Double Cure Medical Centre
Ugandans suffer from the “triple scourge” of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; childhood diseases plague them as well. The people of Mpigi are grateful that the first phase of the DCMC opened in December 2007. When completed, the Double Cure Medical Clinic will treat 350-400 outpatients a week between its general medicine, obstetric, gynecologic, surgical, orthopedic, pediatric, and trauma wings. Future plans also include 30 inpatient beds and a mobile unit.
In March 2008 the Maternity Ward opened, easing many births. In May 2008 an ambulance was purchased which will serve as a mobile clinic, thanks to the fundraising efforts of two schools and one determined young man in the Philadelphia Area.
Link to www.echoesaroundtheworld.blogspot.com
Link to Ambulance/Mobile Clinic Picture
A sign posted in the nearby town of Mpigi
announces directions to the newly opened clinic.
DCMC is a brightly colored beacon of hope
with lush greenery.
The opening of the Double Cure Medical Centre on December 3rd was preceded by a service led by Reverend Livingstone, Patients, clinic staff, assistants, friends, and construction workers join in celebration in front of the main entrance on opening day.
Medical staff, builders, first patients and our
partners on opening day.
The clinic’s first patient and the inaugural medical staff pose in front of the main entrance.
Additional clinic buildings are in their final stages of construction.
Board member, Dr Joe Bonn, unveiling the DCMC plaque with Romans.
Will you help us develop a reliable medical clinic that will improve the lives of so many? We need to attract well trained staff and educators but this takes more money than the fees for service. The Serunjogis don’t want to make the services too costly so people are left out so outside donations are needed. Donations are critical to offset the costs of health care so no one will be turned away....Will you be a donor?
Letter from Joseph Bonn, MD
On a dirt country road along a verdant hillside near Mpigi, Uganda, a cluster of brick and stone buildings nears completion between the broad banana trees on the terraced land. The Double Cure Medical Centre, its name emblazoned in bright red letters over the main entrance, is the latest project of Reverend David Serunjogi, also known by his Biblical passage name, “Romans 8:1”, and was opened to the Mpigi community with great fanfare this past December 3rd.
Serunjogi, an Episcopal minister, and his wife Sarah, have spent the last twenty years developing among their “Romans 8:1 Ministries” the primary Trinity School in Kabowa (a neighborhood of Kampala), the secondary Centenary School in Nyendo (nearby, in the Serunjogi’s home district, Masaka), and most recently the busy maize and rice mill just down the road and around the corner from the Double Cure. Now their attention has broadened from education and commerce to the health of their flock; and as the name reflects, it is both their physical and spiritual health they hope to nurture.
Ugandans suffer enormously from the triple infectious scourge of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, while little maternal care exists, and childhood diseases continue to flourish in the absence of fundamental nutrition and immunization. The Double Cure Medical Centre, when completed, will be a thirty-bed general medical centre treating obstetric, gynecologic, surgical, orthopedic, general medical, pediatric, and trauma patients. It is anticipated that physicians and nurses in its clinic will see between 350 and 400 outpatients each week, while there will be inpatient wards with 10 beds designated for children, 10 for female/maternal adults, and 10 for male adults. Rev. Serunjogi describes its mission as, “to bring affordable services to the needy people in this area and improve the scarcity of health facilities in the district.” In addition to the clinic rising in Mpigi, the Centre will operate a mobile unit to bring medical care to the bedridden and homebound, and to deliver comprehensive public health educational programs directly to nearby villages. As in the Romans 8:1 Ministries’ schools, people of all faiths and tribes will be welcomed.
Having demonstrated over more than two decades their extraordinary devotion to the educational and spiritual growth of the people of their community, Rev. David Serunjogi and Sarah Serunjogi look forward to linking those efforts to the medical needs of their charges. With assistance from many sources, including ECHOES Around the World, the Double Cure Medical Centre is on its way to becoming a vital resource for the Mpigi people.
Joseph Bonn, M.D.
The Lankenau Hospital
Wynnewood, Pennsylvania
January, 2008
Lydia Serunjogi home for an internship stands in front of the new mobile clinic at Double Cure Medical Centre.