FOUNDATION
Elderly care home/CENTRE
Field operation
HEALTH CAMPS
Most elderly people find themselves at a loss after an active work life, with no place to go/visit, no colleagues and often no support group. Research and studies show that in most cases this leads to a feeling of complete isolation, neglect and loss of confidence and self-worth leading to depression and health problems. This is a serious situation which we feel we need to urgently work on. The consequences of not doing so are alarming considering that most of the elderly population in Uganda cannot sustain themselves. Many keep in the homes with their grandchildren and some just by themselves without any family and friends.
According to the research by health professionals and psychologists, elders who are part of a social or work group fare much better in terms of physical and emotional well-being. The solution seems to lie in like-minded elders forming small groups and working together on socially useful projects which not only benefits society but also of benefit to the elders themselves as it keeps them socially engaged and imparts a sense of self-worth.
What is McBern planning to do?
Over the past several years, we have been using part of our salaries and pocket money for those still in school to help some of the elderly with food, medical care and a few other basic needs. We later decided to start McBern Tours and Travel so that part of the proceeds help us in the work. This is working but we do need more clients to use the tour and travel services so we can raise more money for the cause and also donations from the people of goodwill.
For the next 10 Years, we are focusing on doing the following;
- We plan to set up a Care Home in the future that can accommodate at least one hundred resident elderly.
- We would like to have a clinic as part of this elderly Home to make sure that these elderly have medical care nearby especially when it comes to emergencies.
- We would like to have a gym as part of the facility such that these elderly can exercise from time to time, a thing that will help them keep fit and also prolong their stay on earth hopefully.
As part of the income-generating activities to do this, we continue to search for tourists to come to Uganda and East Africa in General and use our tour company services and in so doing, they are supporting our elderly program.
We hope that with the completion of this, the residents at this care home will have healthcare facilities, practice active ageing techniques, participate in community meetings and also involved in recreational activities with the local community.
WHY SUPPORT ELDERS?
According to the research by health professionals and psychologists, elders who are part of a social or work group fare much better in terms of physical and emotional well-being. The solution seems to lie in like-minded elders forming small groups and working together on socially useful projects which not only benefits society but also of benefit to the elders themselves as it keeps them socially engaged and imparts a sense of self-worth. We believe we can do this and create a better atmosphere for these elderly to live in.
Why Use McBern Tours and Travel
Just imagine yourself as you get old, children leave you and you are all by yourself. Would you love to be lonely at home or share a life with other comrades in a community or people coming to visit you at home and spend time with wyou? That is why we ask you to support our cause by using McBern Tours and Travel and also to donate generously, you may be a beneficiary one day. Thank you.
Identification of camp sites will be organized and target population reached out with the support of the local authorities’ organization. We hope to have meetings with the local leaders and a venue to be chosen a week before the camp. As mentioned earlier, we shall reach out to health officials within St. Paul Catholic Parish and publicity campaigns will be organized to bring all the elderly that will need medication to the camp especially the ones that cannot to pay for it in public hospitals.
Free diagnosis, medicines, and referrals will be provided and incidences of epidemic and endemic diseases recorded. Data on number of camps organized, number of villages covered, number of persons who got treatment and referrals and activities done during the camp will always be maintained.
Our Mission for the health camps is to promote the right to better health and control general diseases by promoting community health care.
The target for the next 5 years is to organ 1000 Health Camps by covering St. Paul’s Catholic Parish (Mukono Municipality) in the first 3years and then spread out to other villages neighbouring St. Paul’s in the last two years of course depending on how much finances we shall have attained by then. This can only be available when we get more people to use the tour and travel services so we can be able to raise the money and also from the donations of people of goodwill.
Uganda after celebrating a Golden jubilee of independence is still struggling to provide basic health care facilities to its citizens. Provisions for basic health care services especially in rural India are few and far between. It’s an understood reality that the elderly fall way behind in receiving these services.
What is McBern planning to do?
An important plan for us to do for the elderly is to help them with health care. We plan to organize health camps in different villages for a start and later spread it out to Mukono town. We hope to bring nurses and doctors from St. Paul Catholic Church on board to help with their time and expertise especially over the weekends to enable us achieve the target of treating the elderly in the health camps. We plan on having a general camp team that will comprise of a general physician, pharmacist and assistant. We are looking at starting this at the beginning of 2016.
As we acquire more resources, we shall then have specialized health camps with teams of specialized doctors like dentists, gynecologists, orthopedic besides the general physicians, pharmacists and nurses. The health camps will ensure diagnosis, treatment and referrals for general ailments, dental care, gynecological conditions and ophthalmic diseases. These camps will in a special way also focus on preventive health care program through Information, Education and Communication and Behavior Change Communication activities among the community.