A Day with Health Access Connect | Bungo Village
Kalangala is a small lakeside town on one of the Ssese Islands on Lake Victoria. It is still part of Uganda, and it’s its own kind of beautiful. There’s about one main road, a handful of roadside shops, and a small market where one may buy bananas, plantains, sweet potatoes, corn flour, onions, tomatoes, beans, and meat. The land was rich in trees and so much green I had almost forgotten what a forest looked like in person. I felt small in comparison to the extent of the land I viewed as we rode up the copper-red dirt hills to our accommodation that evening. We went to dinner shortly thereafter and to bed following that. We had a big day planned for the next morning.
The next morning we rode on the back of a motorcycle for 45 minutes to our first stop: Bungo village. The buildings in Bungo were mostly made of wood or mud with corrugated iron sheets for roofs. Most doors consisted of a curtain of a sheet of fabric, or actual doors were made of the same board wood as the walls.
The homes and the community had a lot of personality. They are filled with families and children’s giggles — at least this was the case when I came around.
There was one well pump in the village where the people fill their plastic jugs with water, and filled my day with this young girl’s smile:
I also saw where the fishermen build their boats. I have come to admire the fact that many people here are quite knowledgeable in a variety of trades and handy work.
These men were preoccupied and productive in their work as I observed and admired their craftsmanship. It seemed to be a long-time developed true skill of theirs. I noticed that the edge of the lake closest to where the village was settled, boats and nets that the professional fisherman here utilized, were ready to go for a day’s work. Men of all ages seemed to be working, as I stood on the edge of the lake.
Although my visit in Bungo was short, I believe I will hold this first experience with me for a very long time. Though this village was from other communities, residents seemed very close to one another. The children played together, the men worked together, and the women who I met during one of the Focus Groups were all accepting to each other’s opinions and what they were trying to communicate. I thought to myself that we were not so different, after all.
I learned that it’s not easy to tackle the obstacle that accessibility puts between these communities and their rights to proper health care, education and all else. I learned that these people are insightful and fully aware to what is beyond their range, and many of these people are willing to work together to access their basic needs. access their basic needs. This echoed in my thoughts for days after my visit. I would love to sit here and say that in this day and age, ‘access to basic services’ shouldn’t be a topic of discussion or even an issue that is currently not being addressed in many parts of the world. The truth is that it is real, and it is happening. I am honestly grateful that Health Access Connect can provide even a little peace of mind to these people, where they don’t have to stress and worry about whether they have enough money to get their medications this month. I’m thankful that HAC is making a change in a way that some of these parents don’t have to choose between getting medications for their children this month or to allow them to stay home from school because they’re ill and cannot afford a long and expensive trip to the nearest clinic (even on a motorcycle).
The community is growing and changing for the better each day, I can feel it.