Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Welcome to the USD-Uganda 2008 blog. We hope to share the story of our 18-day trip to Uganda, which begins tomorrow, January 3. This is the second trip to Uganda for a team from the University of San Diego, to help the Catholic Archdiocese of Mbarara and the surrounding community to build a pediatric hospital. Our last trip was in March 2007, when a team of nurses and nursing students led by Dr. Anita Hunter did an assessment of the Mbarara community’s ability to build and operate a hospital dedicated to the care of children.

Our team is bigger this time, and includes volunteer USD faculty and students focusing on nursing, business development and water quality. In addition to the nurses, again led by Dr. Hunter, Dr. Jim Bolender of the Chemistry Dept. and two of his students will be evaluating Mbarara’s water quality, and recommending ways to keep the hospital from having any negative impact. In addition, Dr. Patricia Marquez of the School of Business and her students will be exploring possible means for the hospital to be self-supporting.

Our purpose is to perform a community assessment study in preparation for building the Holy Innocents Children’s Malaria Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda. The project is the brainchild of Tom Harold, of the San Rafael Parish in Rancho Bernardo. After learning of the terrible toll malaria takes on Uganda’s youngest citizens, he and his friend Lane Freestone created a nonprofit corporation and have enlisted volunteers to help with all aspects of the project -- legal, accounting, fundraising, web hosting, and so on. Their goal is “better health for all children in Uganda,” and the Holy Innocents project is only one of the goals they pursue.

And now about Mbarara. It is a town and a district in the southwest of Uganda. It is home to about 1.1 million people. It is Uganda’s principal milk-producing area, complete with cooling plants, and also grows bananas, coffee, maize, beans, vegetables and Irish potatoes.

The town of Mbarara is home to the Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Founded in 1989, it is Uganda’s second public university, and grants degrees in computer science, tropical forest conservation, community development, medicine, and science.

Right now we’re still here in the US. We leave from USD tomorrow, Jan. 3, at 3 a.m. on a shuttle for LAX. Then it’s 20 hours in the air and 6 hours of layovers until we reach Entebbe, Uganda.

As mentioned, Dr. Anita Hunter is the overall leader of the team, and a member of the Holy Innocents’ Board of Directors in the U. S. Here’s more about her, and our other team members

Dr. Hunter is associate professor at the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Sciences of the University of San Diego. She has been actively involved in international nursing and has led medical missions since 1995 to Cuernavaca (Mexico), Bani (Dominican Republic), Ghana (West Africa) and Belfast (Northern Ireland). She has served as a medical consultant to the Minister of Health in Takoradi, Ghana and to the Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Orphanage system in Mexico. She has taken over 500 students, faculty, and health professionals on these medical missions and has been personally involved in providing care to over 75,000 people around the world.

Dr. Hunter has nine years’ experience working in Ghana with malaria and other illnesses endemic to that region. She continues to serve the underserved around the world in her role at USD, integrating her expertise in the curriculum and facilitating the mission of USD to internationalize its students and faculty.

She teaches in the master’s and doctoral programs, directs the RN-BS Program, Master’s Entry Program into Nursing, and the MS in Clinical Nursing program. She received her degree as a pediatric nurse practitioner at Northeastern University in Boston, her MS from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, and her PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Connecticut in 1994. Her most recent honor is election as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

The RNs on our team include:

Matt Cerchie, a pediatric critical care nurse who will receive his master’s degree in nursing in May. Matt was a member of the team that visited Uganda in 2007. He has also worked in international health in Mexico and Guatemala.

Robin Simms is an RN working at Scripps Mercy Hospital in the Emergency Department. She is currently working on her master’s degree as a clinical nurse leader. Robin has a strong passion for international work, and has previously been to Tanzania. She was also a member of the 2007 USD-Uganda team.

Dave Webb is a nurse practitioner-in-training at USD, and works as an emergency room nurse at Scripps Hospital in Encinitas. As a member of the 2007 team, his pre-nursing experience managing large design and building projects was critical in assessing the feasibility of constructing the Holy Innocents clinic and hospital.

The chemistry team on the trip is headed by Dr. Jim Bolender, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and acting chair of the Chemistry Dept. He has done environmental work in Baja California, and teaches classes ranging from general chemistry to quantum mechanics. On his team are:

Ashley Parks, a USD honors program senior who has worked on Dr. Bolender’s team for more than two years in Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur. Ashley’s research has been on how biomarkers in clam tissues may reflect their exposure to pollutants.

Joining Ashley is Raffaela Abbriano, a biology major, senior and also in the USD honors program. She has also worked with Dr. Bolender in Baja California Sur, studying the impact of effluent from a local cannery on the phytoplankton community in Magdalena Bay.

Dr. Patricia Marquez from the School of Business Administration has lined up a team of students who share her interest in international business, plus consultant Lea de Wit, owner of Lucky Stripe Studios of Del Mar. After a 15-year career at two Fortune 25 corporations Lea, a glass artist, struck out on her own to build a business based on creativity.

The task of the business team will be to develop ideas for profitable businesses that can keep the Holy Innocents pediatric hospital economically secure. More on the rest of the team later.

And I’m Joanne Gribble, a critical care RN at UCSD Thornton Hospital in La Jolla. My pre-nursing background is in communication and nonprofit marketing. On the last trip to Uganda, I helped with the community assessment and development assessment we wrote. Last time there, Uganda just got under my skin -- I can hardly wait to get back!

So let’s hope we can line up some internet access in Mbarara, so we can keep you up to date on what’s going on. In the meantime, you can check out the blog from last year’s trip at www.usd-uganda.blogspot.com.

Wish us luck, and check back in a couple of days