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Couple embraces Ugandan village
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Sheryl Nadler, the Hamilton Spectator
Brigitte Daley, along with her husband, Bruce, gave up
their careers to live in Uganda. They have set up a
health-care clinic and school in the village of Tekera.
They have also built a well and created a currency, in
the hopes of building an independent future for the
villagers. |
By Deirdre Healey
The Hamilton Spectator
(Sep 5, 2006)
A thermometer, a stethoscope and Tupperware containers filled
with different medications are the only tools Brigitte Daley has
to treat her patients.
Her clinic in Uganda is so simple and bare compared to the
sterile, high-tech emergency room she left behind in Hamilton.
Instead of an emergency department team, she is the sole nurse
for as many as 5,000 patients. Her patients walk several
kilometres, suffering from malaria, measles or AIDS to visit her
one-room clinic, equipped with only a single bed and wooden
desk.
They pay for her services with a unique currency which she
created.
The health of an entire Ugandan village is resting on Daley and
her husband's shoulders.
"Having all these people depending on you can be scary," she
admits. "But when you think about what was there before, you
know you are doing the right thing. You just have to realize
your limitations."
The couple's clinic is the only form of health care available to
this isolated farming village called Tekera.
"Women are having babies at the side of the road," she said.
"Children are dying from measles. Simple health care for these
people doesn't exist."
Brigitte and her husband, Bruce, left their two adult sons,
careers and home about two years ago and moved to Uganda. They
built the clinic and a nearby well less than six months ago and
are just starting to run math and English classes.
While the Ugandan government supplies some of the vaccines for
the clinic, everything else has been paid for out of their own
pockets and those of volunteers. The only income the couple has
is the money they are getting from renting out their Burlington
condo.
With cash being so tight, Brigitte returned to Hamilton at the
beginning of August to visit her sons, do some fundraising for
the clinic and also work full time at the hospital for a month
to pay for their venture. She is scheduled to fly back to Uganda
tomorrow.
But Brigitte is quick to point out that the project is not about
financially supporting a village and handing out free health
care and education. The couple makes the people pay for the
services they get. They have created the village's own currency
and people can earn it by building a walkway for the clinic or
breaking up the surrounding soil for crops. One hour of labour
earns them one Tekera peso and one peso pays for a visit with
Brigitte or her midwife or an English lesson from Bruce.
"We noticed the people of Uganda were becoming dependent on
outside support," she said. "They were bowing to the white man.
But they don't need handouts. They can help themselves, they
just need someone to organize it."
Eventually, the couple hopes the villagers can tend to crops on
the land, which they will then sell to help run the clinic. But
for now, the currency is simply used to give the villagers a
sense of ownership and independence.
Brigitte fell in love with Uganda when she travelled there to
volunteer at a hospital at the age of 19. She had just graduated
from nursing college, broken up with a boyfriend and wanted an
adventure.
She stayed for three years before she was caught with expired
working papers and had to come home. She eventually got married,
had two boys and raised them in Burlington while working as a
nurse. But in the back of her mind, she knew she had to some day
return to Uganda.
"There is so much poverty and unnecessary death, but you don't
hear people complaining," she said. "Instead they are singing;
they are happy with what they have. There isn't the same stress
that there is here."
Brigitte had been working as a nurse at the Hamilton General for
15 years and her husband was running an insurance company when
the pair decided to drop what they were doing. They had grown
tired of the stress and long hours and wanted to do something
where they were making a difference.
The couple's sons, Philip and Chris, have had to live the past
two years with their mother and father continents away, but are
proud of their parents.
"They are inspirational," said Philip, 24. "We get so caught up
in our careers and money that we lose track of what's important.
My parents have put things in perspective."
To find out more or to make a donation visit
http://www.ugandavillage.org/
dhealey@thespec.com
905-526-3468 |
