Edward was abandoned by his mother a week before Bulamu’s Surgery Intensive program in Wakiso District.

His widowed mother, filled with guilt and desperate due to lack of money to care for him, left him at his aunt’s doorway with a note that read, “I have gone too broke caring for him. I do not expect to receive anyone’s understanding, I only hope that he survives.”

Suffering from an abdominal periumbilical abscess, Edward desperately needed surgery, but his family could not afford it. His Aunt Florence sought care from a local hospital but was told he could only receive care if the family paid a fee for his operation of about 250 USD.

With his mother abandoning him, and his father dead, Edward was an orphan.

“I did not have a shilling at the moment,” Florence recalls. “I thought about leaving him at a children’s home since I couldn’t afford his treatment. Fortunately, I heard about Bulamu. They ran several tests before they admitted us. We were very fortunate that they could take him on. For the first time in my life, I saw very dedicated, thoughtful, and compassionate doctors. They went above and beyond and worked tirelessly for a healthy outcome for Edward. I was in my last stages of pregnancy at the moment and was equally assisted. Now Edward is a very active boy and takes care of home chores. Thank you, Bulamu!”

Bulamu means wellbeing, but sadly, many of the public health facilities available to people living in rural Uganda lack basic tools and equipment to assess, diagnose, and treat chronic illnesses like heart disease and hypertension. Our Health Center Excellence program provides 353 (11%) of Uganda’s 3,194 public health facilities with state-of-the art clinical tools, data gathering and reporting functions, and supply chain support systems that help improve access to quality healthcare for people living in rural Uganda.

Thanks to partners including the Ministry of Health of Uganda, the Association of Surgeons of Uganda, and Rotary clubs in Uganda and the U.S., we’re improving delivery of essential healthcare serving millions of patients.