Greetings from Uganda
Margaret Appenzeller
Hello from Uganda,
I arrived on Saturday at 1:30am to the Hope Speaks compound. It is a beautiful place and the housing is very nice. There is a team of 13 Speech Language Pathologist, 1 Social Worker, 2 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students at the compound. Hope Speaks now has the most experienced SLP in the country at least for two weeks.
Hope Speaks has 3 special needs school they provide services for approximately 100 students and growing. They have two clinics in the slums of Kampala, which serves the very poor of Uganda. A recent addition has been a pay for service clinic, which helps pay for the free clinics.
My first two days have been so tiring and wonderful! I have seen many children with severe needs and parents wanting to get the best help for their children. I have fallen in love with children of Uganda. They are so friendly, wanting to come up and talk to the team and always ready to play. I am looking forward to being at each site at least twice during my stay. I have been able to use my feeding skills to help families and train graduate students. God continues to stretch me and grow me in my faith and clinical skills.
The highlight so far has been worship at the Worship House. Worshiping with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ was so powerful and humbling. The Christians in Uganda worship God with their hearts and souls. I have learned to dance and praise God at the same time. It was a unique experience and so uplifting.
Hope Speaks had its first Neuro Support Group today with 4 clients. The team that was able to work with the group said it was great. One client road a Boda (motorcycle) transportation to get to the group. The pray is that the group will continue to grow as there are very few services for adults with TBI and strokes.
I feel so blessed to be with the team that has come together to serve the children with special needs in Uganda. There are 4 million people in Uganda who need some kind of speech-language, OT or PT services. The need is great and Hope Speaks continues to rely on God to provide the workers and the resources to meet the need.
Maggie