UPDATE! Global Health Education Scholarship Program

In Northern Uganda, one of the fundamental barriers to providing essential health care is finding – and retaining – trained health care professionals. In 2014, When Asteroidea began working in Pader, Northern Uganda, there was only one physician in all of Pader District (which has a population of almost a quarter million people) – and this one physician was needed to work as an administrator and, thus, wasn’t actually seeing patients. Today, things are only ever so slightly better: there is often one physician seeing patients in Pader District … but clearly this is still far too few.

Much of this lack has to do with a lack of funding: a lack of funding to pay salaries for trained medical personnel at health care facilities (thus creating a tendency for trained workers to leave the region in search of gainful employment) as well as a lack of funding to pay for individuals to pursue the education that they need to become trained medical personnel. What this lack has nothing to do with is a lack of individuals who are both able and willing to do this crucial work. There is no shortage of willing and able individuals in Northern Uganda to do this work – if only they are provided the resources to do so.

That’s why at Asteroidea we engage this problem not by bringing in individuals from outside of the local communities to do the work of providing essential health care – as many NGOs do – but by supporting individuals from the local communities to become trained health care professionals(and to then to help them secure employment and salary after they receive their degrees). This is in line with our overall approach at Asteroidea: we work to provide the resources to support local organizations and individuals in Northern Uganda in their efforts to tackle the health care challenges their communities face. We believe that not only is this approach the morally right way to go about health care development, but that it also leads to more adequate and sustainable solutions to the health care challenges faced by communities.

Back in 2015, in order to address this issue, and after consultation with local community leaders and community members, Asteroidea launched our Global Health Education Scholarship Program.

This program provides individuals from Northern Uganda with funding for not only their tuition as they pursue health care degrees in Uganda, but also with a subsidy to cover their living expenses while they are in school. In return, each of these individuals signs a contract agreeing to work for an equal amount of time in Northern Uganda to that for which they received funding. Of course, we fully respect these individuals in their right to go wherever they please and to relocate beyond this one specific region of the world once they have received their degrees (nobody would demand any less from others, ourselves included). We simply ask that they commit to working in the communities we serve in Northern Uganda for this period of time as part of our efforts to support community based health care efforts in the region. Asteroidea also assists these individuals in finding gainful employment once they receive their degrees by utilizing our growing network of community-based health care partners.

It is also worth pointing out that as much as this program is about helping communities get access to essential health care, it isn’t simply about that. It is also about providing an opportunity for these individual scholars to pursue theiraspirations and dreams as individuals. Again, this is something we all deserve in life. This program aims to meet both a dire need of the local communities of Northern Uganda as well as to open up opportunities for those individuals we are able to support as they travel their own journeys through life.

Over the first four years of this program we have been supporting three individuals in medical school studying to become physicians. Two of these individuals are on schedule to graduate with medical degrees in January 2021, while the third will graduate the following year (note: medical school is typically 5 ½ years of study in Uganda).

We are very excited to announce that, as of this past August, Asteroidea was able to expand this scholarship program for the first time as we added another three scholarship recipients, bringing the total number of scholars being supported to six.

These three new scholars include one individual in medical school, one in nursing school, and one in midwifery school. In the next couple of weeks we will introduce all of these amazing individuals to you in more depth, but for now, allow us to share with you their names:

• Olanya Denis: attending medical school at Kampala International University

• Atyia Patrick Kasagara: attending medical school at Kampala International University

• Oyoo Benson: attending medical school at St. Augustine’s University, Kampala

• Oyet Patrick: attending medical school at Kampala International University

• Oryem Bosco: attending nursing school at Soroti School of Comprehensive Nursing

• Ajok Monica: attending midwifery school at Lira University

It is truly our honor at Asteroidea to support these six individuals. It is our hope, that as Asteroidea grows, we will be able to support even more people from Northern Uganda as they purse health care degrees. Of course, our capacity to do so depends, in large part, upon you, our loyal supporters.

To give you all a sense of what it costs to run this program, typical costs for one of our scholars in medical school is approximately $4,000 USD a year. This covers not only two terms of tuition and other school related fees, but also a subsidy to cover their living expenses while in school. The cost of a scholarship to nursing school, which costs less in tuition than medical school, comes out to roughly $2,000 USD per year. Again, this includes not only two terms of tuition and other school related fess, but also a stipend for living expenses.

Again, our ability to provide these scholarships depends largely upon individuals such as you that have supported our efforts throughout the years. For that, we thank you. If you are interested in once again supporting this work, you can either contribute here.