Imagine you or someone you love is this pregnant...
Or this pregnant...
And you live deep in a village and must travel to the hospital on a road like this
or this
Or this...
The only transportation you can afford is on a bicycle or a “boda-boda” -- a hired bicycle or scooter.
Often you won't even be able to hire a boda-boda because it costs too much money.
But if you can, these are the types of roads you will have to travel.
Imagine that the pregnancy was complicated, breech, or your labor was advanced.
This is why so many women and children die in childbirth, either on the road, or without even leaving the village. Many times, they rely on witch doctors or traditional birth assistants who do not have the knowledge, skills, or tools to deliver a complex pregnancy.
Often times there are horrible accidents on the road, and the Bishop Asili Hospital is contacted, but they have no mode of transportation to bring trauma patients in to the hospital.
With 11 outlying clinics, deep in the bush of Uganda, the hospital needs to also bring medicines, treatments, staff members to the villages for clinic days and to provide education to the villagers. While some of this can be handled with mopeds, much of the care and treatment requires a “mobile health unit.” Children who are in advanced stages of meningitis or malaria are difficult to move. Right now the hospital has only a small pick up truck to carry out all of its transportation needs.
A fully-equipped ambulance costs less than $45,000. Once the hospital is able to begin treating AIDS patients with anti-retroviral treatment, their mobile health unit needs will increase dramatically. They minister to thousands of HIV + patients and will need to monitor them much more closely.
Sister Ernestine knows that they will be able to do far more efficient work if they are able to transport patients and provide on site care.
