African Mission Healthcare Gerson L’Chaim Prize Laureate – 2020
Rwibaale Hospital, Uganda
Dr. Sister Priscilla Busingye, Uganda’s leading urogynecologist, was born in a mud hut without a trained health worker present. That’s a situation she wants no mother or baby in Uganda to face.
The Banyatereza Sisters, an indigenous order of Ugandan Catholic nuns, took in Sister Priscilla as a young woman and educated her. The baby born without a health worker in attendance grew up to become an obstetrician-gynecologist, a specialist in repairing “birth injuries,” and the doctor known in Uganda as “the nun who helps women.”
Dr. Priscilla’s vision is for a center of maternal health excellence where poor women receive outstanding, compassionate healthcare and young health workers learn in a functional environment. This compelling strategy won the African Mission Healthcare Gerson L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service.
Treating Patients Today
Through African Mission Healthcare’s Surgical Access for Everyone (SAFE) program, women in need of emergency C-sections and birth injury repairs undergo free surgery. A village health program provides primary care to nearly 10,000 residents in the communities around Rwibaale Hospital.
Training Doctors for Tomorrow
One hundred and twenty Sisters and lay students have benefitted from African Mission Healthcare scholarships to become doctors, nurses, and health support personnel. Housing for interns and students means Rwibaale Hospital is a teaching hospital setting a standard of excellence.
Transforming Hospitals for the Future
The L’Chaim Prize and other resources catalyzed by the award have greatly expanded the infrastructure at Rwibaale Hospital, including water, power, housing, and a pediatric ward. The center of the facility is a 45-bed maternity unit under construction.
The efforts at Rwibaale under Dr. Priscilla are part of the wider Ngonzi Nsa (Only Love) Initiative in southwest Uganda. This network of four mission hospitals aims to reduce maternal and newborn mortality while preparing Uganda’s workforce to care for pregnant women and their children.