Children of Rwenzori was established in 2012 through a partnership between visionary residents in Ibanda village and Norwegian Uganda friends. Ibanda is located in western Uganda in the Kasese district, 1600 meters above sea level, at the foot of the mighty Rwenzori Mountains. The people here live by old traditions. Many girls get married at very early age, and the women often have many children, more than average in Uganda. Unfortunately, far too many children die before the age of five. Diseases like HIV/ Aids, malaria and tuberculosis make life difficult, and the local leaders hope that our project will mean a change for the people there. After a review of the residents´ needs, it was decided to build a health center with focus on mother and child.
Summer 2013 Children of Rwenzori got in touch with two serious and committed investors, who also went into the project board. The plan for a health center was expanded to include outreach knowledge dissemination and education.
A Ugandan-Norwegian architect from the architectural firm LatZero, undertook to draw our clinic for free, and an architect-engineer with broad experience in construction of hospitals in Norway and Africa was engaged to guide the architect through the prosses.
We started the building prosses in the autumn of 2016. We have experienced that building in a foreign country is not uncomplicated. We met with a lot of challenges but despite that, we have managed to complete the first of two phases. A building with four delivery rooms, two operating theaters and laboratory is built, also a maternity ward and a house for the employees. The second phase will contain an administration building with a poly clinic and an education pavilion, a house with a ward for patients and a laundry.
One of the challenges we experienced was that ground water is filling the foundation during the rainy season, and we have to make a drain system that leads the water to a nearby stream. We relate to the issues as they appear, and now we are looking for sponsors who can help us complete the project. We will need approximately 250 000 USD to complete the buildings and the outdoor area.
