Our van has saved thousands of lives!
For many children in Uganda, the journey to the hospital can be the greatest obstacle to getting the life saving surgery they need.
In Uganda, around 75% of the population lives in rural areas. This means reaching a hospital is often a long, difficult, and expensive journey. Many families will sell livestock, borrow money, or skip meals to cover the cost of transport often using a boda-boda (a motorcycle taxi which is unsafe for a child).
Or, if they have no money their options are to walk, or cycle, the many miles to the nearest health centre. The roads are often dusty in the dry season, and nearly impassable during the rainy season.
The cost of a return journey from the further districts to Kampala ranges between UGX 100,000 and 200,000 about £20 to £50 – which is more than a months wages just to reach the hospital.
In an emergency
Some of us will be familiar with the term “the golden hour”; the critical period of time when life-saving medical or surgical intervention gives the highest chance of survival for a seriously injured or sick patient. Yet in Uganda, for many families that golden hour is spent trying to reach a hospital with an operating theatre. For children with hernia complications or traumatic injuries, every minute counts. Many lose their lives because they couldn’t get to care in time.
The costs keep mounting up
Once families reach medical care the costs start to mount up. Surgery often involves multiple visits for pre-operative assessment, the operation itself, and follow-up care. Parents also need to accompany their children, sometimes with siblings in tow, leading to lost income and schooling disruptions. For many, the choice becomes painfully clear: risk everything to get to the hospital or do nothing and hope for the best. This is where your contributions help fund a crucial – but off-radar – part of our work.
Our van is changing this.
Humanity Directs most vital piece of equipment is our van. With space for seven people we can transport patients, their parents or guardians and sometimes siblings long distances so they can easily get to and from hospital.
When we visit these children either at the local health centre or in their homes, the news that we’ll provide them with free safe surgery is welcomed by jubilation, and often neighbours come in to join in the celebration and share the relief with the family.
However, when you tell the family that we can organise and cover the costs of surgery, you immediately see faces changing to misery and the next question will be how do we get to Kampala? When we explain that we are here with a van that will take them to all their medical treatments, you see immediate relief and hope.
Some of our young patients have never stepped foot in a vehicle and they are often amazed by the experience of driving in our comfortable machine on wheels.
The longest journey the van has done is 800km ,over 500 miles to reach Lucy and Joseph in the Oyam and Lira districts respectively.
Your donations put petrol in the HD van.
Incorporating the cost of transporting our patients to hospital, as many times as they need to visit, is vital. For long journeys it can cost up £100 to get there and back. When you donate to our patients, you’re not just paying for the surgery – you’re also ensuring they can get there and back safely until they’ve made a full recovery.
A Journey Worth Making
Every child in Uganda deserves the chance to live a full and healthy life. That includes the right to safe surgery, without the barriers of poverty, distance, or bad roads.
It’s time to make that road shorter, safer, and more certain—so that no child suffers or dies just because they couldn’t get to the care they needed.
To donate and help our patients reach the medical care they need please visit our patients page here.