Minister’s office and leadership of the national vaccine coalition. We we were invited to assess opportunities to strengthen the academic programs in one of the major teaching hospitals in Kampala. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to learn alongside our partners to understand where we can be relevant to their efforts to better address issues of equity in Uganda.

Joseph C. Kolars, MD, MACP
Director, University of Michigan Center for Global Health Equity
Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Medicine
Josiah Macy Jr., Professor of Health Professions Education, U-M Medical School
Professor of Health Management and Policy, U-M School of Public Health

Read more about the delegation's experiences in East Africa Site Visit—Photo Journal.