Hopeline into Africa

In a determined effort to give back, a Ballito resident and physiotherapist volunteered her services for one month in Uganda in November last year.

Jacqueline Madombwe, who works as a physiotherapist at Tiffany’s Shopping Centre in Salt Rock, said: “It opened my eyes to challenges that our fellow Africans face that we cannot even imagine. The most inspiring part was the stoic way in which the Ugandans bear their challenges.

“This is not to say governments should be allowed to neglect their obligations to their citizens, but Ugandans have not allowed their hardships and disappointment with their leaders to change who they are. They remain good and honest people at heart with the most beautiful African smiles to welcome all visitors.”

Jacqui spent the month living with the community in the Northern Buikwe District, in a little town called Lugazi.

“I was volunteering for an NGO called Hopeline, which mostly works with women and orphans in the areas of healthcare, education and empowerment. Hopeline also supports a local school. I was given the P6 (grade 6) class to mentor and among other things we talked about self esteem and values, HIV and abuse.”

“I identified a boy in the P6 class who is 17 years old. He lives alone and does odd jobs in the community to raise money for school fees, rent and food. His parents are alive but they abandoned him some years ago. His determination really touched me and before I left I paid his school fees and exam fees for P7 and I also paid for his uniforms as he had no uniform and the shoes he was wearing were so torn they were barely covering his feet. This is just one boy who I was able to assist yet his story is so common in Uganda, it is heartbreaking.”

Jacqui met with the Buyantete Women’s Group to learn more about the challenges these women face. Challenges that stem mostly from the Ugandan society being polygamous and men having multiple wives and ultimately neglecting their families.

The women are left to source money to care for the children. Clinics are few and far between and there is no free healthcare.

“They are not able to negotiate safe sex or contraception and as a result they have on average eight children each. This just increases the burden of poverty and a lot of these children actually don’t grow to adulthood as they succumb to various childhood diseases.”

Most of the villagers are living well below the breadline and survive on one meal a day and children are constantly turned away from school due to failure to pay fees so the education that they receive is rather sketchy.

“Based on their needs I gave health education talks. I taught the ladies how to make oral re-hydration solution, discussed importance of immunisation and how to keep their babies alive and healthy.”

“There were many laughs on our Boda Boda (a motorcycle and the main form public of transport) trips to the villages.”

Jacqui said the women value modesty so she had to not only wear a dress or skirt, but also balance on a Boda Bodasitting “side saddle” on the rough terrain. Jacqui said she gave up being elegant and road the bike astride to be safe.

She took trips to Jinja which is a tourist resort 30 minutes drive from Lugazi.

“Uganda is the most beautiful country I have been to in Africa. I was able to take a boat ride on the Nile and see the source of the river Nile, which is in Jinja.

“My experiences in Uganda made me think a lot about poverty. In the face of true adversity, I began to see a lot of our complaints as petty. I was shaken completely out of my comfort zone being a volunteer physiotherapist in a country where most the population have never heard of a physiotherapist, much less seen one.”

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