Ntungamo is situated in the South West corner of Uganda towards the border with Congo and Rwanda. It is a rural area about 6 hours drive from Kampala, the capital city. Ntungamo district is home to around 400,000 of the 28.2 million total population of Uganda.

Throughout Uganda, there are many children, in fact, the average age of the population works out at 15 years. Large families are typical, with high infant mortality and a relatively short life span.

Although the overall picture in Uganda is more positive than for other African nations, HIV/Aids is widespread and lack of education on family matters and sexual health is a major contributing factor.

TB, malaria, parasitic diseases and diarrhoea can all be life threatening due to the limited availability of local treatment. With no national health service, common ailments and disease are only treated at a price which many can never afford. Suspect tribal remedies are commonly applied in these rural areas due to the non-availability of healthcare.

Eagles Wings first visited Ntungamo in November 2007 with a view to setting up a clinic near the town centre that would be affordable and accessible to the local community.
In January 2008, one acre of land was purchased with plans to build a clinic and multi-purpose hall for training, healthcare and education, in particular.

The clinic would be staffed by a trained nurse (salary approx £80 per month) and supplied with anti-biotics, basic treatments, anti-malarials, pain killers and mosquito nets, for example and provide basic first aid, ante and post natal care, and health education.

As time progresses, medical equipment is supplied, and finance released from partners in England, we would hope to provide blood tests and minor surgical procedures.

By building a multi-purpose hall on site, this would provide a venue to gather local community groups (some of whom we have already met) for training and education using the Thare Machi DVD interactive health training programme.

As with other successful Eagles Wings projects, such a hall can be used during the day by ladies tailoring groups and for help to orphans and those in emergency need of clothing, food and clean water. The project would be personally overseen by Eagles Wings’ director Bruce Oliver and our local partner Paul Kinataama, with whom we have been working for over 6 years. Husband and wife team and local church leaders Wilson and Joy Sigirenda live in Ntungamo and will be our local partners in the community.