Posted by Shakilah Bint Shiekh | Jun 19, 2009 | Tinyhttp://2mp.tw/12 | Comments
Health • Ruhiira, Uganda
Medical Equipment Donated to Ruhiira
MVP Health Coordinator, Dr. Martins Okongo, opens the boxes
General Electric (GE), the multi-national American technology and services conglomerate, has entered into a partnership with the Millennium Villages project (MVP) in Ruhiira, as a sign of its commitment to supporting Uganda to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The company has donated medical equipment worth over $58,000 to the Uganda cluster. An assortment of midwifery, obstetric surgical equipment, and resuscitation and sterilization kits, as well as laboratory equipment and maternity and suturing kits were supplied to all of the six health facilities in the cluster. Currently, the six facilities cater for over 140,000 people including those outside the project area. To serve this big community, the MVP has a total of 38 medical staff including three doctors.
A Uganda health official inspects the equipment
The MVP in partnership with General Electric officially handed over the medical equipment to the health centers in May 2009. The District Health Officer, Dr William Nyehangane, and the Secretary for Education and Sports, Health and Sanitation, Ms Margaret Bariyo witnessed the presentation of the new equipment.
Dr Nyehangane thanked GE for the donation and said that this would go a long way to help the area achieve the health MDGs. He said that Isingiro district, where Ruhiira is located, had only 80 hospital beds serving a population of over 360,000 people in the area and beyond. An additional 160 beds provided by the MVP would greatly reduce the pressure on the existing facilities.
Dr Nyehangane also said that efforts were being made to ensure that Kabuyanda health centre, within the cluster, was transformed into a general hospital so as to cater for all the medical needs that cannot be availed by lower units. By the end of June 2009, grid power should be installed in Kabuyanda so that all of the electrical equipment such as ultrasound scans and X-ray machines will be in use, greatly improving on medical service delivery.
Medical equipment loaded on a truck for distribution
As part of a larger partnership with the Millennium Villages Project, GE has committed to providing equipment including x-ray machines (for both medical and dental), x-ray image processing equipment, incubators, etc., to upgrade health care delivery capacity in the district and referral hospitals that serve the Millennium Villages population in 10 countries in Sub Saharan Africa.
“We are partnering with the Ministry of Health in each country to identify and complete the upgrade projects and continue to make good progress towards achieving the Goals. In addition to the hospital upgrades, GE has committed over USD$1M to secure necessary equipment and supplies for Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) needs in each of the health facilities that are part of the Millennium Villages across Africa,” said Krista Bauer, Director of Global programs at General Electric.
Shakilah Bint Shiekh is a UNDP Communications Specialist. She is based in the Ruhiira Millennium Village, Uganda.
RSS Feed
It would be a great addition to hear how well the donated equipment is working, how it is being used (and how helpful it has been) and also what have been some of the stumbling blocks to getting stuff working on the ground. Looking forward to future posts.
its great that the international community can come together and provide equipment for other people in need. I agree with the other poster that it would be nice to see how this equipment has been put to use.