Dr Kellermann sold his belongings to take care of the Batwa

Dr Scott Kellermann talks to a patient. Net Photo

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FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA. The Kellermanns’ outdoor mobile medical outreaches would treat 200-500 patients each day. Today, this has transformed into a more than 100-beds hospital to enable rural village residents access medical care like their urban counterparts, writes Brian Mutebi.

When Dr Scott Kellermann came to Uganda in 2000, he was greeted by the appalling life of the Batwa, a minority ethnic group of people from southwestern Uganda. He not only chose to belong to a group that draws empathy but also chose to do something for them.

“Thirty-eight per cent of the Batwa used to die under the age of five and their average life expectancy was 28 years,” he recounts the statistics. The life expectancy cannot be compared to 53 years for the average Ugandan.
What shocked Scott was that the Batwa died from preventable diseases such as malaria and poor sanitation and hygiene-related diseases such as diarrhoea.

Dr Kellermann, his wife Carol, and son came to do a six-week health survey on the Batwa after which they returned to California, USA. Kellermann, a specialist in tropical medicine and public health was drawn to the plight of Batwa. He had left his heart with the Batwa, thousands of miles away in the remote hilly terrain of Kanungu. He wished to stay with the Batwa and work to improve their livelihood. However, this would mean relocating with his family yet his wife was afraid of living in Africa because of the perceived diseases on the continent. Besides, the couple had spent a long time working as missionaries in Nepal, Asia, and their preference thus was to settle in their home country. “My wife and I had agreed to take time off every year to go on holiday and travel the world. However, we wanted to stay with our family, relatives and friends in California.”
But there was a persistent urge to help the Batwa. A Christian couple that they are, the Kellermanns sought God’s guidance regarding the dilemma. “We prayed about it and my wife got a conviction that we needed to move to Uganda. It was the best thing we had to do.”

Return to Uganda
In 2001, a year after their maiden trip, the Kellermanns returned to Uganda as missionaries with Church of Uganda. They settled among the Batwa in Bwindi, Kanungu. There, they set up a tent where they resided. Under a big tree, they administered mobile healthcare services to the local community. Imagine an intravenous drip hanging from branches secured with vines.
Their first task included learning the customs and traditions of the locals particularly the language, which Kellermann considered very paramount for their mission to succeed. “Until you learn the language of the people you will never understand them. People prefer interacting with them in their native language,” he says.
However, learning the local language was not easy. “The Batwa have no past and future tense in their grammar which we found difficult to comprehend,” Dr Kellermann says. The couple also found a lifestyle which involved the lack of basics such as running water challenging. Despite these hazards, their determination was unwavering.
Soon Carol suggested. “She said ‘I feel like I have come home. I think we should consider returning to America and sell everything so we move to Uganda,” Kellermann recalls. That is what they exactly did. “We owned a couple of homes and my friend and I owned a hospital in California. We sold all that and came to Uganda.” Their sons who were in graduate school could not relocate with them.
Was the decision to leave California for Uganda that easy? “No, it wasn’t,” admits Scott. “Many of my friends called me crazy asking, “You have a good life here, why are you going to Africa?”’ It was not easy but I was convinced. We felt God led us in the decision we took and that kept us strong. We just came, we followed the call.”

Reaching out
So, Uganda became their new home. Using the money got out of selling their property; Kellermann would buy medicine and other medical utilities. He would hold mobile health camps in the hilly remote villages of Kanungu reaching out to between 300 and 500 people a day.
But the ultimate goal was to build a community hospital, and the initial support to realising this dream came from very unlikely sources. “As we wondered how we would work together with the community, Bakiga elders asked me, ‘if we identify land will you improve our children’s health; stop them from dying from malaria and diarrhoea?’ I responded ‘why are you doing this’? They said their children were dying. Most community members had been affected. The contract was, they help me acquire land and in return, I bring the healthcare services closer to them.”
Three hundred acres of land were bought in Bwindi part of which was used to resettle and build houses for Batwa who had been displaced from the forest reserve. Using his connections in the US, Scott fundraised and Bwindi Community Hospital was built. He would get in touch with some medical schools in the US to attract volunteer health workers. Fifty to 75 health workers mainly physicians would come in every year. These physicians would in turn tell their friends about the hospital. Today, the hospital receives more than 100 volunteer health workers every year.

The hospital and benefits
The hospital serves a population of about 60,000 people in and around Kanungu District. It offers both treatment and preventative healthcare services such as community water and sanitation programmes. It runs a fistula surgical camp and a community health insurance scheme. Consequently, maternal health has improved with the drop of over 60 per cent in maternal deaths; diarrhoea cases have reduced by over 50 per cent while malaria cases have dropped to over 90 per cent in the last 15 years.
Kellermann has supported 250 Batwa children in schools. One of the girls is Sylvia Kukunda, who graduated with a bachelor of laws from Uganda Christian University. She works with the Batwa Development Programme, a local development organisation, and was recently invited by the United Nations in New York to speak on indigenous rights. “It takes times to realise this kind of change but when you do it, the result are amazing,” Kellermann stresses.
Kellermann,70, has spent 14 years in once upon a time strange land. “Some people asked me why Africa when there are also poor people in America? For me it is the people in Africa. People come here to see gorillas, lions, crocodiles, the sunshine, but for me it is the people. I say to people you can come and see those animals but spend time with the people; your life will be transformed.”

Challenges and joys
Financial stability is one of biggest challenges faced by Bwindi Hospital. The Kellermann Foundation was established in 2004 to support the vision and sustainability of the hospital. Many Nevada County residents have given generously of their time, talent and treasure through the Kellermann Foundation in support of the good work occurring there. Additionally, several years ago an insurance plan was launched, in which patients contribute $3 per person per year for complete basic healthcare coverage.
Now, more than 40,000 patients have joined, allowing them access to Bwindi Community Hospital services without the fear of economic deprivation due to a medical crisis.
Dr Kellermann says it is challenging tackling abject poverty as it requires a multifaceted approach. “You can set up a hospital but that does not automatically improve the wellbeing of people. You need to establish relationships with the community. You need to prevent rather than treat diseases, and that happens in the communities. It is in the communities where you get great results.”

How it feels to be in
Dr Kellermann speaks relatively good Rukiga, the local language. “There is a saying, Americans have watches and people here have time, which is true. In America, we don’t have much time for people but here people have time to sit and talk. It has been good here,” he says. “I enjoy every day. When you live around the Batwa, you don’t care so much about the future; you consider everyday a good day and enjoy it.”
In 2005, Don Fultz galvanised several local Rotary clubs for the provision of an X-ray machine, a dental unit, generators, motorcycles and much-needed medical equipment, which were shipped to Uganda.
Barry Turner, DDS, then led a 17-member Rotary team to Bwindi to install the equipment. When an operating room was built, Fultz and Harry Auld organised yet another team bound for Uganda with operating room equipment
Today, Dr Kellermannn stays in Bwindi for about four months a year allowing him time to return home to mobilise support for the projects but also stay close to his family; wife Carol 69, two sons and four grandchildren. Dr Kellermann says, the world has two homes for him, and he loves the Ugandan home the most.
“If my family and all relatives were to come and stay here, I would never go back to America,” he says.
Bwindi Community Hospital employs approximately 200 people and 500 volunteer village healthcare promoters.
“We have medicines, the doctors and compassion. So we treat the whole person,” says Dr Kellermann. It is this team that runs the hospital and the community water and sanitation, education and livelihood improvement projects he set up.

Numbers
45 per cent funding comes from individual donors
6 per cent from government
49 per cent from organisations, charities and trusts