Thursday, March 27, 2007

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Welcome to the USD-Uganda blog. We hope this blog will tell the story of our 12-day trip to Uganda, which begins March 29. Our purpose is to perform a community assessment study in preparation for building the Holy Innocents Children’s Malaria Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda. The project is the brainchild of Tom Harold, of the San Rafael Parish in Rancho Bernardo. After learning of the terrible toll malaria takes on Uganda’s youngest citizens, he and his friend Lane Freestone created a nonprofit corporation and have enlisted volunteers to help with all aspects of the project -- legal, accounting, fundraising, web hosting, and so on. Their goal is “better health for all children in Uganda,” and the Holy Innocents project is only one of the goals they pursue.

And now about Mbarara. It is a town and a district in the southwest of Uganda. It is home to about 1.1 million people. It is Uganda’s principal milk-producing area, complete with cooling plants, and also grows bananas, coffee, maize, beans, vegetables and Irish potatoes.

The town of Mbarara is home to the Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Founded in 1989, it is Uganda’s second public university, and grants degrees in computer science, tropical forest conservation, community development, medicine, and science. We’re hoping to learn more about the university after we arrive.

We’re still here in the US. We leave from USD Thursday, 3-29, at 3 a.m. on a shuttle for LAX. Then it’s 20 hours in the air and 6 hours of layovers until we reach Entebbe, Uganda.

Our team is made up of Dr. Anita Hunter, associate professor at the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Sciences of the University of San Diego, four registered nurses and two nursing students. Here’s more about us:

Dr. Anita Hunter has been actively involved in international nursing and has led medical missions since 1995 to Cuernavaca (Mexico), Bani (Dominican Republic), Ghana (West Africa) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). She has served as a medical consultant to the Minister of Health in Takoradi, Ghana and to the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Orphanage system in Mexico. She has taken over 500 students, faculty, and health professionals on these medical missions and has been personally involved in providing care to over 75,000 people around the world.

Dr. Hunter has nine years’ experience working in Ghana with malaria and other illnesses endemic to that region. She continues to serve the underserved around the world in her role at USD, integrating her expertise in the curriculum and facilitating the mission of USD to internationalize its students and faculty.

She teaches in the master’s and doctoral programs, directs the RN-BS Program, Master’s Entry Program into Nursing, and the MS in Clinical Nursing program. She received her degree as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Northeastern University in Boston, her MS from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and her PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Connecticut in 1994.

The RNs on our team will focus on assessing the Mbarara community’s professional, educational, social and technical resources. They are:

Matt Cerchie, a pediatric intensive care nurse who is working on a master’s degree in nursing USD. Matt has prior international health experience working in Mexico and Guatemala, but this is his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa.

Matthew Simone is a nurse in the emergency room who is also completing his advanced training as a family nurse practitioner. This is his first trip toAfrica.

Robin Simms is an RN working at Scripps Mercy Hospital in the Emergency Department. She is currently working on her master’s degree as a clinical nurse leader. Robin has a strong passion for international work, and has previously been to Tanzania. This will be first visit to Uganda.

Kelly Woods has been an emergency room nurse for five years. She has been a volunteer in Central America for three years and has assisted in opening and maintain clinics and schools. Like Matt and Matt, this is her first trip to Africa.

Our two nursing students were added for their individual non-nursing expertise. Both will finish their RN training in May, 2007.

Dave Webb is finishing his first years of the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN) program at USD. In his prior career, he spent several years managing large design and building projects, and will be assessing the feasibility of constructing the Holy Innocents clinic and hospital.

And I’m Joanne Gribble, also a MEPN and the writer of this blog. My background is in communication and nonprofit marketing. My job will be to work on the community assessment and development aspects of the trip. Like most of my teammates, it’s my first trip to Africa.

Let’s hope we can line up some internet access in Mbarara, so we can keep you up to date on what’s going on.

Wish us luck!