A promise for better health services for the people of Iganga

When Suzana Nakibuuka, 63, feared she was starting to lose teeth due to old age, something happened in her village to save her from that anxiety. A team of dentists arrived to offer free dental services at Suubi Health Centre. She was the first in the line and she left the clinic later with a big smile.

Suubi translates as “hope” in both Luganda and Lusoga and for the people of Busu village in Iganga District, the health centre is the envy of the neighbouring villages. “May God bless our son,” Nakibuuka said as she walked back home, “I will eat meat for some years to come because these doctors have not removed any of my teeth. Instead, they have given me medicines to kill the germs that weaken them,” she added.

The start of Suubi
The “son” that Nakibuuka is talking about is not a doctor, though. Dennis Victor Kigongo is a businessman with interests in touring services.

He put up the Suubi Health Centre to cater for the sick as he knew well the hardships faced by the community where he was born and raised. “People here were still dying of malaria and women died in labour. I realised the biggest problem was the lack of a medical facility,” he explains the reason that inspired him.

But there were personal reasons too.

Denis Kigongo built Suubi Health Centre about five years ago. Even then, because it did not have enough medical equipment, his aunt, who raised him, died, just metres from this health centre.

She was bitten by a snake. Because she could not receive quick help, she died before reaching Iganga hospital, which is several kilometres away from her home.

This motivated him to dedicate a good percentage of the profits of his company, Msafiri Tours, to building, equipping and mobilising support for the facility. “I decided to upgrade this facility to extend more services coming from a personal experience,” he says.

The medical centre serves up to nine other villages. People come to this facility because it is cheaper than the alternatives elsewhere, including the government hospital in Iganga town, 45km away. Now with two nurses and 12 beds, which puts it to the level of a health centre III, Suubi is the pride of Busu residents.

With his connections in the United Kingdom(UK) where he resides, Kigongo partnered with Dr Mitesh Badiani, a reknown Kenyan-born UK dentist, who offered his staff of five doctors, three nurses and two support staff to provide free medical services for a week. Badiani says Uganda has been added to the countries his staff offers free medical care to, in addition to India and Kenya.

Dental problems more serious than perceived
Though they did general health care, they particularly addressed the dental needs of the village. Dr Badiani says the commonest dental problems around Busu needed extraction, while others were infections of the sockets and children who suffer tooth decay.

It is a common practice for people in the village to visit the dentists when they have acute toothache. The chairman of Iwawu parish in Bulamagi sub county, Abdallah Wamala, who was registering people, said he didn’t know how serious this problem was until he registered 30 people in just two hours. All cases were acute, and needed to have their teeth removed.

Eric Kasadha, a nurse at the facility, said a dental problem is not something people often report. However, he adds, the main problem is the type of food they take, which breeds cavities.

“People take dental issues as minor. Yet, the dental hygiene in villages is really poor. For example, people in villages rarely brush their teeth and they love sweet foodstuffs,” he said.

This time round, the 10 medical professionals brought in medical supplies worth Shs12m.