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UHECA Dr. Gerl St. Franziskus

The Idea


With its activities in Uganda, Bazungu e.V. - Eyesight for Uganda aims at establishing working self help structures which shall be adopted and run by locals on a self reliant basis later on. This Help for Self Help and the motto “Locals for Locals” shall support a sustainable development in Uganda.

The greatest hindrance for a sustainable development in Uganda is poverty. Uganda being one of the poorest African countries has about 80 % of its population living at or below the poverty line. The average life expectancy is 51 years for women and 48 years for men. The medical care is insufficient, especially in the rural. Uganda does not have a public health insurance system as we know it in Germany. Thus, the expenses for treatments in hospitals have to be fully covered by the patients and their families. To pay for the doctors and the hospitals is a problem, not only for the poor. For about one million patients, there is only one eye specialist in Uganda (in Germany the relation is one doctor for 16000 patients). Paying an optician or paying for spectacles is impossible for many people. Still, refractive errors, especially the cataract, are widespread.

The aims of Bazungu e.V. and its partners commitment are the planning and realisation of projects which will improve the medical care, the development of vocational training opportunities and the general economic and social situation in East Africa. The promotion of health and vocational training are the main issues. The people concerned shall develop ideas and initiatives to be enabled to improve their standards of living by their own activities in the long run.

The projects shall be financed by Sponsors. The involved companies help with know-how transfer as well as with financial donations, with reconditioned optical machines, operation machines, drugs, sanitary installations, water treatment plants, building materials and a lot more.