Some Facts on Uganda, stolen from the CIA world factbook.

Capital city: Kampala

time difference from EST: + 8hrs

Independence gained in October 1962

President: Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MUSEVENI

Political Situation: Uganda is subject to armed fighting among hostile ethnic groups, rebels, armed gangs, militias, and various government forces that extend across its borders; Uganda hosts 209,860 Sudanese, 27,560 Congolese, and 19,710 Rwandan refugees, while Ugandan refugees as well as members of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) seek shelter in southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Garamba National Park

Originally a German cololony lost to the British in the aftermath of World War One, the colonial boundaries created by Britain to delimit Uganda grouped together a wide range of ethnic groups with different political systems and cultures. These differences prevented the establishment of a working political community after independence was achieved in 1962. The dictatorial regime of Idi AMIN (1971-79) was responsible for the deaths of some 300,000 opponents; guerrilla war and human rights abuses under Milton OBOTE (1980-85) claimed at least another 100,000 lives. The rule of Yoweri MUSEVENI since 1986 has brought relative stability and economic growth to Uganda.

What im doing in Uganda

So for those of you who dont know, i am leaving this fall for Kyabirwa village to volunteer at a health clinic that works to help treat and prevent malaria. Kyabirwa is located in the Bujigali Falls region of Southern Uganda, close to Lake Victoria, Tanzania, and the famed White Nile Rivah!!!!

The Soft Power Health Clinic was started by Dr. Jessie Stone was started in 2004 to provide education, prevention and treatment of Malaria in rural Uganda. Jessie is a whitewater kayaker with team Jackson Kayaks who originally went to Uganda to kayak, and was stunned at the lack of health care, and the impact of malaria (a highly treatable disease) on the local populations. In response, and as a way to give back, Jessie decided to open a health clinic.

Volunteers such as myself will be traveling to local villages to distribute mosquito nets, helping to teach education courses, and distribute meds. Soft Power Health is a non-profit organization, and volunteers with SPH are responsable for all their own costs, as well as a $75/week donation to cover transportation costs, which is why i was trying to raise funds this summer, to finance both my trip and the clinic.

Jessie's clinic has been enormously sucessful, selling over 20,000 mosquito nets as of August, 2007, and has started branching out to provide family planning.

For more on SPH, check out www.softpowerhealth.org