Two doctors, two fields, one conviction
Healing Wheels Uganda is a compelling narrative that highlights the experiences of two medical doctors from very different fields.
Dr. Arabat Nagasaki, a highly skilled maxillofacial surgeon with a wealth of experience, conceptualised a “dentist on wheels” initiative to extend dental care services to communities. The initiative sought to provide dental care to both the urban wealthy and the economically disadvantaged using fully equipped motorised dental vans — proceeds from the former subsidising free or nominal-fee care for the latter. Dr. Nagasaki believes good health is an essential ingredient for socio-economic transformation in poorly resourced countries.
On the other hand, Dr. Dennis Kutosi Lukoye, a young medical officer with a passion for paediatrics, set out to extend basic medical care to all. He realised that the health outcomes of an entire community could be improved by making healthcare genuinely accessible, particularly to the rural and the poor. He chose to target school-going children, who are so often the most vulnerable.
His focus on school-going children is a deliberate strategy to address healthcare challenges in underprivileged communities: care that is accessible, affordable and of high quality, delivered where the children already are. Two ideas met, and Healing Wheels Uganda was born.
500 children in a single day at Malukhu
Our inaugural medical camp at Malukhu Primary School in Mbale City brought together volunteer doctors, nurses and students. In one day more than 500 children were reached, with 259 formally screened and treated — and the findings were sobering: untreated dental caries, respiratory infections, malaria, skin conditions, and girls missing school every month for want of a sanitary pad.
That day set the pattern for everything that followed: go to the school, treat what can be treated on site, refer what cannot, and leave the community with knowledge it keeps.
When a child is healthy, they can dream. When a community is well, it can rise.
Dr. Dennis Kutosi Lukoye Founder & CEO, Healing Wheels Uganda
The story is still being written
Its next chapters are the schools we have not yet reached. Help us add them, one camp at a time.